Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954) was an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
, anthropologist, and ethnologist.
Wilhelm Schmidt was born in
HördeHörde is a Stadtbezirk and also a Stadtteil in the south of the city of Dortmund, in Germany.Hörde is situated at 51°29' North, 7°30' East, and is at an elevation of 112 metres above mean sea level.It situated in southern part of Dortmund, a major town in the Ruhrgebiet.It is made up of the...
, Germany in 1868. He entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1890 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1892. He studied linguistics at the universities of
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
.
His early work in linguistics was on the Mon-Khmer languages of Southeast Asia, which led him to hypothesize the existence of a broader Austric group of languages, connected to the
AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. It is on par with Bantu, Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and Uralic as one of the best-established ancient language families...
language group.
From 1912 on, Schmidt began to publish his 12-volume
Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, 'The Origin of the Idea of God', and developed his theory of primitive monotheism, the belief that
primitive religionIn older anthropology texts and discussions, a primitive culture is one that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity.For instance, it might lack a written language or advanced technology and have a limited and isolated population...
among almost all tribal peoples began with an essentially monotheistic concept of a high god — usually a sky god — who was a benevolent creator.
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Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954) was an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
, anthropologist, and ethnologist.
Wilhelm Schmidt was born in
HördeHörde is a Stadtbezirk and also a Stadtteil in the south of the city of Dortmund, in Germany.Hörde is situated at 51°29' North, 7°30' East, and is at an elevation of 112 metres above mean sea level.It situated in southern part of Dortmund, a major town in the Ruhrgebiet.It is made up of the...
, Germany in 1868. He entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1890 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1892. He studied linguistics at the universities of
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
.
His early work in linguistics was on the Mon-Khmer languages of Southeast Asia, which led him to hypothesize the existence of a broader Austric group of languages, connected to the
AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. It is on par with Bantu, Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and Uralic as one of the best-established ancient language families...
language group.
From 1912 on, Schmidt began to publish his 12-volume
Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, 'The Origin of the Idea of God', and developed his theory of primitive monotheism, the belief that
primitive religionIn older anthropology texts and discussions, a primitive culture is one that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity.For instance, it might lack a written language or advanced technology and have a limited and isolated population...
among almost all tribal peoples began with an essentially monotheistic concept of a high god — usually a sky god — who was a benevolent creator. Schmidt theorized that human beings created a God who was the First Cause of all things and Ruler of Heaven and Earth before men and women began to worship a number of gods.
In 1906, Schmidt founded the journal
Anthropos, and in 1931, the Anthropos Institute, both of which still exist today. In 1938, Schmidt and the Institute fled from Nazi-occupied Austria to
FribourgFribourg , is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
, Switzerland.
His works available in English translation are:
The Origin and Growth of Religion (1931),
High Gods in North America (1933),
The Culture Historical Method of Ethnology (1939), and
Primitive Revelation (1939).