Wilhelm Koppers
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1951.12.04 nominated as an Honorary Fellow
Notes From Elsewhere
Wilhelm Koppers (1886–1961) was a Catholic priest and cultural anthropologist.
From 1913, Koppers was a close associate of Father Wilhelm Schmidt , SVD. In 1921/22 he accompanied Father Martin Gusinde , SVD, on an expedition to the Tierra del Fuego . In 1928, Koppers was appointed professor of ethnology and a member of the board of directors of the newly founded Institute for Ethnic Studies at the University of Vienna . In 1938 he lost his position, presumably due to his vehement criticism of the idea of a Nordic origin of the 'Indo-European race', preferred by the national socialists. [1] From 1940 to 1944 Koppers lived in Switzerland.
His research focus was the Bhil tribes in central India.
He saw the pre-Asiatic elements in the Indo-European religion, like the Thunder God . Other elements, such as the cow-sacrifice ( Ymir ), originate from a cultivated southern (Caucasian-Oriental-oriental) cultural circle. Koppers followed Otto Schrader in the assumption of a Northpontische Urheimat of the Indo-Germans.
Publications
External Publications
Under Fireland Indians: A research trip to the southernmost inhabitants of the earth with M. Gusinde. Strecker and Schröder, Stuttgart 1924. The Indo-European question in the light of historical ethnology. St. Gabriel / Mödling near Vienna in 1935.
(Hrsg.) The Indo-European and Germanic Questions: New Approaches to Their Solution. Publisher Anton Pustet, Salzburg 1936.
Secrets of the Jungle: A research trip to the primitive tribes of Central India 1938-39. J. Stocker, Lucerne 1947 ( Table of Contents ). The Bhil in Central India. F. Berger, Horn / Vienna 1948 (Theses regarding the origin of the Bhil were denied [2] [3] ).
The primordial man and his world image. Herold, Vienna, 1949.
