Georg Thilenius

This article describes the ethnologist. For the balneologist of the same name, see Georg Thilenius (balneologist)

Georg Thilenius 1905

Georg Christian Thilenius (born October 4, 1868 in Soden am Taunus , † December 28, 1937 in Hamburg ) was a physician and ethnologist . From 1904 he was director of the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg .

Life

Thilenius studied medicine from 1888 at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and in Berlin . He completed his habilitation in anatomy at the University of Strasbourg in 1896 . In 1897 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In the following years Thilenius undertook extensive research trips to Tunisia and several years in the South Pacific . In 1900 Thilenius was appointed extraordinary professor of anthropology and ethnology at the University of Breslau .

Work in Hamburg

In 1904 he was appointed the first director of the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg , a position he held until 1935. Thilenius expanded the museum quickly: the new building on Rothenbaumchaussee was completed in 1912 and an extension was added in 1929.

In order to enlarge the museum's collections, Thilenius had been planning a large expedition since 1904 . In 1907 the newly established Hamburg Scientific Foundation made this project possible by providing 600,000 marks. From July 1908 to April 1910 the Hamburg South Sea Expedition 1908–1910 could take place with interruptions , which was mainly dedicated to the exploration of Melanesia and Micronesia , areas that were German colonies at the time. Thilenius himself was not suitable for the tropics , he coordinated the expedition from Hamburg. Well-known participants in the expedition were: Friedrich Fülleborn , Otto Reche , Franz Emil Hellwig , Paul Hambruch , Augustin Krämer , Ernst Sarfert and Wilhelm Müller . The expedition was a success, the museum was filled and around 15,000 objects were brought back. By 1938, 23 volumes of the scientific results had been published.

Thilenius played a key role in the founding of the Hamburg Colonial Institute, negotiating in 1907 on behalf of Senator Werner von Melle with State Secretary of the Reich Colonial Office Bernhard Dernburg in Berlin about the establishment. The Colonial Institute was founded in 1908 and Thilenius has been a member of the faculty of this institution ever since. The University of Hamburg was to emerge from the institute , which Thilenius was head of as rector in the academic year 1920/21. In 1923 he received the chair for ethnology. Along with Felix von Luschan, Thilenius was one of the most influential ethnologists of the early 20th century in German-speaking countries.

politics

After the First World War, Thilenius became a member of the German People's Party and was a member of the Hamburg parliament from 1921 to 1924 . After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , on November 11, 1933, he signed the professors' declaration of Adolf Hitler at German universities and colleges .

Fonts (selection)

• as editor: Results of the South Seas Expedition 1908–1910: Friederichsen, Hamburg 1914 ff.
• The Hamburg Museum of Ethnology (= museum studies. Supplement to vol. 14, ISSN  0027-4178 ). Georg Reimer, Berlin 1916, ( digitized version ).
• The importance of the ocean currents for the settlement of Melanesia. In: Yearbook of the Hamburg Scientific Institutions. Vol. 23, Beih. 5, 1905, ISSN  0072-9469 = messages from the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg. 1.
• Ethnographic results from Melanesia , 2 parts (= Nova Acta. Treatises of the Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists, Vol. 80, No. 1 + 2), Halle / Saale 1903

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Fischer : The Hamburg South Sea Expedition. About ethnography and colonialism. Syndikat, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-8108-0187-9 , p. 49 f.
2. ↑ see on 15,000 here ( Memento from May 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
3. ^ Johanna Elisabeth Becker: The establishment of the German Colonial Institute in Hamburg. On the history of the Hamburg University. Hamburg 2005, p. 45, (Hamburg, University, Master's thesis, 2005), online (PDF; 301.74 kB).
4. ^ University of Hamburg. Rectorates .
5. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 (= Fischer 16048 The time of National Socialism ). Updated edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 623.

literature

• Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon . Volume 3: P - Z. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920, p. 479 .

Web links

• Newspaper article about Georg Thilenius in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .