Walter Anderson (folklorist)

Walter Arthur Alexander Anderson (Russian: Вальтер Николаевич Андерсон, romanized: Val'ter Nikolaevič Anderson; October 10 [O.S. September 28] 1885 – 23 August 1962) was a Baltic German ethnologist (folklorist) and numismatist.

For other people with the same name, see Walter Anderson (disambiguation).
Walter Anderson
Walter Anderson around 1930
BornOctober 10 [O.S. September 28] 1885
Minsk, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedAugust 23, 1962(1962-08-23) (aged 76)
Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany
NationalityRussian, Estonian, German
Alma mater
Known forthe law of self-correction
AwardsOrder of the White Star, 3rd class [1]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisИмператор и аббат: исторія одного народнаго анекдота
Notable students

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 well known 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.[2] 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.[3] For the 1911/1912 winter semester he enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin,[4] 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 [5] 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.[6] Anderson's most significant students at the time were Oskar Loorits and August Annist and later Isidor Levin.

From 1920, he was a member of the Learned Estonian Society (Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft), Estonia's oldest scholarly organization,[7] and from 1928 to 1929 he was the president of the society.[8] 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 Hellenic Folklore Society.[9] In 1936 Anderson became a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.[10] 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.[9]

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.[11] 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) on folktales of type AT 922. Anderson also had a keen interest in numismatics,[2] and he published several articles in this field. Some of his contributions to the study of Islamic coins are considered to have been groundbreaking.[12] For some time between 1920 and 1939 he also served as conservator for the coin collection of the Learned Estonian Society.[13]

Honours and awards

Anderson was awarded the Estonian Order of the White Star (3rd class) in 1938.[1]

  • Ulrika Wolf-Knuts (2000). "On the history of comparison in folklore studies". short version of a contribution to the book "Thick corpus, organic variation and textuality in oral tradition". Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  • "Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore". University of Tartu. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  • "Folklore Fellows (FF) network". Folklore Fellows. University of Turku. Retrieved 4 April 2019.

References
  1. "Valter-Artur-Aleksander Anderson". Bearers of decorations. Eesti Vabariigi teenetemärkidega (Estonian State Decorations). Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  2. Piret Kuusk, Indrek Martinson, Heino Eelsalu; translated by Groote, S. (1997), "Wilhelm Robert Karl Anderson", Reprints at the Tartu Observatory Virtual Museum, Tartu Observatooriumi Virtuaalne Muuseum, retrieved November 29, 2012CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Antti Aarne (1914), Übersicht der Märchenliteratur, FF Communications (in German), 14, Hamina: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, p. 60
  4. AG Elektronisches Publizieren (1911), Amtliches Verzeichnis des Personals und der Studierenden der Königlichen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, WH 1911/12, Berlin: Buchdruckerei Gustav Schade (Otto Francke), p. 73, doi:10.18452/804
  5. Рафикова (Rafikova), Г. (G.); Ибрагимова (Ibrahimova), Ф. (F.) (2016). "Биографика Казанского университета: Андерсоны (Kazan University Biography: Anderson)". «Гасырлар авазы – Эхо веков» (in Russian). 2016 1/2.
  6. Harris, Ernest Howard (1947), Literature in Estonia (2nd ed.), London: Boreas, p. 21
  7. "766. Monatssitzung vom 3. November 1920", Sitzungsberichte der gelehrten estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat 1912-1920, Tartu: Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft, 1921, p. 131, hdl:10062/20976
  8. "Anderson, Walter Arthur Alexander", BBLD – Baltisches biografisches Lexikon digital, Göttingen: Baltische Historische Kommission, 2012
  9. Kurt Ranke (1962), "Walter Anderson (1885-1962)", Fabula, 5
  10. "Walter Anderson". Member list of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  11. Stith Thompson (1996), A Folklorist's Progress: Reflections of a Scholar's Life (Special Publications of the Folklore Institute, Indiana University ed.), Bloomington: Indiana University Press
  12. Ivar Leimus (2007), Sylloge of Islamic coins 710/1-1013/4 AD: Estonian public collections, Tallinn: Estonian History MuseumCS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. Otto A. Webermann (1963), "Walter Anderson (1885-1962)", Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, 12
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