Wulf-Dieter Schmidt-Wulffen

Wulf-Dieter Schmidt-Wulffen , also Wulf-Dietrich , Wulf or Wulf Dieter Wulffen (born August 18, 1941 in Bad Kreuznach ) is a German social scientist , geographer , didactician , political scientist , multiple non-fiction author and editor as well as lecturer. He is "considered worldwide as the expert on one of the most famous and controversial children's books in the world", the book Ten Little Negroes .

Life

Cover picture "From Cameroon " from 1885, a German edition of the "Ten Little Niggers"

Born in the middle of World War II , Wulf Schmidt-Wulffen studied history, geography and political science. After receiving his doctorate in 1969 , he completed his habilitation in social geography in 1979 under the title Development of Europe - Underdevelopment of Africa at the University of Osnabrück . After his publications on the development problems in Mali and Senegal and the spatial organization of a society that was violently divided according to “ races ” and in apartheid , which appeared in multiple editions, Schmidt-Wulffen completed his habilitation again in 1981, this time on the didactics of geography.

One of Schmidt-Wulffen's main areas of work was subject didactics, in particular the processing of development theories and research results from the “ Third World ” for geography and its teaching. The focus was on the African regions of the Sahel zone , Mali and Ghana .

In addition to his university activities, Wulf-Dieter Schmidt-Wulffen also developed numerous activities within the framework of the adult education center , employee training and training for teachers . He also worked for the Federal Agency for Civic Education in Bonn on the topic of Africa.

Another focus of Schmidt-Wulffens was research on the situation of young people in Africa. From his around 100 research and private educational trips to the African continent, he brought not only "everyday objects, art or toys that young Ghanaians made from scrap metal" with him. In addition, over more than three decades he put together what is almost 200 different copies in different languages, "probably the world's largest collection of the famous song rhyme about the 'ten little negroes'", which is always published in illustrated form . Schmidt-Wulffen's study in Hannover-Kleefeld is filled with things, of which he would like to make the valuable books accessible to a wider public - possibly with the help of the Wilhelm Busch Museum - German Museum for Caricature and the Art of Drawing .

In 1997 Schmidt-Wulffen was awarded the “One World Prize” by the Evangelical Churches in Lower Saxony “for his work on the image of Africa and Germany by schoolchildren in Germany and Ghana, as well as for his creative and exemplary commitment to questions relating to the North -South Relations "honored.

Schmidt-Wulffen also took on visiting professorships at the Universities of Oldenburg , Vienna and Innsbruck .

Fonts (selection)

Germany - Hungary. 1918–1933 , dissertation 1969 at the University of Vienna
The "Ten Little Negroes". On the history of racial discrimination in children's books (= literary sociology , vol. 2), Lit-Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10892-0 ( table of contents and information from the publisher's report ).
- “Ten little niggers”: Racial discrimination in children's books. Lit-Verlag, Vienna / Zurich / Berlin / Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-90265-8 (English-language edition).

Reviews (selection)

Jos Schnurer on Wulf-Dieter Schmidt-Wulffen: Everyday life in (West) Africa. Experience Ghana. Teaching materials for intercultural and global learning (= materials for didactics of geography and economics , vol. 20), including CD-ROM , Vienna: Institute for Geography and Regional Research; online at socialnet.de

Web links

Bernd Mütter (responsible): Recommendation of the Schmidt-Wulffen book Everyday Life in (West) Africa - Experience Ghana to deepen the Arte first broadcast News from Ghana from November 2014 in the series of the TV program With Open Cards ; on-line

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b See the information from the German National Library
↑ ^a ^b Juliane Kaune: Children's book collection / Once Africa, always Africa / The Hanoverian university professor Wulf Schmidt-Wulffen is known worldwide as the expert for one of the most famous and controversial children's books in the world. He has collected 180 issues of “Ten Little Niggers” over the past few decades. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from February 23, 2014, updated on February 26, 2014; online edition
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Marita Simon: From the “Ten Little Niggers” to the “Ten Little Niggers” - Critical analysis of a global children's book , press release on Schmidt-Wulffen's lecture in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library - Lower Saxony State Library on February 22nd 2011; downloadable as a PDF document

personal data
SURNAME	Schmidt-Wulffen, Wulf-Dieter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schmidt-Wulffen, Wulf-Dietrich; Schmidt-Wulffen, Wulf D .; Wulffen, Wulf-D.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German social scientist and geographer, Africa and racism expert and collector
DATE OF BIRTH	August 18, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bad Kreuznach

[DNB-1] See the information from the German National Library

[HAZ_26.2.14-2] Juliane Kaune: Children's book collection / Once Africa, always Africa / The Hanoverian university professor Wulf Schmidt-Wulffen is known worldwide as the expert for one of the most famous and controversial children's books in the world. He has collected 180 issues of “Ten Little Niggers” over the past few decades. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from February 23, 2014, updated on February 26, 2014; online edition

[Ten_Little_Niggers-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Marita Simon: From the “Ten Little Niggers” to the “Ten Little Niggers” - Critical analysis of a global children's book , press release on Schmidt-Wulffen's lecture in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library - Lower Saxony State Library on February 22nd 2011; downloadable as a PDF document