Paul Arndt was born in Rasselwitz/Silesia in 1886. After completing his high school studies at the the mission seminary in Nysa/Silesia, he became member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). He was a student of Wilhelm Schmidt.
Arndt was ordained a priest in 1912. Between 1913 and 1917 Arndt had his first mission assignment in Togo. During world War I he was repatriated.
In 1923 Arndt went to Flores/Indonesia, where worked for the rest of his life. Among his many important publications on the ethnic group of the Ngdaha is a dictionary of their language as well as works on their social relations and religious beliefs.
Paul Arndt died in Todabelu/Flores in 1962.
(photography by courtesy of J.Piepke/Anthropos-Institute)