Ethnologist and Linguist. He was noted for leading the revival of folk music in both East and West Germany. As a member of the Communist Party since 1927, he was removed from his post at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1933 by the Nazis. He fled first to the Soviet Union, where he taught at the University of Leningrad, and then to Sweden in 1938 after a falling out with the Soviets over their treatment of ethnic minorities. He returned to Berlin in 1946 after the war and became professor of Finno-Ugrian languages at the Humboldt University and later the head of that department. He also held important positions in the Socialist Unity Party and was vice president of East Germany's German Academy of Sciences from 1954 to 1963. His main research focus was the Ugric people of West Siberia. Cause of death: stroke.
Ethnologist and Linguist. He was noted for leading the revival of folk music in both East and West Germany. As a member of the Communist Party since 1927, he was removed from his post at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1933 by the Nazis. He fled first to the Soviet Union, where he taught at the University of Leningrad, and then to Sweden in 1938 after a falling out with the Soviets over their treatment of ethnic minorities. He returned to Berlin in 1946 after the war and became professor of Finno-Ugrian languages at the Humboldt University and later the head of that department. He also held important positions in the Socialist Unity Party and was vice president of East Germany's German Academy of Sciences from 1954 to 1963. His main research focus was the Ugric people of West Siberia. Cause of death: stroke.
Bio by: Kenneth Gilbert
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