Erich Brauer (28 June 1895, in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
– 9 May 1942, in
Petah Tikvah) was a
German Jewish illustrator,
ethnographer, and
ethnologist. As an artist he chose to be known as Erich Chiram Brauer. He often signed his art work "Chiram".
Early life
He was born in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
to Fanny (Krebs) and Adolf Brauer, when it was part of the
German Empire under Prussian leadership. As a young man, his first interest was in
graphics, and later he added studies in
ethnology. Even after he had changed his vocation, he would still decorate his letters and writings with graphic artwork and would later make a livelihood from doing graphic artwork for the
Jewish National Fund.
In Germany, Brauer belonged to a Jewish youth movement, youth primarily drawn from assimilated Jewish families who had taken an interest in
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
, and which called themselves ''
Jung Juda'' (Young Judea). One of the fellow members of this group whom he had befriended was
Gershom Scholem. During the years of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
, 1915–1916, the two co-edited and published a lithographic magazine entitled, ''Die Blauweisse Brille'' ("Glasses in Blue and White"), in which three issues (50-100 lithographed copies) were printed in the printing press owned by Scholem's father, and which treated on the war from a Zionist-Jewish perspective, but written with a comical and humorous flair. Brauer is noted there for his
expressionist style.
Education and vocation
Erich Brauer completed his dissertation in 1924 at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
on the religion of the
Herero of South-West Africa. The Folklore Museum of
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
sent Brauer to
British Mandate Palestine in 1925 to collect ethnological artifacts of the Arabs living in the country. Although Brauer returned to Germany, Brauer would leave his native Germany in later life to settle permanently in British Mandate Palestine where he resided in
Tel-Aviv, and afterwards in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. In the early 1930s, Brauer returned to Germany to publish his newly written book in German, ''Ethnologie der jemenitischen Juden'' (Ethnology of
Yemenite Jews), which was finally published in
Heidelberg in 1934, under the
Nazi regime. That same year, he was also awarded a
Lord Plumer
Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer of the First World War. After commanding V Corps at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he took comma ...
scholarship in recognition of his outstanding work in the field of anthropology. This enabled him to work as a research associate at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a post which he held for four years. In spite of his efforts, Brauer failed to make anthropology an area of academic interest at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but was only able to garner support for his own private research. When the university could no longer pay for his continued research in the field of anthropology, Brauer continued to conduct private research in the field, until illness forced him to stop.
Contributions to ethnology
Brauer is the author of two major books, one of which treating on the
Jews of Yemen (''Ethnologie der jemenitischen Juden''), and the other on the
Jews of Kurdistan, a book later translated into English and Turkish. These two works are his most popular monographs, while his other works are articles written for various publications. On Brauer and on his first monograph,
Shelomo Dov Goitein wrote with a sense of profound awe and affection: “Brauer was educated and trained in the Berlin school of ethnology, which was known for its acclaim at that time; he was a sharp-eyed investigator, and a man gifted with a deep humanity and wisdom. In addition to this, he was an outstanding draftsman and an excellent photographer. He was methodical and thorough. His book
n Yemenite Jewryis considered a literary work that is a masterpiece in its field.” Brauer's book contains, among other things, a carefully analyzed study of native Yemenite Jewish terms, and the reproduction, with translations, of leading songs and proverbs.
Brauer's pioneering status, as reflected in his research on the Jews of Yemen and the Jews of Kurdistan, are recognized as milestones in the study of these communities in Israel, where he is considered one of the forefathers of local anthropology as it developed in Mandate Palestine.
Brauer suffered from a rare illness (
Scheuermann's disease) and died at the age of 46 in
Petah Tikvah, and was buried in ''
Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery'' in
Givatayim. At his death, Brauer left behind him five original diaries, the transcripts of which were permanently deposited at the
National Library of Israel by the Israel Ethnographic Society in 1975, as well as photocopies of texts and of a drawing. Goitein wrote a moving eulogy of the man upon his death, published in the book ''Shevūt Teiman'' (1945), saying of Brauer that he was the first scientific ethnologist in this country and the first who laid a basis for a comparative ethnology.
Published works
::
Books:
* ''Ethnologie der jemenitischen Juden'' (Ethnology of Yemenite Jews), Heidelberg 1934
* ''The Jews of Kurdistan: An Ethnological Study'' (Heb. יהודי כורדיסתאן: מחקר אתנולוגי)(ed.
Raphael Patai), Jerusalem 1947 (published posthumously); also published in English in Detroit:
Wayne State University Press
Wayne State University Press (or WSU Press) is a university press that is part of Wayne State University. It publishes under its own name and also the imprints
Imprint or imprinting may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Imprint'' (TV series), ...
, 1993
::
Articles:
* ''Die Frau bei den südarabischen Juden'' (The woman among the South Arabian Jews), Berlin 1931
* ''Züge aus der Religion der Herero : ein Beitrag zur Hamitenfrage'' (Traits from the religion of the
Herero: a contribution to the
Hamite
Hamites is the name formerly used for some North Africa, Northern and Horn of Africa peoples in the context of a Scientific racism, now-outdated model of dividing humanity into different races which was developed originally by Europeans in suppo ...
question), Institute of Folklore: Leipzig 1925
* ''The Jews of Afghanistan'' (Heb. יהודי אפגניסתאן), Sinai: Jerusalem 1944 (published posthumously)
* ''Agriculture and Industry among the Jews of Yemen'' (Heb. החקלאות והמלאכה אצל יהודי תימן), Jerusalem 1945 (published posthumously)
Legacy
Because of Brauer's premature death, much of Brauer's research remains unpublished and is still in manuscript-form. Neither have most of his German publications been translated into English or Hebrew. Brauer's research in the fields of Yemenite Jewish agriculture and crafts has been translated into Hebrew and is published in ''Shevuth Teiman'' (1945), Yisrael Yeshayahu & Aharon Tzadok (ed.), Tel-Aviv. Brauer's description of Jewish clothing in Yemen, as described in his monograph ''Ethnologie der jemenitischen Juden'', has been translated into Hebrew and published in ''Ma'ase Rokem. Dress and Jewelry in the Tradition of the Jews of Yemen'' (2008), Carmella Abdar (ed.), Tel-Aviv, pp. 19–33, while excerpts of the same are rendered in an English translation, published in ''Ascending the Palm Tree'' (2018), Rachel Yedid & Danny Bar-Maoz (ed.), Rehovot, pp. 159–168.
[Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper, "The Clothing of the Jews of Yemen", in: ''Ascending the Palm Tree – An Anthology of the Yemenite Jewish Heritage'', Rachel Yedid & Danny Bar-Maoz (ed.), E'ele BeTamar: Rehovot 2018, p. 169 (note 8) ]
See also
*
Gershom Scholem
References
Further reading
* Vered Madar, Dani Schrire,
From Leipzig to Jerusalem: Erich Brauer, a Jewish Ethnographer in Search of a Field, Naharaim, 2014, 8(1): 91–119
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brauer, Erich
1895 births
1942 deaths
German orientalists
German ethnologists
German anthropologists
Artists from Berlin
Historians of Jews and Judaism
German ethnographers
Yemen researchers
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine
Researchers of Yemenite Jewry
Jewish Kurdish history
Jewish orientalists
Burials at Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery
20th-century anthropologists