Norbert Weber
{{Short description|German Benedictine priest (1870–1956)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Norbert Weber
| image = Norbert_Weber_OSB,_Abt.jpg
| alt = Weber in 1903
| caption = Weber in 1903
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1870|12|20|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Langweid am Lech, Kingdom of Bavaria
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|04|03|1870|12|20|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| occupation = Benedictine Archabbot
| known_for = Founding monastic orders abroad and early Western documentation of Korea
| notable_works = Im Lande der Morgenstille (film, 1927)
}}
Norbert Weber, O.S.B. (20 December 1870{{Cite book |last= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBUTCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT354 |title=세상 사람의 조선여행 (규장각 교양총서06) |date=2012-02-13 |publisher=글항아리 |isbn=978-89-6735-274-5 |pages=354 |language=ko}} – 3 April 1956{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}) was a German Catholic priest. He was a monk of the Benedictine Order and an archabbot of St. Ottilien Archabbey. He is remembered in South Korea for his role in starting the first male monastic order in the peninsula, as well as for his extensive photos and videos of Korean culture and civilization.{{Cite web |title=노르베르트 베버 필름 컬렉션 |url=https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/collection/CI_00000008 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Korean Film Archive |language=ko}}{{Cite web |title=Newly discovered films shed light on Korean life under Japanese rule |url=https://kpopherald.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=201602251704515479703_2 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Kpop Herald}}
Biography
Weber was born on 20 December 1870 in Langweid am Lech, Kingdom of Bavaria.
= Korea =
In 1909, Weber dispatched two missionaries to Korea in order to establish a monastic community there. Weber himself visited the peninsula twice, once in 1911 and once in 1925, for a total of eight months.{{Cite web |last=차 |first=미애 |date=2021-01-30 |title=독일인 신부가 수집한 겸재화첩, 50억 거절하고 한국 오기까지 |url=https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2021012709340002369?t=20230915162021 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Hankook Ilbo |language=ko-KR}}
Weber extensively photographed and filmed Korea on his second trip to the peninsula. Prior to his films, video had been taken on the peninsula, but only in short fragments. Weber uniquely filmed enough footage for not only a feature-length film, but also five other short films, with {{Convert|5000|m|ft}} of 35 mm film with unused footage left over. Given the expense and rarity of filming equipment at the time, this was a significant investment on his part.
File:Im Lande der Morgenstille Page 125.png, the Korean alphabet, as well as a dojang: a seal used to prove identity, similarly to a Western signature.]]
Weber had an interest in anthropology, and was fond of the Korean culture and people. He hoped to document as much as he could, as he was concerned that the Empire of Japan, which had colonized Korea in 1910, was going to wipe out Korean culture. After he returned to Germany, he edited his footage together and recorded additional clips of him lecturing on various aspects of Korean society, technology, and language. He produced two films in 1925: the feature-length Im Lande der Morgenstille (lit. In the Land of the Morning Calm) and a shorter film on Korean weddings. He premiered the former in 1927, at the Bavarian National Museum. The film was shown in various places in Germany and Austria until the end of the 1930s.
In 1979, the South Korean broadcaster MBC acquired copies of his feature-length film on VHS and showed it for the first time on the peninsula. For decades afterwards, more of his films have been discovered, archived, and distributed for viewing. In 2020, the Korean Film Archive gained access to the original films, redigitized them into 4k resolution, and improved the picture quality.
Works
= Books =
- Im Lande der Morgenstille (1915){{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Norbert |url=http://archive.org/details/imlandedermorgen00webe |title=Im Lande der Morgenstille : Reiseerinnerungen an Korea |date=1915 |publisher=Freiburg in Breisgaw : Herder |others=Princeton Theological Seminary Library}}
- In den Diamantenbergen Koreas (1927)
= Films =
- Im Lande der Morgenstille (1927)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Internet Archive|id=silent-in-the-land-of-morning-calm|name=In the Land of Morning Calm}}: 1925 film (based on an older recording)
- {{YouTube|id=CPEAifC4zsQ|title=독일의 노르베르트 베버신부, 100년전 조선을 촬영하다 [오감실험] KBS 2010.02.21 방송}}: A 2010 KBS documentary with much of Weber's footage in it, in higher quality
- {{Internet archive|id=imlandedermorgen00webe|name=Im Lande der Morgenstille : Reiseerinnerungen an Korea}}: his 1915 book
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Norbert}}
Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Category:German Roman Catholic missionaries
Category:German expatriates in Korea
Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Korea
Category:German missionary educators