Georg Christian Thilenius (4 October 1868 – 28 December 1937) was a German physician and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

who was a native of Soden am Taunus. He studied medicine in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and in 1896 was habilitated as an

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

. Afterwards he participated in research trips to

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and the South Pacific. In 1900 he became a professor of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

at the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, and several years later (1904) was appointed director of the '' Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg'' (Museum of Ethnology,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

),.SP Georg Thilenius - Interviews with German Anthropologists
(biography) a position he maintained until his retirement in 1935. As director of the Hamburg Museum of Ethnography, Thilenius coordinated the 1908-1910 ''Südsee-Expedition'', a scientific expedition to German administered territories in

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

and

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

. Members of the research group included

Friedrich Fülleborn Friedrich Fülleborn (September 13, 1866 – September 9, 1933) was a physician who specialized in tropical medicine and parasitology. He was a native of Kulm, West Prussia, which today is known as Chełmno, Poland. He studied medicine and natura ...

(1866-1933), Augustin Krämer (1865–1941),

Paul Hambruch Paul Hambruch (22 November 1882, Hamburg – 25 June 1933, Hamburg) was a German ethnologist and folklorist. Biography He studied natural sciences, chemistry and mathematics at the University of Göttingen and geography, anthropology and eth ...

(1882-1933),

Otto Reche Otto Carl Reche (24 May 1879 – 23 March 1966) was a German anthropologist and professor from Kłodzko, Glatz (Kłodzko), Province of Silesia, Prussian Silesia. He was active in researching whether there was a correlation between blood types and R ...

(1879-1966),

Ernst Sarfert Ernst Gotthilf Sarfert (4 November 1882, Schönau near Zwickau – 19 November 1937, Leipzig) was a German ethnologist. Biography He studied languages, history and geography at the Universities of Jena and Leipzig, and by way of influence fr ...

(1882-1937) and

Wilhelm Müller-Wismar Wilhelm Müller-Wismar (20 May 1881 – 13 October 1916) was a German ethnographer. A native of Wismar, he graduated in 1905 from the University of Berlin, where he studied ethnography and anthropology under Felix von Luschan (1854-1924). From 1 ...

(1881-1916). Over 15,000 objects and artifacts from the South Pacific were brought back to Hamburg, which were documented until 1938 (23 volumes). He was a member of the ''Kolonialinstitut'' in Hamburg, an institute where he served as chairman from 1908 to 1910. He also worked as a lecturer at the institute, which was the predecessor of

Hamburg University The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

. He would later become director of the chair for

at the university.

Selected writings

* ''Ethnographische ergebnisse aus Melanesien I Theil, Die westlichen Inseln des Bismarck-Archipels'' (Ethnographic results from Melanesia part I, the western islands of the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

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 wel ...

, 1902–03. Part II published in 1903.IDREF.fr
(bibliography) * ''Die Bedeutung der Meeresströmungen für die Besiedelung Melanesiens'' (The importance of ocean currents for the settlement of Melanesia) Hamburg 1906. * ''Das Hamburgische Museum für Völkerkunde'' (The Hamburg Museum of Ethnology),

1916. * ''Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908 - 1910'' (Results of the South Seas Expedition 1908 - 1910), Hamburg 1914 ff. (as editor).

References

* ''This article incorporates translated text from an equivalent article at the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...

''.

External links

* 1868 births 1937 deaths People from Main-Taunus-Kreis German anthropologists German People's Party politicians Academic staff of the University of Hamburg Academic staff of the University of Breslau German ethnographers People from the German colonial empire {{Germany-scientist-stub