Julius Lips

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Gravestone of Julius Lips and his wife Eva in the Leipzig Südfriedhof, June 2007

Julius Ernst Lips (born September 8, 1895 in Saarbrücken , † January 21, 1950 in Leipzig ) was a German ethnologist and sociologist . He was disenfranchised by the Nazi regime, emigrated to France and from there to the USA.

Career

From 1914 to 1916 Julius E. Lips was a soldier in the First World War . Lips then studied law, human sciences, economics and psychology at the University of Leipzig and completed his studies with the degree of Dr. phil. (1919) and Dr. jur. utr. (1925). In 1925 he married Eva Lips , née Wiegandt (1906–1988). From 1925 he made trips within Europe and to America. He then worked at the Museum of Ethnology in Cologne . From 1926 to 1933 he was a member of the faculty of the University of Cologne . In 1926 he completed his habilitation with Fritz Graebner on trap systems of primitive peoples and became a private lecturer in ethnology and sociology . From 1929 to 1933 Lips was professor of ethnology and sociology at the University of Cologne and from 1928 successor Graebner as director of the Cologne Museum of Ethnology (today Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum ).

Opponent of the National Socialists

Julius Lips refused to put ethnology at the service of National Socialist racial doctrine. On March 28, 1933, he applied for a leave of absence for political reasons and resigned from his position. On October 13, 1933, the Lord Mayor of Cologne dismissed Lips as museum director in accordance with Section 4 of the Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service with loss of earnings and pension entitlements. On December 27, 1933, the Prussian Interior Minister revoked his teaching permit; then his German citizenship was revoked and his property was confiscated.

In 1933 Lips was visiting professor at the Sorbonne and at the Musée de l'Homme (Paris). In 1938 the University of Leipzig revoked his doctorate .

emigration

In 1934 Lips emigrated from Paris to the USA , where he initially received an apprenticeship at Columbia University for a limited period until 1937 through the agency of Franz Boas . From 1937 to 1939 he was director of the Institute for Anthropology at Howard University in Washington, DC He founded the Chair of Ethnology at this most important “black” university in the USA. Until 1938 he made annual trips to Europe, especially to Paris. From 1940 he was a member of the faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York.

resistance

Lips took part in united front attempts similar to the Lutetia circle in France. In 1937 he worked in the League of Freedom Socialists . In 1944 he was a member of the Council for a Democratic Germany . In 1947 he and his wife Eva Lips did research with the Naskapi in Labrador and with the Ojibwa .

return

In 1948 he returned to Germany via Copenhagen . Despite the offer to resume teaching in Cologne, he decided in 1949 to be offered a call to Leipzig because he refused to work with scientists in Cologne who were burdened by National Socialism. He became professor of ethnology and comparative legal sociology at the University of Leipzig , in 1949 its rector. He specialized in original law and economic human sciences, with a research focus on various Indian tribes. Since 1949 he was a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences . After his death in 1950, his wife took over the publication of his works. After his death, the Leipzig Institute was named "Julius Lips Institute for Ethnology and Comparative Legal Sociology".

Works (selection)

  • The Savage Hits Back, or the White Man Through Native Eyes . Dickson, London 1937 ( digitized ).
    • German version, with Eva Lips: The white in the mirror of the colored. Seemann, Leipzig 1983; Hanser, Munich 1984.
  • Tents in the Wilderness. Lippincott, Philadelphia / New York 1942.
    • German: tents in the wilderness. Indian life in Labrador. Danubia-Verlag, Vienna 1946; frequent new editions until 1985, also with an afterword by Eva Lips and illustrations.
  • The Origin of Things. Wyn, New York 1947.
    • German: From the origin of things. A cultural history of man. Volk und Buch publishing house, Leipzig 1951.
  • The harvest peoples, an important stage in the development of human history. Rector's speech on October 31, 1949 in the Leipzig Congress Hall. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1953.

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d Lips, Julius. Biography and bibliography, University of Leipzig (PDF, as of January 14, 2013).
personal data
SURNAME Lips, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lips, Julius Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ethnologist and legal sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1950
Place of death Leipzig