Schmidt, Wilhelm, geb. 1868#
b. Hoerde (Germany), Feb. 16, 1868, d. Fribourg (Switzerland), Feb. 10, 1954. Ethnologist, linguist, religious scholar, priest. Professor at the Missionshaus St. Gabriel near Moedling (1896), university professor in Vienna (1920-1938), from 1938 in Fribourg, 1927 director of the papal mission and ethnology museum in Rom; 1931 director of the Anthropos Institute at Moedling. Founded the international journal "Anthropos" in 1906 (published in Austria 1906-1938), the organ and theoretical foundation of a new approach to the study of cultural history, the Vienna School of Ethnology; organised study trips to non-European nonliterate indigenous peoples (M. Gusinde, P. Schebesta, W. Koppers), was an expert on South-East-Asian and Australian languages, co-founder of historical ethnology and one of the main representatives of the theory of cultural circles (Kulturkreislehre) and the concept of original monotheism.
Works#
Die moderne Ethnologie, 1906; Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, 1912; Voelker und Kulturen, 1924; Handbuch der vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte, 1930; Handbuch der Methode der kulturhist. Ethnologie, 1937; Rassen und Voelker, 3 vols., 1946-1949.Literature#
F. Demarchi (ed.), W. S. Un etnologo sempre attuale, 1989; H. Koeb, Die Wr. Schule der Voelkerkunde als Antithese zum Evolutionismus, master´s thesis, Vienna 1996.