Short Portrait: Siegfried Seyfarth

Siegfried Seyfarth
Siegfried Seyfarth

Dr. Siegfried Seyfarth was born in 1930 and grew up in Falkenstein/Vogtland (Saxony).
He finished school in 1949 and eventually left the Soviet occupied zone. During the following years Seyfarth took up several jobs (e.g., as a weaver) in order to save up some money for his tertiary studies.

In 1954 Seyfarth began to study German Philology, History and Art History at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main. After visiting a lecture by A.E. Jensen he settled for Anthropology as his major subject. Moreover, he became a student assistant at the library of the Frobenius-Institute. In 1960, after almost completing his studies, Seyfarth became head of the institute´s library. Over the next decades he intensely worked on its extent and cataloguing.

In 1963 Seyfarth went on his first field research. He accompanied Eike Haberland to the Sepik region of New Guinea. In later years, he did several field researches to Ethiopia. Seyfarth graduated in 1970.

Between 1973 and 1992 Seyfarth, as deputy chairman of the Frobenius-Institute, was responsible for a wide range of organizational tasks. From 1992 until 1994 he was commissarial chairman of the institute. Seyfarth retired in 1995.

Seyfarth passed away Oct 7th, 2014.

further informationfurther information