Nikolaus Poppe

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Nikolaus Poppe (also: Nicholas Poppe ; Russian: Николай Николаевич Поппе , Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Poppe ; born July 27, 1897 in Yantai , China; † August 8, 1991 in Seattle , Washington ) was a versatile linguist who focused on Mongolian and the hypothetical Altaic Language family was specialized. Poppe worked in the Soviet Union until 1943 , then in Germany and the USA .

biography

Poppe's father was a consular officer in the Russian diplomatic service and was stationed in China at the time of his birth.

In 1923 Poppe began to teach at Leningrad University . In 1931 he became head of the Department of Mongolian Studies at the Institute for Asian Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences . In 1933, at the age of 36, he was elected the academy's youngest candidate.

In 1943 Poppe defected to the Nazis in the Caucasus , helped the Germans to install a Quisling regime in the Karachay region , which immediately confiscated all Jewish assets and soon afterwards murdered the Jewish population. Poppe moved to Berlin and worked there at the Wannsee Institute, which was close to the SS .

After the defeat of Germany, he was wanted by the Soviet authorities for war crimes , worked first for the British and later for the US secret service, arrived in the USA in 1949. There he lived under a false name, prepared studies for the Foreign Office and then taught at the University of Washington until his retirement in 1968 . In the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn . Since 1978 he has been a corresponding member of the British Academy .

literature

  • Nicholas Poppe: Reminiscences. Ed. Henry Schwartz. Western Washington University Center for East Asian Studies, Bellingham, WA, 1983.
  • Walther Heissig and Klaus Sagaster: Thought and Effect. Festschrift for the 90th birthday of Nikolaus Poppe. Asian research . Volume 108, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1989, ISSN  0571-320X .
  • Arista Maria Cirtautas: Nicholas Poppe. A bibliography of publications from 1924-1977. In: Parerga . Volume 4, Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies, University of Washington, Seattle 1977.
  • Christopher Simpson: The American Boomerang. Nazi war criminals paid by the USA . Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Poppe, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Poppe, Nicholas; Poppe, Nikolai Nikolajewitsch; Поппе, Николай Николаевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian linguist
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Yantai , China
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1991
Place of death Seattle , Washington , United States