Schmidt, Wilhelm (1868–1954)

Although he was born into humble circumstances in Hörde, a small town in Westphalia (western Germany), Father Wilhelm Schmidt became a lifelong student of the world as a leading authority in his day on linguistics, ethnology, and comparative religion. At the age of 15, he entered the mission school of the Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini, SVD), at Steyl, in the Netherlands. This seminary was established in 1875 by Father Arnold Janssen for the training of Roman Catholic missionaries; Schmidt completed his education there and was ordained into the priesthood in1892. After he studied Semitic languages at the University of Berlin for2 years, Schmidt began teaching at the new SVD seminary in Mödling (near Vienna), Austria; he held this post from 1895 until1938, when he left Austria because of the Nazi takeover.

Schmidt developed a special interest in the languages spoken in regions where his SVD colleagues served (i.e., North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Oceania); he obtained the support of Janssen to publish a journal that would advance this missionary endeavor and promote anthropological studies. In 1906, Father Schmidt launched Anthropos: International Review of Ethnology and Linguistics; the year 2005 witnessed the publication of Anthropos, Volume 100. This journal, which has published thousands of articles and reviews, remains one of Schmidt's greatest contributions to anthropology. From the beginning of his work as professor and editor, Schmidt encouraged missionaries to become better students of the people groups among whom they worked—and to advance the study of Völkerkunde, the world's cultures and languages.

In addition to his teaching and editorial work, Father Schmidt helped to start the Vatican's Ethnō logical Missionary Museum; this collection was established in 1926 and was directed by Schmidt from 1927 until 1939. During this same period, he founded the Anthropos Institute and Library at Mödling/Vienna as another means to advance his religious-apologetic-anthropological agenda; Fathers Wilhelm Koppers,Paul Schebesta, and Martin Gusinde, also SVD clergy, helped establish this research center. When the Anschlussoccurred, Schmidt transferred the Anthropos Institute and its library to Fribourg, Switzerland, where it remained from 1938 until 1962. By 1962,the Society of the Divine Word moved their Institute to Sankt Augustin, outside Bonn, where it remains today. Wilhelm Schmidt also taught at the University of Vienna (1921–1938) and at the University of Fribourg (1939–1951). Over the course of his professional career,Father Schmidt was in constant contact with coworkers from different parts of the world and applied his comparative perspective and linguistic skills in many research projects. He published over 600 books and articles and received honorary degrees from six universities.

Schmidt's initial scholarly activity focused on linguistics, including the languages of Papua New Guinea—one of the places where SVD missionaries worked. He expanded his study to include Oceania (including Australia) and identified connections between “Austronesian” (formerly MalayōPolynesian)languages and those spoken in Southeast Asia; Schmidt named this family the “AustrōAsiatic” languages.

Father Schmidt also made significant contributions to the field of cultural anthropology and was a leading figure in the German school of Diffusionism, along with Frobenius, Graebner, and Ratzel. In opposition to theories of cultural evolution, these—and other scholars in Europe and America—proposed a system of “culture circles” (Kulturkreise), by which [Page 2060]cultural traits diffused outward from their points of origin. This historical-geographical emphasis, which was worked out in great detail, countered the theory of unilinear evolution but did not hold up under close scrutiny. Nevertheless, the “Vienna Cultural-Historical School” exerted great influence on the development of anthropological theory, including advocates of the “American Historical Tradition” (e.g., Boas and Kroeber),and avoided the excesses of the British diffusionist school (e.g.,Rivers and Smith). One of Schmidt's best known books, available in English translation, delineates his views (The Culture Historical Method of Ethnology: The Scientific Approach to the Racial Question [1939]) and partially explains his conflict with the National Socialists.

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