Wilhelm Koppers

Wilhelm Koppers ( born February 8, 1886 in Menzelen; † January 23, 1961 in Vienna ) was a German Catholic priest and ethnologist. He belonged to the Vienna School of Kulturkreislehre and belonged to the Divine Word Missionaries (Societas Divini Verbi ) to.

Life

From 1913 Koppers was a close associate of Father Wilhelm Schmidt. 1921/22, he accompanied Martin Gusinde on an expedition to the Tierra del Fuego Indians. 1928 Koppers was appointed Professor of Ethnology and head of the newly founded Institute of Ethnology at the University of Vienna. In 1938, he lost his job, presumably due to his vehement criticism of the preferred by the Nazis idea of a Nordic origin of the ' Indo-European race'. Between 1940 and 1944 Koppers lived in Switzerland

His research focus were the Bhil tribes in central India.

He saw Near Eastern elements in the Indo-European religion, as the god of thunder. Other elements, such as the Kuhopfer ( Ymir ) come in his opinion an agronomic southern ( caucasian ancient Oriental ) culture. Koppers followed Otto Schrader in the adoption of a North Pontic original homeland of the Indo-Europeans.

Publications

• In Tierra del Fuego Indians: A research trip to the southern inhabitants of the earth with M. Gusinde. Strecker and Schröder, Stuttgart 1924.
• The Indogermanenfrage in the light of historical ethnology. St. Gabriel / Mödling near Vienna 1935.
• (Ed.) The Indo-European and German Question: New ways of solving them. Publisher Anton Pustet, Salzburg 1936.
• Secrets of the Jungle: A research trip to the primitive tribes of Central India 1938-39. J. Stocker, Lucerne, 1947 ( Table of Contents ).
• The Bhils in Central India. F. Berger, Horn / Vienna 1948 ( theories as to the origin of the Bhil were denied ).
• Primitive man and his world view. Herold, Vienna 1949.