Walter Anderson (folklorist)

Walter Arthur Alexander Anderson ( born October 10, 1885 in Minsk, Belarus; † August 23, 1962 in Kiel ) was one of the most important folklorists of the 20th century and the programmatic thinker ethnographic geographical- historical method ( Finnish School ).

Life

Walter Anderson was born in Minsk in a Baltic German family ( his brothers were the statisticians Oskar Anderson and astrophysicist William Anderson), and grew up in Kazan, where his father Nikolai Anderson was Professor of Finno -Ugric languages. After reaching the school leaving certificate, he began his studies at the Faculty of the University of Kazan historical- philological and was founded in 1909 with a scholarship to Western European literary history seconded to the University of Saint Petersburg, where he earned his master's degree in 1911. 1912 Anderson received his first academic post as a lecturer in Western European literature and lecturer in Italian at the Kazan University, where he for his master's thesis in general literary history of the doctoral degree was awarded in 1916. 1918 Anderson was appointed as associate professor at the Department of Western European literary history at the University of Kazan, but he could not accept the job because of the revolutionary turmoil. As a professor of Folklore (1920-1939) at the University of Tartu (formerly Dorpat, Estonia), where he held his first lectures on German, from 1922, however, the Estonian language, he was responsible for the development of ethnographic research in the Baltic states. Starting in 1920, Anderson was a regular member of the scholars Estonian society of which he was elected for the years 1928 to 1929 and president. Honorary membership of the Company was awarded Anderson 1930. In recognition of his work he was accepted in 1936 as a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. How many German - Baltic Anderson was relocated in October 1939 from Estonia to Germany, where until the beginning of 1945 he worked at the Albertus University of Königsberg in 1940. As of December 1945 Walter Anderson taught as a visiting professor at the Christian- Albrechts- University of Kiel, where he died in 1962 following a traffic accident.

At Anderson's most important works is the on his thesis of 1916 based monograph Emperor and Abt ( Folklore Fellows ' Communications 42, Helsinki 1923).

Works (selection)

• Kaiser and Dept. The story of a farce. Folklore Fellows ' Communications 42, Helsinki, 1923.
• The Martian Panic in Estonia in 1921. Journal of the Association of Folklore 35/36, H. 4 Berlin, 1925-1926, pp. 229-252.
• About P. Jensen's method of comparative word research. Acta Universitatis et Commentationes Tartuensis ( Dorpatensis ). B, Humaniora. XXI, Dorpat, 1930-1931.
• The farce of the old Hildebrand. A comparative study (I II). Acta Universitatis et Commentationes Tartuensis ( Dorpatensis ). B, Humaniora. (XXI XXIII), Dorpat, 1931.
• An ethnographic experiment. Folklore Fellows ' Communications 141, Helsinki, 1951.