Paul Rau

Paul Rau ( Russian Пауль Давидович Рау * 10. February 1897 in Alt-Weimar, Rajon Pallasovka ; † 14. August 1930 in Pokrovsk ) was a Volga German archeologist and folklorist .

After his studies (Dr. phil) he became head of the archeology department in 1925, later director of the Central Museum of the Volga German Republic in Pokrovsk. Because of his research into the burial mounds ( Kurgane ) in the steppe area, he was known as the "Kurgankommissar".

In 1930 Rau committed suicide to avoid the threat of arrest in the course of a campaign against Volga German intellectuals.

Publications (selection)

• Kurgane and antiquity in the minds of the Volga German farmers . In: Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 23, 1924, pp. 39–45.
• The barrows of Roman times on the lower Volga (results of grave research in the Volga German Republic) . German state publisher "Remgosisdat" AGRR of the Volga Germans, Pokrovsk 1927 ( digitized version ).
• Stool graves of the Wolgasteppe. Excavation material from the Central Museum of the Volga German Republic . People's Commissariat for Education of the Volga German Republic, Central Museum, Pokrovsk 1928.
• The graves of the earlier Iron Age in the lower Volga region. Studies on the chronology of the Scythian arrowheads . People's Commissariat for Education of the Volga German Republic, Central Museum, Pokrovsk 1929.
• with Georg Dinges : Volga German folk songs with pictures and ways (= landscape folk songs with their ways, vol. 25). de Gruyter, Berlin 1932.

Web links

Wikisource: Paul Rau  - Sources and full texts

• Paul Rau on the History of the Volga Germans page (Russian)