Interviews with German Anthropologists

Leonhard Adam

Leonhard Adam was born in Berlin in 1891. There he spent his childhood and youth. His father was a mercer. Adam had an early contact with the local Ethnological Museum (formerly: Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde) and one of its assistants, Walter Krickeberg. In 1910 Adam be... [ more ]

Johanna Agthe

Johanna Agthe was born in Berlin in 1941. Her father was a publisher. Due to the turmoil of World War II her family had to flee to the Erzgebirge and eventually resettled in the Sauerland region. Agthe finished secondary school in Hamburg and took up her studies of History in 1961. Tw... [ more ]

Hermann Amborn

Prof. Dr. em. Hermann Amborn was born in Braubach near Koblenz in 1933. He grew up in a pastor´s family which took position against the repression of the Nazi regime. Most of his youth he spent in Offenbach near Frankfurt a.M. and after finishing an apprenticeship as a technical designe... [ more ]

Bernhard Ankermann

Bernhard Ankermann was born inTapiau/ East Prussia in 1859. After finishing his PhD thesis Ankermann took up an assistant position at the Department for Africa at the Ethnological Museum Berlin (formerly: Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde ) in 1896. At this time Adolf Bast... [ more ]

Johann Pall Arnason

Johann P. Arnason, born 1940 in Iceland, studied philosophy, history and sociology in Prague and Frankfurt. He taught sociology in Heidelberg (after Mühlmanns retirement) and Bielefeld from 1972 to 1975, and at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, from 1975 to 2003.He has been a ... [ more ]

Paul Arndt

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... [ more ]

Gerhard Baer

Gerhard Baer was born in Rorschach/Switzerland in 1934. After finishing school he took up his studies in Basel. Anthropology, Sociology and Comparative Religious Studies were his major subjects. He completed his Ph D thesis on the Xingu River region in 1960. In 1967 Baer took up a posi... [ more ]

Arthur Baessler

Arthur Baessler was born in Glauchau/Saxony in 1857. He comes from a family of merchants and craftsmen. His father owned a textile factory. After finishing school Baessler studied Natural Sciences, Geography and Anthropology in Heidelberg, Munich and Berlin. Inspired by Adolf Bastian a... [ more ]

Herbert Baldus

Herbert Baldus was born in Wiesbaden in 1899. There he attended school. At the age of eleven, Baldus was admitted to the Prussian corps of cadets and participated in Word War I. He later tried to handle his war experiences through his literary work. In 1920 Baldus came to South America... [ more ]

Thomas Bargatzky

Prof. Dr. em Thomas Bargatzky was born in 1946 and spent his childhood years in the south of Germany. He developed an early interest in foreign cultures, literature and philosophy. In his teenage years Bargatzky moved to Heidelberg with his father, where he finished school in 1964. Ini... [ more ]

Thomas Sylvester Barthel

Barthel was born on Jan 4th, 1923 in Berlin as son of Max Barthel, a socialist poet. In WWII Barthel worked as decoder for the German Forces - his later scientific interest in deciphering sign systems is certainly related. In 1946 he studied Völkerkunde in Berlin with Ri... [ more ]

Adolf Bastian

Adolf Bastian was born in Bremen in 1826 and grew up in a wealthy family of merchants. He studied Law in Heidelberg as well as Natural Sciences and Medicine in Berlin, Jena, Würzburg and Prague. After finishing his studies in 1850, Bastian began to work as a ship´s doctor. W... [ more ]

Hermann Baumann

Hermann Baumann was born in Freiburg in 1902. Due to his early interest in Anthropology, History and African Cultures he began reading scientific books in his childhood and youth. Baumann studied Anthropology in Freiburg, Leipzig and Berlin. He graduated in 1925. Since 1921 he worked ... [ more ]

Hans Becher

Hans Becher was born in Berlin. After finishing school he took up his studies in Halle/Saale in 1940. German Philology and History were his major subjects. Eventually he had to join the German army in World War II and became a prisoner of war. Disbanded after 1945 Becher moved to Hambu... [ more ]

Brigitta Benzing

BRIGITTA BENZING PhD. in Ethnology and African and Semitic Languages from the University of Mainz. Assistant, later Associate professor at the same University. 1978-1981: Teaching at the Universities of Zürich, Marburg, Tübingen, later also in Berlin and Addis Ababa as visi... [ more ]

Eberhard Berg

[More information on this anthropologist is welcome] Publications Eberhard Berg und Martin Fuchs, Hg., „ Kultur, soziale Praxis, Text - Die Krise der ethnographischen Repräsentation “, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaf... [ more ]

Eno Beuchelt

Eno Beuchelt was born in 1929. After attending school he took up his studies of Economics, Anthropology and Psychology. Throughout the following years he not only studied in Cologne and Bonn but also in Paris. Beuchelt graduated with a PhD thesis in Anthropology. In 1957 and 1958 Beuch... [ more ]

Wilhelm Bierhenke

* 1905 in Bremen + 1967 in Hamburg In 1927, Bierhenke travelled to Portugal aboard the ship Weser . In Hamburg, he studied Völkerkunde with Georg Thilenius, Geography with Siegfried Passarge and Romance studies with Fritz Krüger (all ... [ more ]

Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg

Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg (born August 2, 1929), M. A., Ph.D., is a German sociologist, ethnologist, sexologist, and writer further specializing into the fields of psychology, Indo-European studies, religious studies, and philosophy, since 1980 also increasingly anthropology. As Bleibtreu-Eh... [ more ]

Martin Block

Block was born in 1891. In the 1920s, he carried out research on the Gypsies in Rumania. From 1928 to 1930 Block worked at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne. In 1939 he was appointed ordinary for Anthropology at he University of Prague, but rejected the offer. I... [ more ]

Franz Boas

Franz boas was born in Minden in 1858. After finishing school in 1877 he took up his studies of Mathematics, Physics and Geography at the University in Heidelberg. After one semester he continued his studies in Bonn. In 1879 he moved to Kiel, where he finished his PhD thesis in 1881. B... [ more ]

Ulrich Braukämper

Prof. Dr. em Ulrich Braukämper was born in Albaum in 1944. He grew up in a rural region of North-Rhine Westphalia. His family has a working class background. Due to his early interest in travel literature and foreign cultures, Braukämper planned to study Anthropology. He finished sc... [ more ]

Richard Burghart

Richard Burghart is an important anthropologist working in Germany, as he chaired the Department of Ethnology, University of Heidelberg at the Südasieninstitut in the early 90s. Whilst in Heidelberg, he tried to establish an anthropology that reconciled postmodernism (i.e. Bakhtin) w... [ more ]

Artur and Else Byhan

Artur Byhan (* 1872 + 1942) studied with Gustav Weigand (Romance Languages) and later was the first curator for Eurasia at the Hamburg Museum for Völkerkunde. He was a specialist on Northern, Central and Western Asia, on the Caucasus, Northern and Eastern Russia, and Finland. He collected... [ more ]

Hans Damm

Born 1895 Died 1972 Damm worked as museum assistant in Leipzig (under Fritz Krause). In 1929 he became managing director and treasurer of the newly founded Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde . Damm was disposed from his office by the American administration on April 18th, 1945. ... [ more ]

Theodor Wilhelm Danzel

* 17.2.1886 in Hamburg. Danzel studied Ethnology and Anthropology in Göttingen (with Eduard Seler), Leipzig an Paris. 1912 PhD in Leipzig Ethnology. From 1922 onwards, Danzel worked in the Hamburgische Museum für Völkerkunde, (since 1924 as permanently employed scie... [ more ]

Alfons Dauer

Alfons Dauer was born in Bamberg in 1921. After finishing school he took up his studies in 1941. His major subjects were English language and literature, Ethnology and African languages as well as Sociology and Musicology. Dauer not only studied in Erlangen but also in Cologne and Mai... [ more ]

Claus Deimel

Claus Deimel was born in Hamburg, march 12, 1948. His father was an artist. He studied Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Sciences in Frankfurt/Main and Heidelberg. In 1973 he started his first field research with the Tarahumara Indians (Rarámuri) in the Sierra Madre Occident... [ more ]

Florian Deltgen

Born 1940 as son of the Luxembourg actor René Deltgen and his wife Elisabeth Scherer. Deltgen studied comparative linguistics and anthropology and obtained a Ph.D. from Cologne University in 1969. He pursued postgraduate studies in pharmacology and transcultural medicine fur... [ more ]

Karl-Heinz Dietzel

Karl Heinz Dietzel was born in Dresden in 1894. There he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school Dietzel took up his studies at the Leipzig University. His major subjects were Anthropology, Geography, German Philology, History and Law. In 1917 Dietzel graduated with a Ph... [ more ]

Hans-Dietrich Disselhoff

Disselhoff was born in Trebblin in 1899. His father was a pastor and died when Disselhoff was twelve years old. Throughout the following years his family moved several times within Germany. Disselhoff finished school in Berlin in 1918. During the last months of World War I he had to join the ... [ more ]

Kunz Dittmer

Kunz Dittmer was born in Leipzig in 1907. His father was an arts dealer. After finishing school in 1927 Dittmer studied Anthropology, Art History and Prehistory not only in Munich and Berlin but also in Leipzig and Vienna. In 1933 Dittmer completed his Ph D thesis in Vienna, where Wilh... [ more ]

Gisela Dombrowski

Dr. Gisela Dombrowski was born in 1937 in Berlin, where she also spent her childhood and youth. After finishing school in 1956 she did an apprenticeship in order to become a translator for French and Spanish before undertaking her first long journey that brought her to Egypt. There she develo... [ more ]

Erich Drobec

Erich Drobec was born in Vienna in 1919. After completing his medical studies in 1942, Drobec also studied Anthropology. Wilhelm Koppers and Martin Gusinde were among his teachers. Drobec finished his Ph D thesis in 1950. Throughout the following years Drobec not only worked as a princ... [ more ]

Hans-Peter Duerr

Prof. Dr. em. Hans Peter Duerr was born in Mannheim in 1943, where he also grew up. He developed an early interest in other cultures and after finishing school in 1963, he began to study at the Institute for Sociology and Ethnology in Heidelberg, where mainly W.E. Mühlmann, Karl Jettmar,... [ more ]

Hans Eckensberger

Hans Eckensberger (* 16. März 1897 in Leipzig; † 13. Januar 1966 in Brunswick) was not an anthropologist himself, but he was a member of the GAA for many years (from 1947 to 1965 he served as treasurer). Eckensberger was newspaper editor. In the Nazi years, he was m... [ more ]

Georg Eckert

Georg Eckert was born in Berlin 14.8.1912, where he spent his childhood and youth. His father was a journalist from Bamberg. Eckert finished school in 1931 and eventually took up his studies. Geography and History were among his major subjects, as well as German Philology and Anthropo... [ more ]

Paul Ehrenreich

Paul Ehrenreich was born in Berlin in 1855. He studied Medicine and Natural Sciences, initially in Berlin, later in Heidelberg, Marburg and Würzburg. He graduated in Medicine in 1880. Due to the influence of Rudolf Virchow Ehrenreich not only had developed a growing interest... [ more ]

Anneliese Eilers

* 1900 + 1953 Anneliese Eilers was born in Hamburg in 1900. Her father was a high ranked clerk at the local German Post Office. Eilers spent her childhood and youth in her home town and finished secondary school in 1922. The same year Eilers took up her... [ more ]

Walter Eisen

Eisen was born ion 29.4.1896 in Nikolajken/East Prussia. He deceased 12.3.1980 in Leipzig. studied Völkerkunde with Fritz Krause in Leipzig. From 1931 to 1933 he was member of the Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde . After his return from exile in the U... [ more ]

Dieter Eisleb

Born 4. Januar 1932, Sülzbayn (Turingia). In 1936 his family moved to Erfurt, where he completed his final exams at school in 1951. In 1952 Eisleb studied Ethnology (with Thurnwald, Westphal-Hellbusch and Nevermann), Americanistics (with Kutscher) and Art History at... [ more ]

Georg Elwert

Georg Elwert was born in Munich in 1947. His father was a professor for Roman Philology. Elwert, who developed an early interest in languages, finished school in Mainz in 1966. Elwert subsequently took up his studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, where Sociology, Ethnolo... [ more ]

Eduard Erkes

* 1891 + 1958 He was amongst the founding members of the Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (1929), which later became Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (GAA) . [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] &... [ more ]

Ernst Albert Fabarius

Fabarius was born 15. Sept. 1859 in Saarlouis. He studied theologyy, national economy, state sciences, geography and history ib Bonn, Berlin, Tübingen and Halle. Amongst his teachers were Adolf Wagner and Heinrich von Trreitschke. 1891 he became military preacher in Koblenz. ... [ more ]

Ursula Far-Hollender

Ursula Far-Hollender was born 1937 in Leipzig and grew up in a family of merchants with international relations. Due to the Second World War she had to leave Leipzig as a child and spent most of her youth in Bad Pyrmont , where she graduated from High School in 1957. After six months' sta... [ more ]

Hubert Fichte

* 21. März 1935 in Perleberg, Landkreis Westprignitz; † 8. März 1986 in Hamburg Hubert Fichte was born on March 21, 1935 in Perleberg Hospital. A few weeks after his birth his family moved to Hamburg-Lokstedt. Fichtes mother worked as stenotypist and he was mostly raise... [ more ]

Annemarie Fiedermutz-Laun

[more information on this anthropologist is welcome] (photo source: http://www.uni-muenster.de/Ethnologie/Personen/Fiedermutz/index.html ) [ more ]

Hans Findeisen

Hans Findeisen was born in Berlin in 1903. He spent his childhood and youth in his home town. Findeisen developed an early interest in anthropological matters. After finishing school Findeisen took up his studies, which he completed in 1927. Between 1922 and 1934 he also worked a... [ more ]

Hans Fischer

Hans Fischer was born in Grottkau/Upper Silesia in 1932. At the end of World War II his family had to flee west and resettled on an island in East Frisia. During his school years Fischer developed an interest in foreign cultures, languages and music. After finishing school Fischer too... [ more ]

Johannes Frick

Johannes Frick was born in Gisingen near Feldkirch in 1903. He received his high school education at the Steyler mission seminary in St. Rupert near Bischofshofen and completed high school in Salzburg in 1924. After joining the Steyler missionaries (SVD), Frick studied Philosophy and T... [ more ]

Adolf Friedrich

Adolf Friedrich was born in Hofheim in 1914. He comes from a family of peasants and craftsmen. After finishing school in Frankfurt/Main, Friedrich studied Anthropology, Indology and Ancient History between 1933 and 1938. Leo Frobenius was among his teachers. Friedrich developed a speci... [ more ]

Leo Frobenius

Leo Frobenius was born in Berlin in 1873. Due to his father's occupation as a fortification architect/builder his family moved constantly, and Frobenius did not attend school regularly. For this reason he could not take up his studies at a university but became an autodidact. Afte... [ more ]

Willy Fröhlich

Willy Fröhlich was born in 1907. After visiting school and university he completed his studies with a Ph D thesis on African market systems in 1941. In 1961 he became director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum for Ethnology in Cologne. Between 1965 and 1966 Fröhlich, wh... [ more ]

Martin Fuchs

After his studies in Anthropology, Sociology and Modern Indology at the universities of Marburg, Heidelberg and Frankfurt/Main, Fuchs completed his PhD in 1985 at the University of Frankfurt/Main. Afterwards he taught in various positions at the universities of Zü... [ more ]

Peter Fuchs

Professor Dr. em. Peter Fuchs was born in 1928 in Vienna, Austria, where he also spent most of his childhood and youth. His father worked as a teacher and eventually started a publishing house. Professor Fuchs had an early interest in literature and the fine arts. After finishing school in 19... [ more ]

Friedrich W. Funke

Born in Essen in 1921, Friedrich-Wilhelm Funke grew up the only son of a wealthy building constructor. When he entered the University of Cologne to study national and international law the Nazis were already in power and the Second World War was about to begin. Funke´s career goal was t... [ more ]

Othmar Gächter

Dr. Othmar Gächter was born in Switzerland in 1941. His father worked as a cabinet maker and carpenter, his mother was a tailor. Due to his early decision to become a priest Gächter eventually joined the Steyler missionaries (SVD). He finished school in 1963 and took up his novitiat... [ more ]

Herbert Ganslmayr

Herbert Ganslmayr was born in 1932. After finishing school he studied Paedagogy, Anthropology, History and Egyptology in Munich and Basel. After completing his Ph D thesis in 1965, Ganslmayr took up an assistant position at the Institute for Ethnology and African Studies at the Ludwig-... [ more ]

Elisabeth Gerdts-Rupp

Elisabeth Gerdts-Rupp was born in Ravensburg/Württemberg on Nov. 23rd, 1888. Her father was a judge. At early age Gerdts-Rupp and her family moved to Stuttgart, where she eventually finished school. In 1910 Gerdts-Rupp began to study Law in Strasbourg. She continued her studies no... [ more ]

Bernt Glatzer

Bernt Glatzer (* 1942) graduated in 1972, after studying at the South Asia Institute (Section Cultural and Social Anthropology) of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg. Karl Jettmar was among his teachers. Glatzers Ph D thesis, published in 1977, was based on the field work he conducted a... [ more ]

Heinz Göhring

Heinz Göhring was born in Sangerhausen in 1935. He visited primary school in Breslau (now: Wroclaw) and secondary school in Augsburg as well as in Hamburg and St. Peter Ording. After a short period of doing a commercial apprenticeship, Göhring took up his studies in order to... [ more ]

Fritz Graebner

Fritz Graebner (*1877 + 1934) was born in Berlin in 1877. He studied History and completed his PhD thesis in 1901. Since 1899 he worked at the Ethnological Museum (formerly: Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde ) in Berlin, where he was a colleague of Bernhard Ankermann. In 1... [ more ]

Martin Gusinde

Martin Gusinde was born in Wroclaw (Breslau) in 1886. After joining the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and finishing his high school years in Nysa/Silesia, Gusinde took up his philosophical and theological studies at St.Gabriel in Mödling near Vienna in 1905. In 1911 Gusinde was... [ more ]

Bruno Gutmann

Bruno Gutmann was born in Dresden in 1876. He comes from a family of farmers and landholders. After the death of his mother in 1882, Gutmann grew up with his grandparents. Moreover, he became member of the YMCA in Dresden. Between 1895 and 1901 he studied in Leipzig, preparing for his theolog... [ more ]

Eike Haberland

* 1924 + 1992 Eike Haberland was born in Detmold in 1924. He grew up in Nauen and Potsdam. He finished school in 1942. Between 1946 and 1950 Haberland studied Anthropology, Ancient Philology, Ancient History and Oriental Studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfur... [ more ]

Wolfgang Haberland

Dr. Wolfang Haberland was born in Hamburg in 1922, where he spent his childhood and youth. While his father was an international tradesman, one of his grandfathers was co-owning one of Hamburgs first cinemas. In World War II Haberland became a prisoner of war but was disbanded in 1946. A year... [ more ]

Karin Hahn-Hissink

She was born as Karin Hissink in Berlin in 1907, being the daughter of a german mother and a dutch father. She spent her childhood and youth in her hometown and finished school in 1928. Throughout the following five years, Hissink studied not only in Berlin but also in Munich and Lausa... [ more ]

Paul Hambruch

Paul Hambruch was born in Hamburg in 1882. There he spent his childhood years. After finishing school Hambruch went to Göttingen in order to study Natural Sciences, Chemistry and Mathematics. Eventually Hambruch moved to Berlin where he studied Geography, Anthropology and Ethnolog... [ more ]

Volker Harms

Dr. Volker Harms was born in 1941 in Wilhelmshaven, which is situated in the North of Germany. At the age of fourteen he moved with his family to Hamburg where he finished school in 1962 and took up his studies. After a first encounter with studying History of Art, Romanistics and Archaeology... [ more ]

Günther Hartmann

Prof. Dr. em. Günther Hartmann was born in Berlin in 1924. His father worked as a chemist and due to his occupation the family often moved when Hartmann was a child. He had an early interest not only in the books of Karl May but started to read some classics works of Anthropology (e.g. M... [ more ]

Horst Hartmann

Horst Hartmann was born in 1924. After finishing school he took up his studies of Sinology and Anthropology in Göttingen. Hans Plischke was among his teachers. Erhard Schlesier, Gerd Koch and Rolf Herzog were among his fellow students. Hartmann completed his Ph D thesis in 1949. E... [ more ]

Roswith Hartmann

Roswith Hartmann was born in Seligenstadt/Main. She spent her childhood and youth in Southern Hesse. After finishing secondary school Hartmann studied Spanish and English at the Institute for Translation Studies at the Ruprechts-Karl-University in Heidelberg between 1952 and 1956. From... [ more ]

Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin

Professor Dr. Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin was born in Switzerland, namely in Riehen near Basel. There she spent her childhood and youth. Her father was a tradesman running an international import-export company and furthermore took part in the local politics. Hauser-Schäublin had an e... [ more ]

Eberhard Haußmann

Haußmann (* 1958; † 2006) studied Ethnology and Prehistory at the University of Tübingen. Among his teachers were Thomas Schweizer, Matthias Laubscher and Friedrich Valjavec. Haußmann carried out field research amongst the Mbirao in Guadalcanal/Solomon Islands and... [ more ]

Thomas Heberer

Prof. Dr. Thomas Heberer was born in Offenbach/Main in 1947. He studied Social Anthropology (major), Philosophy, Political Science, and Chinese Studies in Frankfurt, Goettingen, Mainz and Heidelberg. In 1972 he followed his mentor Prof. Dr. Manfred Hinz, a legal scholar and ethnologist, to Br... [ more ]

Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs

Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs was born in Wetzlar in 1945, after his family had to flee from Gdansk (Danzig) in World War II. When Heinrichs was four years old, the family moved to Rhineland-Palatinate, where he eventually attended school before doing an apprenticeship in order to become a s... [ more ]

Beatrix Heintze

Beatrix Heintze was born in Korneuburg near Vienna in 1939. Both of her grandfathers as well as her father held high positions in the textile industry. Due to the turmoil of World War II, Heintze had to move to Leipzig with her mother and sibling in 1944, while her father became a prisoner of... [ more ]

Joseph Henninger

Joseph Henninger was born in Wiesbaden in 1906. After finishing school in 1926 he joined the Steyler missionaries (SVD) and took up his studies of Philosophy in ST. Augustin. Moreover, he studied Theology at the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana in Rome. Henninger completed his theolo... [ more ]

Johann Gottfried Herder

* 25. August 1744 in Mohrungen, Ostpreußen; † 18. Dezember 1803 in Weimar [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] (photo source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Herder ) [ more ]

Ferdinand Herrmann

In NS-times, Herrmann was decidedly anti-jewish. After WW II, Herrmann headed the Portheim Stiftung (Heidelberg). In the 1960s, he offered seminars at Heidleberg University (e.g. 1967, Ethnographische Museumsübung: Technologie der Waffen). Hans-Peter Duerr, Johannes Kalter, Tilmann... [ more ]

Rolf Herzog

Rolf Herzog was born in Oppach/Upper Lusatia in 1919. He took up his studies of Anthropology at the Georg-August-University Göttingen in 1945, when the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology was among the first to reopen after the end of World War II. Günther Spannaus was am... [ more ]

Ferdinand Hestermann

Ferdinand Heinrich Hestermann was born on Dec 13th, 1878 in Wesel. He died on Dec 15th, 1959 in Jena. Hestermann studied Philosophy, Theology, Oriental Languages, Völkerkunde, Comparative Religion and Mythology of Religion at the University of Vienna (1898-1904). He co-founded... [ more ]

Martin Heydrich

Martin Heydrich, born 1889 in the small village Ottendorf not far from Pirna/Saxonia, was the son of the Prostestant vicar Max Ludwig Heydrich, who also served as Schatzmeister und Schriftführer der sächsischen Missionskonferenz (treasurer and secretary of the Saxonian missio... [ more ]

Hans und Ulrike Himmelheber

Hans Himmelheber was born in Karlsruhe in 1908. His father headed the family´s furniture factory. Himmelheber grew up in a liberal atmosphere. His mother was dedicated to her appeal for Womens Rights and his father had a strong interest in art. After finishing school Himm... [ more ]

Paul Hinderling

Paul Hinderling was born an July 11th, 1924 in Solothurn/Switzerland as son of a banker. He studied from 1943 to 1950 in Basel (with Felix Speiser) on a museological subject. His early interest was the history of religion, from there he developed an interest in ethnopsychological ... [ more ]

Eike Hinz

Eike Hinz was born in 1945. He attended primary school and grammar school in Goslar, Lower Saxony. In 1964 Hinz took up his studies at the University in Hamburg, where Ancient American Languages and Cultures, Anthropology and Linguistics were his major subjects. Moreover, Hinz attende... [ more ]

András Höfer

Born 1937 Höfer was assistant to Karl Jettmar at the Southasia Institute in Heidelberg. Today he is retired Associate Professor of Asian Anthropology. He received his PhD from the University of Vienna (1964) and was a post-doctoral student at the Ecole Pratique des Haute... [ more ]

Georg Höltker

Georg Höltker was born in Ahaus in 1895. Between 1910 and 1915 he attended high school at the missionary in Steyl. During World War I he had to join the German army. After the end of World War I Höltker joined the Steyler missionaries (SVD) in 1919. He took up his theologica... [ more ]

Josefine Huppertz

Josephine Huppertz was born in Aachen in 1922. Between 1941 and 1946 she studied not only in Cologne, Bonn, Innsbruck and Breslau (now: Wroclaw) but also in Göttingen, Oxford and London. She attended lectures and seminars on a wide range of subjects, such as Geography, Anthropology, Geol... [ more ]

Adolf Ellegaard Jensen

Adolf Ellegard Jensen was born in Kiel in 1899. After finishing school he had to fight in World War I. In 1919 Jensen took up his studies of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Philosophy in Kiel and Bonn. He finished his PhD in 1922. After meeting Leo Frobenius he took up an assistant p... [ more ]

Jürgen Jensen

Prof. Dr. em. Jürgen Jensen was born in Berlin in 1938. His parents had moved there from Hamburg and his father worked as an accountant for a wholesale company. Jensens childhood mostly took place during World War II and after 1945 the family was faced with a difficult economic situation... [ more ]

Karl Jettmar

Karl Jettmar was born 1918 in Vienna. His father was the well-known Art Nouveau – painter Rudolf Jettmar (who was part of the commission that rejected Hitlers application to Arts Academy in 1907); his mother spent most of her life in Sweden. Karl Jettmar's special intere... [ more ]

Ulla Johansen

Professor Dr. em. Ulla Johansen was born in 1927 in Tallinn, Estonia. Her mother was German-Estonian, her father was a professor of history born of Danish offspring. Ulla Johansen grew up in a multilingual and liberal household. Due to the occupation by the Soviet Army in 1939, her family had... [ more ]

Hermann Jungraithmayr

Hermann Jungraithmayr was born in Eferding, Austria in 1931. After finishing school he took up his studies at the University in Vienna in 1950. Anthropology, African Studies and Egyptology were his major subjects. In 1953 Jungraithmayr moved to Hamburg, where he continued his studies. ... [ more ]

Johannes Kalter

Johannes Kalter was born in 1943 and grew up in rural southern Germany as well as in Mannheim. After finishing school Kalter did an apprenticeship as a gardener and worked in this profession for several years. After getting in contact with Rural and Agricultural Sociology Kalter began... [ more ]

Richard Karutz

Richard Karutz was born in Stralsund in 1867. He grew up in a family of merchants and attended school in his home town. In 1886 Karutz took up his Medical Studies at the university in Jena. Five years later he successfully passed his State Exam. Eventually he worked as a surgeon on shi... [ more ]

Hans-Eberhard Kauffmann

Kauffmann was born 1899 in Mannheim. After WW I, his parents moved to Switzerland. Until 1953 he lived in Zurich. In the 1930s, Kauffmann organized a swiss fascist students group. He studied anthropology with Heine-Geldern in Vienna, but received his PhD with Prof. Wehrli... [ more ]

Antje Kelm

Antje Kelm (*1937) began to study at the University of Cologne in the late 1950s. She continued her studies in Lima in 1959/60, where she also learned Quechua. After meeting Hermann Trimborn and doing translation work for his research projects, she resumed her studies at the Institute for Anc... [ more ]

Heinz Kelm

Heinz Kelm was born in Magdeburg in 1925. There he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school in 1943 he had to join the German Army in World War II. In 1946 Kelm took up his studies in Bonn. While his major subjects were Anthropology, Geography and History, he also attende... [ more ]

Paul Kirchhoff

Ethnologist, Americanist. Born in Hörste, Westphalia (Germany) 17 August 1900, died Mexico City (Mexico) 9 December 1972. Kirchhoff studied evangelical theology and religion in Berlin and Freiburg i. Br., and psychology and ethnology in Leipzig, where he also developed an interest in the... [ more ]

Hildegard Klein

Hildegard Klein was born in East Prussia in 1907 and grew up in a rural surrounding. After primary school and grammar school she attended a business school for a year and eventually worked in the agricultural association of her home region. In 1929 Klein took up her studies of Economic... [ more ]

Gerd Koch

Gerd Koch was born on 11th July 1922 in Hanover. While still a schoolboy he was fascinated by the voyages of James Cook and other explorers, who had discovered previously unknown areas of the world. Since his family could not afford for him to take a degree course, after he had taken his sec... [ more ]

Theodor Koch-Grünberg

Theodor Koch-Grünberg was born in Grünberg in 1872, being the son of the local evangelic pastor. He finished school in 1890. Koch-Grünberg studied Philology both in Gießen and Tübingen and graduated in 1896. He eventually took up a position as a teacher and di... [ more ]

Klaus-Peter Koepping

Prof. Dr. em Klaus-Peter Koepping was born in Cottbus in 1940. At the end of World War II his family was evacuated and eventually resettled in Kassel. Koepping grew up in a rather artistic and academic background. Furthermore, he developed an early interest in literature, music and foreign cu... [ more ]

Karl-Heinz Kohl

Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Kohl was born in 1948 in Fürth, where he spent his childhood and youth. Apart from having impressions of rural Germany when visiting his relatives, Kohl had an early interest in literature. After finishing school in 1968 he went to Erlangen and took up courses in... [ more ]

Ludwig Kohl-Larsen

Ludwig Kohl-Larsen was born in Landau/Pfalz in 1884. There he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school Kohl-Larsen took up his medical studies in Munich. In 1911 he became surgeon at an expedition to Antarctica, which was guided by the geophysicist Wilhelm Filchner. After ... [ more ]

Oswin Köhler

Oswin Köhler was born in Tiefthal/Thuringia near Erfurt in 1911. He finished school in 1929. Köhler studied Anthropology, Phonetics and African Studies in Berlin between 1943 and 1948. He graduated with a Ph D thesis on Nilotic languages. Diedrich Westermann was his doctoral advisor... [ more ]

Ulrich Köhler

Prof. Dr. em Ulrich Köhler was born in 1937 in Budapest, where his father worked as a journalist and attaché at that time. During World War II the family had to flee in 1944. At first they resettled in Bremen but eventually came to Frankfurt/Main. When his father took up a po... [ more ]

Hans-Joachim Koloss

Dr. Hans-Joachim Koloss was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, in 1938. His father was an estate manager. In 1945 the family had to leave its homeland and eventually settled near Oldenburg in the northwest of Germany. In 1959 Koloss finished high school in Delmenhorst ... [ more ]

Viola König

Dr. Viola König had an early interest in archaeology and the ancient cultures of America, e.g. Mesoamerica. She took up her studies in Freiburg, where she attended courses in Anthropology, Prehistory, Sociology and Paleoanthropology. Two years later she moved to Hamburg and eventually de... [ more ]

Walter Konrad

Walter Konrad was born in the Saarland region in 1921. After finishing school he had to participate in World War II. Konrad was nonetheless able to briefly study Anthropology, European Ethnology and Geography at the university in Göttingen in 1941. After 1945 Konrad conti... [ more ]

Wilhelm Koppers

Wilhelm Koppers was born in Menzelen in 1886. In his early years he joined the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and was ordained a priest. Since 1913 he closely cooperated with Wilhelm Schmidt, who established the theoretical school of Kulturkreislehre (also see Glossary and short portr... [ more ]

Ivan R. Kortt

* 1942 + 1997 Kortt studied Turcology, Western Asian Archaeology and Ethnologie in Munich. In Ethnologie, Vajda was his main teacher. He completed his PhD in 1977. From 1978 to 1982 he worked ad scientific assistant, from 1982 to 86 as university assistant, and sinc... [ more ]

Lawrence Krader

Lawrence Krader (December 9, 1919 in Jamaica, New York - November 15, 1998) was an American socialist anthropologist and ethnologist and an important scholar for german anthropology, because he taught and chaired the Department of Ethnologie in Westberlin from 1972 to 1982. At th... [ more ]

Augustin Krämer

Augustin Krämer was born in Los Angeles, Chile, in 1865. His family, who had left Germany partly for political reasons in 1849, returned its home country in 1867 and settled in Stuttgart. Krämer attended school in Cannstatt and subsequently studied in Tübingen and Berlin. ... [ more ]

Fritz Kramer

Prof. Dr. Fritz Kramer was born in 1941 in Bad Salzuflen and grew up in a calvinist family. His father worked as a carpenter. At early age Kramer developed an interest in literature and philosophy. As a teenager he not only read as diverse authors as Platon and Eichendorff but also anthropolo... [ more ]

Fritz Krause

Fritz Krause was born in Moritzburg in 1881. After finishing school he took up his studies of anthropology at the university in Leipzig. Moreover, he held an assistant position at the Ethnological Museum (now: Grassi-Museum for Ethnology) in Leipzig since 1905. Krause graduated... [ more ]

Walter Krickeberg

American Anthropologist, "Museumsmann". Born Schwiebus (Germany) 27 june 1885, died Berlin (Germany) 15 july 1962. Krickeberg started his academic career in Berlin as student of American anthropology under Eduard Seler [1849-1922]. In 1906 he was employed as " wissenschaftliche... [ more ]

Kurt Krieger

Born in Berlin on January 17th, 1920, Kurt Krieger was already as a small boy interested in foreign cultures. He often visited the Ethnographic Museum of this town and, when ever possible, followed guided tours through its different departments. After finishing school he was called to ... [ more ]

Mohan Meinhart Krischke Ramaswamy

Mohan M. Krischke Ramaswany was born in 1953 in Göttingen. He studied - amongst other subjects - Ethnologie in Göttingen. He was leading candidate of the Pirates Party during the 2013 regional elections to the assembly in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). Krischke Ramaswamy ... [ more ]

Hubert Kroll

Kroll was born 20. May 1901 in Zerkwitz/Prov. Posen, he dies on 09. June 1940 (Semuy, Arrdennes, WWII) Kroll studied Völkerkunde, Volkskunde and Prehistory 1921 in Leipzig, 1927 in Cologne (with Lips). His dissertation (with Weule in Leipzig) was finished in May 1928 on Bantu ... [ more ]

Andreas Kronenberg

Kronenberg was born 30.9.1931, he deceased 06.01.2016. He studied Ethnology, African Studies and Philosophy in Vienna (1949-1955). He received a PhD in 1955 on his work on The Teda of Tibesti (publ. Vienna 1958). In 1969 he habilitated in Frankfurt/Main on Logics and Life. Cultural R... [ more ]

Helmut Krumbach

* 23.10.1935 Krumbach became director of the Düsseldorfer Institut für amerikanische Völkerkunde (DIAV e.V.) in 1965; he headed the institution until 2003. (photo source: Ethnologia Americana, Sonderheft 8, Bamd XX, 2007, pg. 18; photo shows Krumbach ... [ more ]

Friedrich Kussmaul

Prof. Dr. Friedrich Kussmaul (1920 - 2009) was born in Bondorf in 1920. He grew up in rural South Germany, where his father and relatives worked as farmers. Being a young man when World War II began, he did several attempts to start his studies. Therefore Kussmaul moved to Göttingen and ... [ more ]

Gerdt Kutscher

* 27.6.1913 in Berlin + 17.9.1979 in Berlin He participated at the first meeting of German anthropologists after WW II (Frankfurt/Main, 19.-21.09.1946). In 1946/47 he worked for Richard and Hilde Thurnwald, who carried out research for the American administration a... [ more ]

Wolfgang Laade

Wolfgang Laade, *13.01.1925 in Zeitz, German state Saxony-Anhalt (near Leipzig), is a German musician (violon, contrabass), musicologist and anthropologist, who from 1954 onwards studied in Berlin anthropology with Prof. Nevermann and Westphal-Hellbusch and ethnomusicology with Prof. Kurt Rei... [ more ]

Moritz Lazarus

Moritz Lazarus was born in the prussian province of Poznan (Posen) in 1824. He attended school in his hometown Filhene and also received a business training. Growing up in a well-educated jewish family, Lazarus not only obtained knowledge in Hebrew literature and history. He also stud... [ more ]

Walter Lehmann

Americanist, editor and translator of Nahuatl texts. Born in Berlin (Preußen, Germany) 16 September 1878, died in Berlin (Germany) 7 February 1939. After receiving a M.D., Lehmann joined the Berlin Ethnographical Museum in 1903 as "Volontär" in the American Department; he... [ more ]

Robert Lehmann-Nitsche

Physician, physical anthropologist, ethnologist. Born in Radowitz (Posen, then Germany, now Poland) 9 November 1872, died in Berlin (Germany) 4 April 1938. Lehmann-Nitsche studied anthropology and medicine at Freiburg im Breisgau, Berlin and Munich. He gained doctorates of philosophy and medi... [ more ]

Paul Leser

Paul Leser was born in Frankfurt/Main in 1899, where his father held a high juridical position. Leser spent his childhood and youth in Frankfurt and attended school there. In 1919 Leser took up his studies of Anthropology at the university in Bonn. He graduated in 1925. He was am... [ more ]

Wolfgang Lindig

Wolfgang Lindig was born 1925 in Aschersleben and grew up in Leipzig (1943). He joined the German Navy (beginning of 1944) and in summer was sent to Holland (Atlantic Wall), where he became prisoner of war in early november 44 by the British Forces. 1948 return to Germany. He took up st... [ more ]

Antje Linkenbach

M.A. Anthropology, University of Heidelberg Ph.D. Sociology, University of Frankfurt ( Main ) Habilitation. Anthropology, University of Heidelberg She taught anthropology and sociology at the universities of Heidelberg , Tübingen and Zürich and was Fellow of the Centre... [ more ]

Eva Lips

Eva Lips was born in Leipzig in 1906, being the second child of the publisher Ernst Wiegandt. She attended school in her home town until 1923 and developed an early interest in languages and literature. In 1925 she married Julius Lips, who had studied Psychology, Anthropology and Law i... [ more ]

Julius Lips

Julius E. Lips, born in St. Johann/Saarbrücken on Sept 8th, 1895, entered the University of Leipzig in 1914. Only six month later the young student was called to active duty as a soldier during World War I. After having being wounded and traumatized by the atrocities on the battle-field,... [ more ]

Lorenz Löffler

Löffler was born near Jena in Thuringia (1930). He studied General Culture and Language at the University of Jena with Ferdinand Hestermann, later in Leipzig and from 1952 onwards in Mainz (with Friedrich). In 1955/56 he joined Dr. Kauffmann during his research o... [ more ]

Reinhold Löffler

Löffler studied anthropology in Vienna and Mainz with Karl Jettmar, later he went for postdoctoral studies to Cornell University and the University of Chicago (amongst his teachers were Clifford Geertz and Lloyd A. Fallers). Later he became professor at Western Michigan University. ... [ more ]

Wulf Lohse

In 1973, Lohse was elected Deputy Chairman of the GAA, a position he held until 1975. Lohse worked as Curator at the Hamburg Museum for Völkerkunde (Africa Collection). Amongst his publications are Ostafrika : Figur und Ornament , coauthored with Axel Freiherr von Gager... [ more ]

Andreas Lommel

Andreas Lommel was born in Munich in 1912. He graduated at the Institute for Cultural Morphology (now: Frobenius Institute) in Frankfurt/Main in 1937. Between 1937 and 1940 Lommel held an assistant position at the institute. Since 1957 Lommel was head of the Munich State Museum of Ethn... [ more ]

Ute Luig

Prof. Dr. em Ute Luig was born in Villingen in 1944. She grew up in Cologne. At an early age Luig developed a strong interest in literature, foreign cultures, and distant world regions, e.g., India and Tibet. She finished school in 1964. The same year Luig took up her studies at Cologn... [ more ]

Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen

Otto Maenchen-Helfen was born in Vienna in 1894, being the son of a book printer. After finishing school he briefly took up his studies but had to participate in World War I between 1914 and 1918. After the end of World War I Maenchen-Helfen studied at the universities in Vienna, G&oum... [ more ]

Wolfgang Marschall

Prof. Dr. em. Wolfgang Marschall was born in 1937 in Hirschberg, Silesia. There he spent his childhood years. His father, a pastor who got into conflict with the Nazi regime, died in World War II in 1940. During the war Marschall could not regularly attend primary school and eventually witnes... [ more ]

Carl Meinhof

Carl Meinhof was born in Barzwitz (now: Barcowice) in Transpomerania in 1857. His father and grandfather both were pastors. Meinhof not only studied Theology in Halle, Erlangen and Greifswald but also took a strong interest in linguistic and philological matters. After graduating he w... [ more ]

Brigitte Menzel

Brigitte Menzel was born in Berlin in 1930. She finished secondary school in 1949 and planned to study Anthropology and Art History. Due to the difficult economic situation of her family after World War II she first did an agricultural apprenticeship. Eventually she was able to take up her se... [ more ]

Franz-Josef Micha

* 1930. Micha was curator at the seminar for Völkerkunde (Bonn), and previously in Freiburg i. Brsg. publications: 1959 Die Tauschmittel an den Märkten der zentralaustralischen Eingeborenen . In: Anthropos, 54, S.377-400 [More infor... [ more ]

Willi Michel

Born 1910 Died 1990 Hobby-americanist who founded the Düsseldorfer Institut für amerikanische Völkerkunde (DIAV e.V.) in 1930 with the aim to collect literature on Native North America and to disseminate knowledge. In 1954 he handed the institute over to the Interesse... [ more ]

Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann

Anthropologist, Sociologist. Born Düsseldorf (Germany) 1 October 1904, died Wiesbaden (Germany) 11 may 1988. From 1925-31 Mühlmann studied physical anthropology with the then leading anthropologist Eugen Fischer [1874-1967], philosophy and sociology at various German universities, r... [ more ]

Claudius Müller

Dr. Claudius Müller was born in Austria in 1945 and grew up in the rural Styria region. He developed an early interest in history, languages and literature. Müller finished school in 1964. The same year he took up his studies at the Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg, wh... [ more ]

Ernst Wilhelm Müller

Müller started his university studies 1946/47 in Munich (Geography with Ubbelohde-Doering). He died 29.11.2013. [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] (photo source: http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/Mueller/Muellerbiogr... [ more ]

Klaus E. Müller

Prof. Dr. em. Klaus E. Müller was born in Dortmund in 1935. His father was a graduated engineer, who took position against the Nazi regime. His mother was a pianist and concertist. Until 1943 Müller attended primary school near Iserlohn in the Sauerland region. Moreover, he attend s... [ more ]

Werner Müller

Werner Müller was born on 22. Mai 1907 in Emmerich. His father was an evangelic pastor. After finishing school Müller studied Geography, Anthropology, History and Religious Studies not only in Göttingen and Bonn but also in Berlin. He completed his Ph D thesis on ancien... [ more ]

Ludger Müller-Wille

Dr. Ludger Müller-Wille was born in Göttingen in 1944. Both of his parents had studied geography and when his father was offered a professorship in 1947, the family moved to Münster. Müller-Wille, who developed an early interest in foreign languages and northern countries,... [ more ]

Mark Münzel

Mark Münzel was born in Potsdam in 1943. He finished secondary school in Frankfurt/Main in 1962 and subsequently took up his studies of Anthropology, Romance Philology and European Ethnology. Münzel not only studied in Frankfurt/Main but also at the University of Coimbra in P... [ more ]

Heinzarnold Muszinski

Muszinski was born in 1937. From April 1971 to September 2000 he worked at the anthropological institute in Mainz. He died Feb 5th, 2012. [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] (Photo thanks to Ekkehard Schrö... [ more ]

Horst Nachtigall

Horst Nachtigall was born in Berge near Berlin in 1924. He spent his childhood and youth in Nauen. At early age he had to participate in World War II and eventually became a prisoner of war. Disbanded in 1945 Nachtigall did several post-war jobs before taking up his studies of Anthrop... [ more ]

Wolfgang Nelke

Nelke was a german anthropologist in Berlin who worked on the Asmat and other people of New Guinea. He lived in Belsstrasse/Berlin-Marienfelde and died in 2012. More information on this anthropologist is welcome (photo source: http://www.op-marburg.de/var/storage/images/op/... [ more ]

Hans Nevermann

* 25..3.1902 in Schwerin † 13. November 1982 in Berlin Hans Nevermann was born in Schwerin in 1902. His father was a post office clerk and his mother came from a family of merchants. Nevermann took up his studies in 1920. Throughout the following years he studied Anthropo... [ more ]

Hermann Niggemeyer

Hermann Niggemeyer was born in the Muensterland region in 1908. After finishing school he took up his studies of Geography and Anthropology in Cologne in 1926. Julius Lips and Franz Thorbecke were among his teachers. Niggemeyer completed his Ph D thesis in 1932. After briefly ... [ more ]

Curt Nimuendajú (Unckel)

Ethnographer. Born Jena (Thuringia, Germany) 17 April 1883, died Santa Rita (Brazil) 10 (?) December 1945. Orphaned from the first year of his life, Unckel was brought up by his grandmother in Jena, and at age 16 entered the factory of Carl Zeiss there as mechanics apprentice. Social welfare ... [ more ]

Walter Nippold

Born 1892 Died 1970 Nippold was a soldier in WW I. He studied Geography, History and Ethnology in Göttingen. He recieved his PhD ( Rassen- und Kulturgeschichte der Negrito-Völker Südost-Asiens ) in 1936 (by Plischke). From 1935 to 1957 Nippold worked as as... [ more ]

Karl-Anton Nowotny

Karl A. Nowotny was born in Hollabrunn (Lower Austria) 21.04.1904. He studied not only Anthropology but Philosophy and Art History in Vienna. In 1939 he completed his Ph D thesis and graduated. After participating in World War II Nowotny took up a assistant position at the Ethnologi... [ more ]

Udo Oberem

Udo Oberem was born in Bocholt in 1923. He studied Anthropology, Prehistory, History, Comparative Religion Studies and Geography in Bonn and Cologne. Moreover, he took up a student assistant position at the Seminar for Anthropology in Bonn in 1950. Hermann Trimborn was among his teach... [ more ]

Michael Oppitz

Michael Oppitz was born in 1942 at the Polish-Czech border. He was raised in Geneva/Switzerland and Cologne. He studied Sinology and Anthropology at the universities of Bonn and Berkeley/Canada before he began his studies in Ethnology and Sociology at the University of Cologne. After field wo... [ more ]

Hans Ostwald

Hans Otto August Ostwald (* 31. Juli 1873 in Berlin; † 8. Februar 1940 in Berlin) was a german Journalist, Narrator and Art Historian. Having been a Hobo himself, he documented the life of Hoboes and later transformed hos experience into a scientific language. &nbs... [ more ]

Hans-Joachim Paproth

Hans-Joachim Paproth was born in Königsberg/Ostpreussen (now: Kaliningrad,/former Eastern Prussia) in 1942. During World War II, his family had to flee west and resettled in North Rhine-Westphalia. After finishing school in 1958, Paproth did an apprenticeship in order to become a booksel... [ more ]

Fritz Paudler

Fritz Paudler (* 1882 Königswald bei Bodenbach/Bohemia + 1945) studied Anthropology in Vienna with Rudolf Pöch. In WWI, he conducted physical anthropological measurements in POW-camps in Germany, the Habsburg Empire and Romania. In 1923 he habiltated and worked as Private Lect... [ more ]

Eduard Pechuel-Loesche

Eduard Pechuel-Loesche was born in Zöschen near Merseburg in 1840. His father was a mill owner. After finishing school Pechuel-Loesche joined the merchant navy and travelled all over the globe during the 1860s, i.e. to Northern and Southern America, the Polar Regions, the West Indies and... [ more ]

Werner Petermann

Dr. Werner Petermann was born in 1946. He comes from a family with a working-class background and grew up in Passau. At early age Petermann developed an interest in cinema and literature as well as in other cultures. He finished school in 1967. In 1970 Petermann took up his studies at ... [ more ]

Helmut Petri

Helmut Petri was born in Cologne in 1907. He attended school both in Berlin and in his hometown. In 1928 Petri took up his studies. Not only Economics, History and Philosophy were among his subjects but also Prehistory and Physical Anthropology. During the following years Petri studie... [ more ]

Werner Peukert

Peukert fled with his wife and his parents from the GDR to West-Germany in the early 70s. Soon he became assistant for Africa at the Frobenius-Institute (Frankfurt/Main) under Eike Haberland. In 1975, Peukert was elected Deputy Chairman of the GAA. In the Mid 70s, Peukert committed suicide in... [ more ]

Robert Pfaff-Giesberg

Robert Pfaff-Giesberg was born on November 25th, 1899 in Offenburg; he died on May 11th, 1984 in Bad Bellingen. Pfaff.Giesberg was ethnologist and worked as director of the Ethnological Collection of Mannheim from 1936 until 1964. [more information on this anthropologist is we... [ more ]

Georg Pfeffer

Professor Dr. em. Georg Pfeffer was born in 1943 in Berlin, Germany. His father was the German sociologist Karl-Heinz Pfeffer, his mother Margaret Wainman Kirby was a British citizen. After being bombed out at the end of World War II, Georg Pfeffer spent his childhood in a small village in He... [ more ]

Beatrix Pfleiderer

On a day in July 2009, I went to see Beatrix Pfleiderer (* 29. Juli 1941 † 20. August 2011). Many years had passed since our last meeting. I first met her in the 1980s through my friend and former classmate, Dunja Moeller. Dunja and I had repeated a class together at secondary school. ... [ more ]

Joachim Piepke

Prof. Dr. Joachim Piepke was born in Danzig in 1943. At the end of World War II his family had to move west and finally resettled in Freiburg in southwestern Germany. Due to the experience of displacement Piepke had an early sensitivity for differing social contexts and developed an interest ... [ more ]

Hans Plischke

Hans Plischke was born in Eilenburg/Saxony in 1890. There he spent his childhood years and attended school. In 1910 Plische began to study in Anthropology, History and Natural Sciences not only in Munich and Göttingen but also in Leipzig. In 1914 he completed his Ph D thesis. Karl... [ more ]

Erich Podach

* 22. November 1894 in Budapest; † 20. August 1967 in Heidelberg Podach was baptized as Erich Friedrich (Frigyes) Podach as son of Ágoston Podach and his wife Irma, née. Feiler, into a German-Hungarian-Jewish family. He received his PhD in 1... [ more ]

Hanns Prem

Hanns Prem was born in Vienna in 1941. He studied Ethnology, Early and Prehistory, Ancient American Studies and Physical Anthropology at the Free University in Berlin between 1959 and 1961. Prem continued his studies at Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Hamburg University, ... [ more ]

Konrad Theodor Preuss

Anthropologist, Historian of Religions ("Religionswissenschaftler"). Born in Preußisch-Eylau/Ostpreussen (today: Bagrationowsk/Russian Oblast Kaliningrad) 2 June 1869, died in Berlin 8 June 1938. Preuß was educated as a school teacher, and through additional studie... [ more ]

Gernot Prunner

Gernot Prunner was born in Vienna in 1935. He was the only child of the architect Gilbert Prunner and his wife Ada, who chaired a local school. After being evacuated to the Kärnten Region during World War II, the family returned to Vienna in 1946, where Prunner finished school seven year... [ more ]

Anton Quack

Anton Quack was born in Erfweiler-Ehlingen (now: Mandelbachtal) in the Saar region in 1946. He attended secondary school at the Steyler missionaries (SVD) in St. Wendel from 1957 onward. In 1966 he took up his novitiate and began to study Philosophy in St. Agustin. Quack was ordained a... [ more ]

Helga Rammow

Dr. Helga Rammow was born in 1925 in Finkenwerder. When she was about three years old, her family moved to nearby Hamburg. During World War II Rammow fled the bombing to Thuringia. In 1943 she finished school and eventually had to work as a primary school assistant in Eastern Pomerania and Up... [ more ]

Johannes W. Raum

Prof. Dr. em Johannes W. Raum was born in 1931 in Bumbuli, Tanzania. His father, Otto Raum, was a social anthropologist and africanist. Moreover, his grandfather had worked as a missionary in Africa, where he also did anthropological and linguistic research. In 1934 Raum and his family moved ... [ more ]

Otto Raum

Otto F. Raum was born in Moshi near Mount Kilimanjaro in 1903. His father, Johannes Raum, was a Leipzig Mission Society missionary as well as an author of linguistic, theological and ethnographic works. Otto F. Raum spent his first years in Africa and learned Chaga language before lea... [ more ]

Otto Reche

Otto Reche was born in Glatz/Silesia in 1879. He studied Medical Studies, Zoology, Anatomy and Anthropology at the University of Breslau (now: Wroclaw). Ernst Haeckel was among his teachers. Moreover, Reche studied Geography in Jena and Natural Sciences in Berlin. After graduating in 1... [ more ]

Horst Reimann

Horst Reimann (* 29 January 1929 – † 4 October 1994) The sociologist, cultural anthropologist and communication scientist Horst Reimann was born in 1929 in Halle / Saale. He studied philosophy, economy, political science, German studies, history of art, and histo... [ more ]

Hans Rhotert

Unanimously, Hans Rhotert is described as a pleasant, tactfull, generous, well-mannered and well-organized scientist: a grand seigneur . He was born on Sept. 20th, 1900 in Hanover. As one of the youngest officers, he served in (WW I (1918). In 1919 he begun his studies in philosop... [ more ]

Berthold Riese

Prof. Dr. em Berthold Riese was born in Waldshut in 1944. Both his parents were anglicists. Riese mainly grew up in Freiburg. Moreover, he and his family lived in the USA for a while, where he developed an early interest in ancient cultures and archaeology. When his father took up a professor... [ more ]

Ina Rösing

Ina Rösing was born 1942 in Breslau (today Wroclaw/Poland) as daughter of physical anthropologist Ilse Schwidetzky.Rösing herself is a cultural anthropologist, ethnologist, psychologist and sociologist. She held a professorship and was director of the Institute for Cultural Anthropo... [ more ]

Wolfgang Rudolph

Wolfgang Rudolph was born in Berlin in 1921. He visited school both in his home town and in Naumburg/Saale. At early age he was forced to participate in World War II and eventually became a prisoner of war. Disbanded in 1945 Rudolph took up his studies at the Department of Anthropolog... [ more ]

Ernst Sarfert

Ernst Sarfert (* 4. November 1882 in Schönau bei Zwickau; † 19. November 1937 in Leipzig) was a german ethnologist and traveller. More information on this anthropologist is welcome (photo source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Sarfert) [ more ]

Paul Schebesta

Paul Schebesta was born in Groß Peterwitz/Moravia (now: Czech Republic). He not only learned German but Czech and Polish. After joining After joining the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and finishing his high school years in Nysa/Silesia, Schebesta was ordained at St. Gabriel in Mö... [ more ]

Lucian Scherman

* 10. Oktober 1864 in Posen; † 29. Mai 1946 in Hanson, Massachusetts Lucian Scherman was born in Posen (today: Poznan, Poland) in 1864. His father was a merchant. After visiting school in Breslau (today: Wrocław, Poland) and Posen he took up his studies in 1882. At the Un... [ more ]

Ulla Schild

Ulla Schild was born in Berlin in 1938. She spent her childhood in Strasbourg. After the end of World War II she first lived in the Black Forest region and eventually moved to Karlsruhe with her family. There she finished school in 1957. In 1958 Schild took up her studies of German and... [ more ]

Erhard Schlesier

Professor Dr. em. Erhard Schlesier was born in 1926 in Chemnitz, Germany. There he spent his childhood and youth. Still underage, he was forced to join the German Army in the last period of World War II and eventually became a prisoner of war. Disbanded in July 1945 he worked on a... [ more ]

Katesa Schlosser

* 8. Oktober 1920; † 9. Dezember 2010 in Kiel [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] (photo by courtesy of Ekkehard Schröder) [ more ]

Wilhelm Schmidt

Wilhelm Schmidt was born in Hoerde near Dortmund in 1868. He joined the Steyler missionaries (SVD) at early age. After finishing school in 1888 he studied Theology. Schmidt was ordained a priest in 1892. The same year he became an austrian citizen. After studying Oriental Languages, Sc... [ more ]

Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik

Schmied-Kowarzik was born in 1939 in Friedberg as son of a philosopher and writer. From 1959 to 1963 he studied, amongst other subjects, ethnology in Vienna. In 1971 he became Professor for Philosophy and Pedagogy at The University Gesamthochschule Kassel . Schmied-Kowarzik is not an et... [ more ]

Carl August Schmitz

Carl August Schmitz was born in Cologne in 1920. After finishing school he was forced to join the German Army during World War II and eventually became a prisoner of war. Disbanded in 1945 Schmitz took up his studies at the University of Cologne. Anthropology, Sociology and Theatre Ar... [ more ]

Wolfgang Schoene

Wolfgang Schoene (20.7.1926 - 18.10.2006) studierte in Berlin Ethnologie, Psychologie, Soziologie und Anthropologie, Dr. phil. (1955). Mitarbeiter von 1963-69 an der 1946 gegründeten Sozialforschungsstelle an der Univ. Münster mit Sitz in Dortmund. Er betreute länger die sozio... [ more ]

Friedhelm Scholz

* 1928 + 2000 Scholz studied Anthropology and Prehistory in Cologne (1955-1962). In 1957 and 58 he studied Vietnamese and Bahasa Indonesia at the Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris. He also was a member of the French Foreign Legion He rec... [ more ]

Rüdiger Schott

Rüdiger Schott was born in Bonn in 1927. There he spent his childhood and youth. His father, Albert Schott, was an associate professor for Assyriology and german translator of the Epic of Gilgamesh. After finishing school Schott was forced to join the German Army during the last months o... [ more ]

Dominik Schröder

Dominik Schröder was born in Eiweiler/Saar in 1910. He attended the high school of the Steyler missionaries (SVD) in St. Wendel and subsequently studied at the Philosophical-Theological Faculty in St. Augustin. Schröder was ordained a priest in 1937. The following year he st... [ more ]

Ekkehard Schröder

Ekkehard Schröder was born in Potsdam in 1944. His family eventually moved to the South German region of Swabia, where he finished school in 1964. The same year Schröder took up his studies at the university in Kiel. He chose Psychology as his major subject but also attended ... [ more ]

Leonhard Schultze-Jena

From 1912 onwards he added "Jena" to his last name. Zoologist, Geographer, Philologist. Born Jena (Germany) 28 may 1872, died Marburg (Germany) 28 march 1955. Leonhard Schultze Jena was born into an academic family of high status in Jena. He started with studies in medicine in Lausa... [ more ]

Willy Schulz-Weidner

Schulz-Weidner was scientific assistant at the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt/Main from 1950 - 1954. [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] (photo by courtesy of Siegfried Seyfarth) [ more ]

Meinhard Schuster

Prof. Dr. em Meinhard Schuster was born in Offenbach/Main in 1930. At an early age he developed an interest in South America (e.g., ancient indigenous cultures) and eventually started to take courses in Spanish and Portuguese. When he was seventeen years old, Schuster visited the Frobenius-In... [ more ]

Thomas Schweizer

Thomas Schweizer was born in Cologne in 1949. He spent his childhood and youth in Krefeld, where his parents owned a hairdressing salon, and developed an interest in foreign cultures at an early age. After finishing school Schweizer took up his studies at the University of Cologne in 1... [ more ]

Stefan Seitz

* 1944 Seitz grew up in Freiburg i. Brsg. He studied Ethnologie in Freiburg and Hamburg. He received his PhD in 1970 (Freiburg) and habilitated in 1975 In 1980 became Professor in Freiburg i. Brsg, a position he kept until retirement in 2009. 1983/84 he taught as s... [ more ]

Eduard Seler

Eduard Seler was born in Crossen/Oder in the Brandenburg region in 1849. From 1876 onward he worked as a secondary school teacher in Berlin, but retired from this profession due to health problems. Eventually Seler studied Mathematics, Mineralogy, Botany and Paleontology. He graduated ... [ more ]

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 studi... [ more ]

Christian Sigrist

Prof. em Dr. Christian Sigrist was born in St. Blasien in 1935. After spending his childhood years in St. Blasien and Berlin, he and his mother had to resettle in South Germany during World War II due to the Nuremberg laws. Sigrist finished School in Emmendingen in 1954. Sigrist took u... [ more ]

Peter Snoy

Dr. Peter Snoy was born in Stuttgart in 1928. There he spent his childhood and youth. Snoy finished school in 1948 and eventually did an apprenticeship as a carpenter. In 1951 Snoy took up his studies at the Frobenius-Institute in Frankfurt/Main, where A.E. Jensen and Helmut Petri were... [ more ]

Günther Spannaus

Günther Spannaus was born in Northeim near Hannover in 1901. His father was a book trader. After finishing school in 1920 Spannaus took up his studies at the business school in Leipzig in order to become an international tradesman. He graduated in 1923. Moreover, Spannaus began t... [ more ]

Gerd Spittler

Prof. Dr. em Gerd Spittler was born in Donaueschingen in 1939. His family has a rather rural background. Spittler developed an early interest in foreign languages, literature and history as well as in African culture and the work of Max Weber. He finished school in 1958. In 1959 Spittl... [ more ]

Justin Stagl

Justin Stagl was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, in 1943. There he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing secondary school in 1960, Stagl took up his studies at the Vienna University. He chose Anthropology, Psychology and Philosophy to be his major subjects. Josef Haekel, Wilhelm Koppers... [ more ]

Wilhelm Staude

* 1904 in Vienna + 1977 After his final exams at school (1923) he studied Oriental Art History in Vienna, Leipzig and Munich. He received his PhD in Munich (by Wilhelm Pinder). From 1932 to 34 he worked as a language teacher and tour guide in Paris. Marcel Griaule ... [ more ]

Franz Baermann Steiner

Franz Baermann Steiner was born in Karolinenthal, Bohemia (now a district of Prague) in 1909. He grew up in a German speaking jewish family and developed an early interest in literature and languages as well as in Marxism . His father was a merchant. Baermann Steiner entered secondary... [ more ]

Heymann Steinthal

Heymann Steinthal was born in Gröbnitz, Saxony-Anhalt, in 1823. There he spent his childhood and youth. Steinthal studied Philology and Philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University (now: Humboldt University) in Berlin. During his studies Steinthal was strongly influenced by the... [ more ]

Emil Stephan

* 1872 + 1908 (New Ireland) In 1907-08 he participated in the Deutschen Marine-Expedition to Neuirland. [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] publication: 1907 with Fritz Graebner: Neu-Mecklenburg (Bismarck-Ar... [ more ]

Joachim Sterly

[More information on this anthropologist is welcome] (photo source: http://www.agem-ethnomedizin.de/download/01_1+2_ster.pdf ) [ more ]

Helmut Straube

Helmut Straube (* May 6th, 1923 Neiße, Upper Silesia; + March 22nd, 1984 Munich) S. was a marked German scholar of African and Ethiopian Studies. He went to school in Dresden, Berlin, Göttingen and finally complied his Abitur 1940 in München. During Word War II.... [ more ]

Bernhard Streck

Professor Dr. em. Bernhard Streck was born in Mannheim in 1945. He completed his Abitur (university entrance certificate) at the Hebel-Gymnasium in Lörrach near Switzerland in 1965 and did his military service afterwards. Bernhard Streck took up the study of cultural and social anthrop... [ more ]

Ivo Strecker

Prof. Dr. em Ivo Strecker was born in Magdeburg in 1940. After being bombed out at the end of World War II, his family resettled in Lower Saxony, where some of their relatives were living. Strecker grew up in a liberal and artistic household. He developed an early interest in traveling and li... [ more ]

Bernhard Struck

Bernhard Struck was born in Heidelberg in 1888. There he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school in 1906 Struck took up his studies in Heidelberg and continued them in Berlin. Geography, Ethnology, Physical Anthropology and Natural Sciences were his major subjects. Struc... [ more ]

Erika Sulzmann

Erika Sulzmann was born in Mainz in 1911. There she spent her childhood and youth. After finishing school in 1930 she took up work as a technical assistant and eventually got employed at the Institute for Cultural Morphology (now: Frobenius-Institute) in Frankfurt/Main. At the institu... [ more ]

Kurt Tauchmann

Tauchmann was born in 1939. He studied Ethnology, Malayology, Slawic Studies and Geography in Cologne (with Petri). His dissertation Die Religion der Minahasa in Nordost Celebes was completed in 1967. Afterwards, he worked as assistant in the Cologne department and also as counse... [ more ]

Franz Termer

* 5.7.1894 in Berlin + 15.4.1968 Franz Termer was born in Berlin in 1894. After finishing school he took up his studies in Berlin in 1913, where the americanist Eduard Seler was among his teachers. Since 1919, Termer continued his studies not only in Marburg but also in Wür... [ more ]

Günther Tessmann

Günter Tessmann was born in Lübeck, where he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school he did an apprenticeship on tropical gardening at the colonial school in Witzenhausen. Eventually Tessman went to Cameron and Spanish-Guinea (now: Equatorial Guinea), where he ... [ more ]

Josef Franz Thiel

Prof. Dr. em Josef Franz Thiel was born in 1932. He grew up in Filipovo, a village in the region of Vojvodina, which nowadays is part of Serbia. Even though Filipovo was almost purely German, due to the multi-ethnic region Vojvodina, Thiel learned German as well as Hungarian and Ser... [ more ]

Georg Thilenius

Georg Thilenius was born on Oct 4th, 1868 in Soden am Taunus. Between 1888 and 1893 he studied Natural Sciences and Medicine not only in Bonn but also in Berlin. After completing his studies and graduating Thilenius began to work on his habilitation thesis which he completed in S... [ more ]

Richard Thurnwald

Richard Thurnwald was born in Vienna in 1869 and grew up in a well-situated family. After finishing school he did his military service and then took up his studies of Law, Oriental Languages and Economics in 1889. He not only learned Arabic and Turkish but also Serbian and Russian. In ... [ more ]

Herbert Tischner

Herbert Tischner was born in Halberstadt in 1906. He finished school in Goslar in 1927. Tischner studied Anthropology, Prehistory and Geography in Frankfurt/Main and Hamburg. In 1933 he completed his Ph D thesis about house types in Oceania. Georg Thilenius, Paul Hambruch and Otto Dem... [ more ]

Hermann Trimborn

Hermann Trimborn was born in Bonn in 1901. He studied Political Science as well as Anthropology and Ancient American Studies in his home town. Trimborn completed his habilitation thesis in 1929 and subsequently began lecturing. From 1939 onward he was associate professor at t... [ more ]

Peter Tschohl

* 3. April 1935 bis 27. September 2007 Peter Tschohl was born in Munich in 1935. There he spent his childhood and youth. Tschohl not only developed an early interest in indigenous American cultures but also was in contact with the art historian Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering who chair... [ more ]

Heinrich Ubbelohde-Doering

* 25.11.1889 in Bonn In 1925 he became Private lecturer (Privatdozent) for Ethnology in Marburg, where he habilitated on Old Peruvian Vessel Paintings . In 1930 he moved to Munich and became Director of the Ethnological Museum. He participated at the first meeting of German ... [ more ]

Wilhelm Alexander Unkrig

Unkrig was born in 1883 in Köslin (today: Koszalin/Poland) as son of a crofter. He studied theology in Zhytomyr (today in Ukraine) and Kazan (today in Tatarstan) with the aim to become an orthodox missionary in Mongolia. In 1912 he finished his exams and became a Russian Orthodox pr... [ more ]

László Vajda

Lázló Vajda (1923-2010) was born in Budapest/Hungary in 1923, where he also spent his childhood and youth. In his early years Vajda wanted to become a professional piano player, but also had a strong interest in zoology and research field trips. In 1941 he finished school and st... [ more ]

Friedrich Valjavec

Valjavec studied at EHESS (Paris V) and taught ethnology in Tübingen and Munich. He carried out field research in New Caledonia and Vanuatu. [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] Publications: Wege der Tradition.1994 Identit&e... [ more ]

Gisela Völger

Born 1937 [More information on this anthropologist is welcome] [ more ]

Ewald Volhard

Volhard was born on May 20th,1900, as son of a famous internist and nephropolgist. Volhard studied German Literature in Halle, where he received his PhD in 1927 on The Individual and Society in Fr.M. Klingers Novels (Orig.: Der Einzelne und die Gesellschaft in Fr. M. Kl... [ more ]

Klaus Volprecht

Klaus Volprecht was born in 1930 in Trachtenberg, Silesia. He grew up in a small village near the Czech and the Slovakian border. His father was a teacher. Volprecht developed an early interest in History, Geography and in foreign cultures. At the age of fifteen, in the last month of W... [ more ]

Hertha von Dechend

Von Dechend was born in 1915 in Heidelberg. Since 1934 she worked in Frankfurt/Main at the Frobenius Institute. She graduated in 1943 in Frankfurt and afterwards was employed at the Institute for the History od Natural Sciences. Von Dechend participated at the first meeti... [ more ]

Karl von den Steinen

Born March 7, 1855 in Mülheim an der Ruhr, with two-year-old was motherless and was raised by his grandparents. At 17 he began his University studies in medicine at the universities of Bonn, Zurich and Strasbourg, obtained at age 20 his graduation (Dr. Med in 1875). He Specialize... [ more ]

Adolf von Duisburg

von Duisburg was born 1883 in Sumatra, from 1920 to 1938 he worked as a lecturer at Deutsche Kolonialschule (Witzenhausen). Before, he was officer of the Deutsche Schutztruppen/Cameroon. In 1923, v. Duisburg finished his doctorate (on african languages). In Witzenhausen, he taught... [ more ]

Umar Rolf von Ehrenfels

Rolf von Ehrenfels was born in Prague in 1901. His father, Christian von Ehrenfels, was a Professor of Philosophy at the German Prague University and founder of the school of Gestalt Psychology. During the early 1920s Rolf von Ehrenfels lived in Berlin as a freelance journalist and fiction wr... [ more ]

Axel von Gagern

Born Dec 7th, 1913 as son of the writer Friedrich Freiherr von Gagern and his wife Ruth, countess of Kospoth, in Briese (Oels/Silesia). Von Gagern died May 25th, 2008 in Waging am See/Bavaria. In 1933/34 he studied two semester in Berlin (German Studies, Theatre Studies) and later&... [ more ]

Felix Rítter von Luschan

Physician, Anthropologist, Ethnologist, Archaeologist. Born Hollabrunn (Austria) 11 August 1854, died Berlin (Germany) 7 February 1924. A man of extraordinary broad education (his academic degrees are M.D., Litt. D. and D. Sc. from Vienna University as well as a D. phil. from Munich Universit... [ more ]

Eckart von Sydow

von Sydow was born in 1885, he died in 1942. He was an Art Historian and Ethnologist. Hans Himmelheber studied under von Sydow in Berlin. [more information on this anthropologist is welcome] Martin Heydrich (1944) wrote an Obituary on Eckart von Sydow (1885-... [ more ]

Karin von Welck

Welck (born 1947 in Buir/Cologne) graduated in 1966 in politics, ethnology, Germanistics, ancient American languages and culture, ethnology, and linguistics from the Universities of Hamburg and Köln. In 1973, she took her doctorate with the work Untersuchungen zum sogenannten... [ more ]

Rüdiger Vossen

Born 1941. He studied Anthropology, Prehistory and Ancient American Studies in Göttingen (1961-62), Berlin (1962-1963) and Hamburg (1963-1968). He graduated in 1968 with a PhD in Hamburg (on Die rezente Naturvölkerkeramik im Amazonasgebiet – die „Kerami... [ more ]

Günter Wagner

Günter Wagner was born in Berlin in 1908, where he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school in 1926 he took up his studies of Anthropology. After brief periods at the universities in Freiburg and Hamburg, Wagner moved to New York. There he attended lectures by Franz Boas at ... [ more ]

Wilhelm Weike

In the early 1880s, Wilhelm Weike became – for a short period in his worker’s life - an accidental Arctic ethnographer. He was born in the rural community of Häverstädt close to Minden in eastern Westphalia on 28 November 1859 and died in Berlin, the capital of Germany, ... [ more ]

David Friedrich Weinland

Weinland (* 30. August 1829 Grabenstetten, Württemberg; † 19. September 1915 Hohenwittlingen) was a zoologist and writer of fiction stories. His most famous book Rulaman , a novel about his swabian homeland in prehistoric times, was inspired in part by his own ethnographic r... [ more ]

Diedrich Westermann

Diedrich Westermann was born in Baden near Verden in Lower Saxony in 1875. After briefly working at a post office Westermann joined the North German Mission Society (Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft) in Bremen in 1895. Subsequently he was sent to Basel and Tübingen in order to study the... [ more ]

Sigrid Westphal-Hellbusch

Sigrid Westphal-Hellbusch was born in Rendsburg in 1915. She spent her early years in Berlin, where she finished school in 1934. Classified as “politically unreliable” by the Nazi regime, she briefly had to take up fatigue duty. Westphal-Hellbusch began her studies of Ethn... [ more ]

Karl Weule

Karl Weule was born in Alt-Wallmoden near Goslar, Saxony, in 1864. Between 1885 and 1891 he studied both at the universities in Leipzig and Göttingen. History, Geography and German Philology were his major subjects. He graduated with a Ph D thesis in Geography at the Leipzig University. ... [ more ]

Heinrich Albert (Heinz) Wieschhoff

Wieschhoff was born on Aug 1st, 1906 in Hagen. After school, we trained as electrician and wanted to become an engineer. After an accident and several months in hospital, he decided to go back to school again and did his final examns in Unna (1928): Inspired by one of his teachers (and ... [ more ]

J. Christoph Winter

Prof. Dr. em Christoph Winter as born in East Prussia in 1938. At the end of World War II his family had to flee and eventually resettled in a small village in Lower Saxony. There he attended primary school until the family moved to Frankfurt/Main in 1950. Winter developed an early interest i... [ more ]

Otto Zerries

Otto Zerries was born in Pforzheim on July 27th, 1914. There he spent his childhood and youth. His father was an architect. Zerries finished school in 1934. Due to "reasons of race" his school principal tried to prevent Zerries plan to study Anthropology, but the influence o... [ more ]

Elsa Ziehm (née: Harmening, adopted Wertheim)

Linguist and ethnomusicologist. Born March 23, 1911, died Oct. 15, 1993 in Berlin. Born to non-Jewish parents, as Elsa Harmening, she was adopted by the Wertheim family of Jewish background , wealthy merchants and owners of the departmentstores „Wertheim“. In 1934, during he... [ more ]

Emil Zimmermann

Prof. Dr. em Emil Zimmermann was born in Pirmasens in 1933, where he spent his childhood years. Due to evacuations at the end of World War II his family resettled in Frankental, where Zimmermann finished school in 1952. The same year Zimmermann began to study Physics, Mathematics and C... [ more ]

Günter Zimmermann

Günter Zimmermann was born in Gdansk (Danzig) on Sept 11th, 1914. There he spent his childhood and youth. After finishing school Zimmermann began to study Modern History in his home town in 1933. During the following years he continued his studies not only in Vienna but also in B... [ more ]

Jürgen Zwernemann

Prof. Dr. em Jürgen Zwernemann was born in 1929 in Wilhelmshaven, where he spent his childhood years. Both of his parents were medical doctors. Zwernemann finished school in 1949. Zwernemann initially planned to study medicine in Mainz. Due to regulations that privileged soldiers ... [ more ]

Interviews with German anthropologists - Video Portal for the History of German Anthropology post 1945

Short Portraits