Schmidt, Wilhelm, * 1868

Schmidt, Wilhelm, b. Hörde (Germany), Feb. 16, 1868, d. Fribourg (Switzerland), Feb. 10, 1954. Ethnologist, linguist, religious scholar, priest. Professor at the Missionshaus St. Gabriel near Mödling (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 Mödling. 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; Völker und Kulturen, 1924; Handbuch der vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte, 1930; Handbuch der Methode der kulturhist. Ethnologie, 1937; Rassen und Völker, 3 vols., 1946-1949.

Literature: F. Demarchi (ed.), W. S. Un etnologo sempre attuale, 1989; H. Köb, Die Wr. Schule der Völkerkunde als Antithese zum Evolutionismus, master´s thesis, Vienna 1996.