Walter Anderson (folklorist)
{{Short description|Baltic German folklorist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Walter Anderson
| image = Walter Anderson.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Walter Anderson around 1930
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{osd|10 October|1885|28 September}}
| birth_place = Minsk, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1962|08|23|1885|10|10|df=y}}
| death_place = Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany
| nationality = Russian, Estonian, German
| fields =
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| workplaces =
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| alma_mater =
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| thesis_title = Император и аббат: исторія одного народнаго анекдота
| thesis_url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4zszAQAAMAAJ
| awards = Order of the White Star, 3rd class
| notable_students =
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| known_for = the law of self-correction
}}
Walter Arthur Alexander Anderson ({{langx|ru|Вальтер Николаевич Андерсон|translit=Val'ter Nikolaevič Anderson}}; {{osd|October 10|1885|September 28}} – 23 August 1962) was a Baltic German ethnologist (folklorist) and numismatist.
Life
Anderson was born from a Baltic German family in Minsk (now in Belarus), but in 1894 moved to Kazan (Russia), where his father, Nikolai Anderson (1845–1905), had been appointed as professor for Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Kazan. Anderson's younger brother was the mathematician and economist Oskar Anderson (1887–1960), and his older brother was the astrophysicist Wilhelm Anderson (1880–1940). The turmoil created by the Russian Revolution prompted Anderson and his brother Wilhelm to leave Russia and to move to Tartu in Estonia.{{Citation
| url = http://muuseum.to.ee/Reprints/HTML/wilhelm_robert_karl_anderson.htm
| title = Wilhelm Robert Karl Anderson
| website=Tartu Observatooriumi Virtuaalne Muuseum
|type=Reprints
| access-date = November 29, 2012
| year = 1997
| author=Piret Kuusk |author-link=:et:Piret Kuusk |author2=Indrek Martinson |author3=Heino Eelsalu |translator=Groote, S.}} While living in Estonia in 1939, Anderson, like the majority of Baltic Germans living there, was resettled to Germany. In 1962 he died after having been involved in a traffic accident.
Career
In 1904, Anderson enrolled at the University of Kazan, and from 1909 continued his studies in Saint Petersburg, where he received a Magister degree from the University of Saint Petersburg in 1911. During his time in Saint Petersburg he also catalogued the folk tales held in the archives of the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.{{citation|author=Antti Aarne|author-link=Antti Aarne|title=Übersicht der Märchenliteratur|series=FF Communications|volume=14|publisher=Finnish Academy of Science and Letters|place=Hamina|date=1914|page=60|language=de|url=https://de.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Seite:FFC14.djvu/64}} For the 1911/1912 winter semester he enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin,{{citation |title= Amtliches Verzeichnis des Personals und der Studierenden der Königlichen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin| volume= WH 1911/12|publisher=Buchdruckerei Gustav Schade (Otto Francke) |place=Berlin |date=1911 |url= https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/1456|page=73|doi=10.18452/804| author1= AG Elektronisches Publizieren}} returning to the Kazan to continue his studies in the autumn of 1912. In 1916 he submitted his thesis on the ballad of the Emperor and the Abbot (AT 922) for which he received a Doctorate {{Cite journal|last1 = Рафикова (Rafikova)|first1 = Г. (G.)|last2 = Ибрагимова (Ibrahimova)|first2 = Ф. (F.)| title = Биографика Казанского университета: Андерсоны (Kazan University Biography: Anderson)|language= ru| url=http://echovek.ru/ru/article/g-rafikova-f-ibragimova-biografika-kazanskogo-universitetaandersony |url-access=subscription | journal = «Гасырлар авазы – Эхо веков» | volume = 2016 1/2 | year=2016 }} from the University of Kazan in 1918. He worked at the University of Tartu in Estonia between 1920 and 1939, where in 1920 he was made the first holder of a chair of folklore.{{Citation
| last1 = Harris
| first1 = Ernest Howard
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rAgWAAAAMAAJ
| title = Literature in Estonia
| publisher = Boreas
| place = London
| edition = 2nd
| year = 1947
| pages = 21
}} Anderson's most significant students at the time were Oskar Loorits and {{Interlanguage link multi|August Annist|2=et|3=August Annist|4=de|5=August Annist|preserve=1}} and later Isidor Levin.
From 1920, he was a member of the Learned Estonian Society (Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft), Estonia's oldest scholarly organization,{{Citation
| contribution = 766. Monatssitzung vom 3. November 1920
| title = Sitzungsberichte der gelehrten estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat 1912-1920
| publisher = Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft
| location = Tartu
| year = 1921
| pages = 131
| hdl = 10062/20976
}} and from 1928 to 1929 he was the president of the society.{{Citation
| contribution = Anderson, Walter Arthur Alexander
| contribution-url = https://bbld.de/000000011031540X
| title = BBLD – Baltisches biografisches Lexikon digital
| url = https://bbld.de/
| publisher = Baltische Historische Kommission
| location = Göttingen
| year = 2012
}} In 1930 he, like his father Nikolai Anderson before him, was made an honorary member of the society. He also held honorary membership of the American Folklore Society and the {{ill|Hellenic Folklore Society|el|Ελληνική Λαογραφική Εταιρεία|}}.{{Citation
| author = Kurt Ranke
| author-link = Kurt Ranke
| title = Walter Anderson (1885-1962)
| journal = Fabula
| volume = 5
| year = 1962
}} In 1936 Anderson became a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.{{cite web | url = http://www.bbaw.de/die-akademie/akademiegeschichte/mitglieder-historisch/alphabetische-sortierung?altmitglied_id=52 | title = Walter Anderson| work = Member list of the Prussian Academy of Sciences |publisher = Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities | access-date = 29 November 2012 }} In addition to this he was a corresponding member of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy, the Finnish Literature Society, the Finno-Ugrian Society and the Warsaw Scientific Society.
From 1940 to 1945, he worked at the University of Königsberg. After the end of the second world war he received a visiting professorship at the University of Kiel, which he held until his retirement. A notable student he mentored at Kiel was W. F. H. Nicolaisen who had a distinguished career in folklore studies in the United States and Scotland. In 1950 Anderson was invited to the US to take part in a meeting of the International Folk Music Council held in Bloomington, Indiana, after which he stayed at Indiana University Bloomington for a few months as a visiting scholar.{{Citation
| author = Stith Thompson
| author-link = Stith Thompson
| title = A Folklorist's Progress: Reflections of a Scholar's Life
| publisher = Indiana University Press
| place = Bloomington
| edition = Special Publications of the Folklore Institute, Indiana University
| year = 1996
}} He retired in 1953 but remained affiliated with the University of Kiel as emeritus professor until his death.
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){{cite book
|last1 = Anderson
|first1 = Walter
|author-link1 = Walter Anderson (folklorist)
|editor-last1 = Anderson
|editor-first1 = Walter
|editor-last2 = Bolte
|editor-first2 = Johannes
|editor-link2 = Johannes Bolte
|editor-last3 = Krohn
|editor-first3 = Kaarle
|editor-link3 = Kaarle Krohn
|editor-last4 = Liestøl
|editor-first4 = Knut
|editor-link4 = Knut Liestøl
|editor-last5 = von Sydow
|editor-first5 = C. W.
|editor-link5 = Carl Wilhelm von Sydow
|name-list-style = amp
|year = 1923
|title = Kaiser und Abt: die Geschichte eines Schwanks
|series = Folklore Fellows’ Communications
|language = de
|volume = 42
|publication-place = Helsinki
|publisher = Finnish Academy of Science and Letters
|hdl = 10062/89331
|isbn = 978-9916-21-798-6
}} on folktales of type AT 922. Anderson also had a keen interest in numismatics, and he published several articles in this field. Some of his contributions to the study of Islamic coins are considered to have been groundbreaking.{{Citation
| author =Ivar Leimus
| title = Sylloge of Islamic coins 710/1-1013/4 AD: Estonian public collections
| publisher = Estonian History Museum
| place = Tallinn
| year = 2007
}} For some time between 1920 and 1939 he also served as conservator for the coin collection of the Learned Estonian Society.{{Citation
| author = Otto A. Webermann
| title = Walter Anderson (1885-1962)
| journal = Zeitschrift für Ostforschung
| volume = 12
| year = 1963
}}
Honours and awards
Anderson was awarded the Estonian Order of the White Star (3rd class) in 1938.{{cite web | url = https://www.president.ee/en/estonia/decorations/bearer/13399/valter-artur-aleksander-anderson | title = Valter-Artur-Aleksander Anderson | work = Bearers of decorations |publisher = Eesti Vabariigi teenetemärkidega (Estonian State Decorations) | access-date = 20 June 2017 }}
Remembrance
To commemorate the 110th anniversary of Walter Anderon's birth, Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu organized the symposium "Walter Anderson and Folklore Studies Today".{{cite book | url = https://hdl.handle.net/10062/55312 | title = Papers delivered at the symposium "Walter Anderson and folklore studies today" | author = Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore (University of Tartu) | date = 1996 | publisher = Tartu Ülikool | hdl = 10062/55312 | isbn = 9789949805945 | access-date = 22 October 2023 }}
In 2019, the centenary year of the Department, the University of Tartu established the annual Walter Anderson Memorial Lecture to honour Walter Anderson's memory.{{cite web | url = https://kultuuriteadused.ut.ee/en/content/anderson-lecture | title = The Anderson lecture | author = Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore (University of Tartu) | date = 24 August 2022 | access-date = 22 October 2023 }}
External links
- {{cite web | url = http://www.hanko.uio.no/planses/Ulrika.html | title = On the history of comparison in folklore studies | author = Ulrika Wolf-Knuts | year = 2000 | work = short version of a contribution to the book "Thick corpus, organic variation and textuality in oral tradition" | access-date = 4 April 2019 }}
- {{cite web | url = https://kultuuriteadused.ut.ee/en/foklore-department | title = Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore |website = University of Tartu | date = 6 June 2022 | access-date = 17 October 2023 }}
References
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Category:Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire
Category:Academic staff of Kazan Federal University
Category:Academic staff of the University of Kiel
Category:Academic staff of the University of Königsberg
Category:Academic staff of the University of Tartu
Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class
Category:Numismatists from the Russian Empire
Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Category:Kazan Federal University alumni
Category:German male non-fiction writers