Walter Anderson (folklorist)

Walter Anderson (Minsk, (Belarus), October 10 1885 – August 23 1962 in Kiel (Germany)) was a German ethnologist (folklorist).

Life

Anderson was born from a German family in Minsk, but soon moved to Kazan (Russia), on the edge of Siberia. His father, Nikolai Anderson, was professor in Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Kazan. Anderson's younger brother was the well known mathematician Oskar Anderson, and his older brother was the astrophysicist Wilhelm Anderson.

Career

Walter Anderson worked at University of Tartu in Estonia between 1919 and 1939. In 1920 he was made the first holder of a chair of folklore at the University. Anderson's most significant students at the time were Oskar Loorits and August Annist.

From 1940 to 1945 he worked at the University of Königsberg.

Work

Walter Anderson was one of the driving forces behind the comparative geographic-historical Method of folkloristics. He is best known for his monograph Kaiser und Abt (Folklore Fellows' Communications 42, Helsinki 1923).

External links

• On the history of comparison in folklore studies
• Folkloristics - Tartu University
• Folklore Fellows

References