Kurt Ranke (Germanist)

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Kurt Ranke (1980)

Kurt Ranke (born April 14, 1908 in Blankenburg (Harz) ; † June 6, 1985 in Stadensen near Uelzen ) was a German folklorist , Germanist , antiquity and storyteller .

Life

Kurt Ranke studied German, folklore, history, church history and philosophy in Bonn and Munich from 1927-30, and from the 1930/31 winter semester in Kiel. There he received his doctorate in 1933 under the Germanist Carl Wesle with a study on the complex of brother tales that was based on the comparative method. The monographic work The Two Brothers (published in Helsinki 1934) examined the central theme of the fight against a monster, was based on around 1150 versions and caused an international sensation.

The scientist who joined the NSDAP in 1932 (SA: 1933) became Wesle's assistant in Kiel (1934–40) after working for a year on the German dictionary in Berlin. In 1938 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on Indo-European worship of the dead (published in Helsinki 1951); In 1940 he was appointed private lecturer for folklore and antiquity, but was only able to continue his scientific career in Kiel in 1948 because he was called up for military service.

After the end of the Second World War , he was initially prohibited from participating in German education by order of the British military government. Ranke found work as a laborer in a flour mill. After completing the denazification process (Category V: Relieved), he was able to return to the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel in 1948 as a lecturer. Scientific Council 1956, 1951 appointment as adjunct professor, 1958 as associate professor . In 1960 Ranke was appointed to the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen as successor to Will-Erich Peuckert and taught there until his retirement in 1973. In 1977 he was accepted as a full member of the philological-historical class of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen .

Act

As early as 1957, Ranke founded the Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales in Kiel and initiated the Fabula, Zeitschrift für Erzählforschung (publisher, volumes 1–23 [1958–82]) and the publication of the Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales, a concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research (edition phase from 1973). Ranke is one of the founders of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research and was the first president of the society (1962–74; honorary president since 1974). Other editorial activities were the participation in the Folklore Fellows Communications (Volume 187-239 [Helsinki 1963-87]) and in the new edition of the Reallexikons der Germanischen Altertumskunde (1968-85).

In his early research, R. mainly carried out linguistic and cultural studies on custom and popular belief, which he continued into the 1950s and beyond. The narrative research became the central research area under comparative aspects and based on the geographical-historical method Rankes. A representative cross-section of German-language texts, mostly unpublished and collected between 1860 and 1960, appeared in the series Folktales of the World (1966) edited by Richard M. Dorson, and an important annotated collection of European rascals and funny stories followed in 1972.

Ranke regarded the questions of age, the conveyance and dissemination of narrative types and motifs as central research tasks. Many of his smaller and larger studies deal with the problem of continuity and the dependency of oral and written narratives. Several studies have looked at the function of fairy tales and other narrative forms, as well as related genre problems. However, in comparison with the creative power of the narrator, he assigned a subordinate role to the question of differentiating the genres. He commented on general problems and phenomena of the 'simple forms' ( André Jolles ) of folk tales. He understood them as oral and written monuments less morphologically than as archetypes of the simplest statements of human thought and feeling (homo narrans), which enabled insights into different cultures. Ranke is particularly interested in Sage and Schwank from individual genres.

Within the scientific organization, Ranke's merits lie in the revival and further development of international narrative research after 1945. He was actively involved in the reorientation of the subject of folklore (foundation of the regional folklore office in Göttingen and the branch in Rotenburg / Wümme) and advocated greater independence and Expansion of folklore research and teaching.

Works

  • The two brothers. A study on comparative fairy tale research. Helsinki 1934 (Folklore Fellows Communications, 114).
  • Indo-European worship of the dead . 1: The thirtieth and fortieth day in the death cult of the Indo-Europeans . Helsinki 1951 (Folklore Fellows Communications, 140).
  • Rose Garden. Law and cult of the dead . Hamburg 1951.
  • Schleswig-Holstein folk tales . Volume 1-3. Kiel 1955/1958/1962.
  • (Ed.) International congress of folk tale researchers in Kiel and Copenhagen. (August 19-29, 1959). Lectures and presentations . Berlin 1961.
  • (Ed.) Folktales of Germany . Translated by Lotte Baumann. Chicago 1966 (Folktales of the World).
  • (Ed.) European Anecdotes and Jests . Translator Timothy Buck. Copenhagen 1972 (European Folklore Series. 4: European Anecdotes and Jests).
  • The world of simple forms. Studies on subject, word and source studies . Berlin / New York 1978 (collection of articles) ISBN 3-11-007420-6 .

literature

  • Fritz Harkort , Karel C. Peeters, Robert Wildhaber (eds. :): Folk tradition. Festschrift for Kurt Ranke on the completion of the 60th year of life. Goettingen 1968.
  • Rolf Wilhelm Brednich: Kurt Ranke on his 75th birthday. Scientific record of the last few years. In: Fabula 24, 1983, pp. 1-3; ders., List of publications , ibid., pp. 4–7.
  • Elfriede Moser-Rath: Kurt Ranke and his Göttingen team. In: Fabula 24, 1983, pp. 8-10.
  • Stefaan Top: In memoriam Prof. Dr. Kurt Ranke (1908–1985). In: Volkskunde 86, 1985, 254 f.
  • Lauri Honko: Kurt Ranke 1908–1985. In: NIF Newsletter 13.4, 1985, p. 15 f.
  • Fritz Paul: Kurt Ranke, 1908–1985 . In: Göttingen scholars. The Academy of Sciences in Göttingen in portraits and awards 1751–2001. Edited by Karl Arndt, Gerhard Gottschalk and Rudolf Smend. Vol. 2. Göttingen 2001, p. 696 f.
  • Hannelore Jeske: Collectors and collections of folk tales in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 2002, pp. 166–170 ISBN 3-529-02491-0 .
  • Hans-Jörg Uther:  Ranke, Kurt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 145 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hans-Jörg Uther: The encyclopedia of fairy tales. A project of the century before completion. In: Working Group Image, Print, Paper. Conference proceedings Graz 2015. Münster u. a. 2016, pp. 142–148.

Web links

Commons : Kurt Ranke  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Harkort: Kurt Ranke . In: Fritz Harkort / Karel C. Peters / Robert Wildhaber (eds.): People's tradition. Festschrift Kurt Ranke . Göttingen 1968, p. XIII f .
  2. ↑ Johannes Bolte: [Review] . In: Journal of Folklore . No. 43 , 1934, pp. 232-233 .
  3. ^ Harm-Peer Zimmermann : From the sleep of reason. German Folklore at Kiel University 1933-1945 . In: Hans-Werner Prahl (Ed.): Uni-Formierung des Geistes. University of Kiel under National Socialism . tape 1 . Kiel 1995, p. 171-274, here 224-231 .
  4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 196.
  5. ↑ Oliver Haid: Ranke, Kurt . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . tape 24 . Berlin / New York 2003, pp. 129-132 .
  6. ^ WFH Nicolaisen: Kurt Ranke and Simple Forms . In: Folklore . tape 100 , 1989, pp. 113-119 .
  7. ^ WFH Nicolaisen: Ranke, Kurt (1908–1985) . In: Mary E. Brown / BA Rosenberg (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature . Santa Barbara et al. a. 1998, p. 538 f .
  8. ↑ Hans-Jörg Uther: Ranke, Kurt . In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales . tape 11 . Berlin / New York 2004, pp. 207-213 .
personal data
SURNAME Ranke, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German folklorist, Germanist, antiquarian and storyteller
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Blankenburg , Harz
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1985
Place of death Stadensen , Uelzen