Gustav Ränk (18 February 1902 − 5 April 1998) was an Estonian ethnologist who was Professor of Ethnography at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, Director of the

Estonian National Museum The Estonian National Museum ( et, Eesti Rahva Muuseum) founded 1909 in Tartu is a museum devoted to folklorist Jakob Hurt's heritage, to Estonian ethnography and folk art. The first items for the museum were originally collected in the latter ...

and Associate Professor of Ethnology at

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

Biography

Gustav Ränk was born on a farm in

Nõmme Nõmme ( Estonian for ''"Heath"'') is one of the 8 administrative districts ( et, linnaosa) of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It has a population of 39,422 () and covers an area of , population density is . The district is largely a middle-cla ...

on the island of

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

on 18 February 1902. Earning his doctorate from the

in 1938, Ränk was subsequently appointed Professor of Ethnography at the University of Tartu. He was simultaneously Director of the

. In 1944, during the Baltic Offensive which led to the

Occupation of the Baltic states The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet ...

, Ränk supervised the evacuation of collections from the University of Tartu, the Estonian National Museum and other

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

research institutions, ensuring that invaluable material was saved for Estonian scholarship. Ränk fled to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

in autumn 1944, and in 1955 was appointed Associate Professor of Ethnology at

. He retired in 1969. Ränk was awarded the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 4th Class in 1998. He died in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

on 5 April 1998. He was an honorary alumnus of the

Estonian Students' Society The Estonian Students' Society ( et, Eesti Üliõpilaste Selts; commonly used acronym: EÜS) is the largest and oldest all-male academical student society in Estonia, and is similar to the Baltic German student organizations known as corporat ...

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Biography

References

Further reading