Hans-Jörg Uther (born 20 July 1944 in

Herzberg am Harz Herzberg am Harz is a town in the Göttingen district of Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Herzberg is situated on the southwestern rim of the Harz mountain range and the Harz National Park. Natural monuments in the surrounding area include the ...

) is a German literary scholar and folklorist.

Biography

Uther studied

Folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

, Germanistik and

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

between 1969 and 1970 at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

and between 1970 and 1973 at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. In his last academic year, he passed the first state examination for teaching at grammar schools. In 1971, he began a period of over 40 years working on the ''

Enzyklopädie des Märchens The ''Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales'' (''Enzyklopädie des Märchens'') is a German reference work on international Folkloristics, which runs to fifteen volumes and is acknowledged as the most comprehensive work in its field. It examines over two ...

'', initially as a student assistant, from 1973 as an editor. In 1980 he became a PhD with the Dissertation "Behinderte in populären Erzählungen" ("The Disabled in Folktales") in Göttingen. From 1990 to 1992 he was a lecturer at the University of Göttingen, and from 1991 to 1994 at the University-Gesamthochschule Essen. In 1994 he gained his Habilitation there in German studies, literature and folklore. From 2000 he was

professor extraordinarius Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

for German and literature studies in Essen. Since 2010, Uther has been the head of the ''Enzyklopädie des Märchens'' until the end of the project at the end of 2015. Uther published on comparative and historical folklore, on

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

and youth literature, on folkloristic

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

as well as on research into tale-types, their content, and motifs. In the years 1989 to 2002 he was editor of the series ''Die Märchen der Weltliteratur'' of Eugen Diederichs Verlag. Since 1988 he has been co-editor of the journal '' Fabula''. He also published two important editions of

Grimm's Fairy Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (german: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, lead=yes, ), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first publis ...

in 1996 and 2004. In 2004, his revision of the Aarne-Thompson Index appeared. 138 of the approximately 4,000 articles in the ''Enzyklopädie des Märchens'' were written by Uther. Uther has been a corresponding member of the Akademie für Kinder- und Jugendliteratur (Academy for Children's and Youth Literature) in Volkach since 1992 and, since 1993, "Folklore Fellow" of the

Finnish Academy of Sciences The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Fi ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. He also belongs to the scientific advisory board of the Brüder Grimm-Gesellschaft in Kassel.Wissenschaftlicher Rat der Brüder Grimm-Gesellschaft
grimms.de, Stand 2017

Major works

* * * * *

Biographies

* ''Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender 2005.'' Band III, Schi-Z. München 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uther, Hans-Jorg Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Göttingen alumni University of Göttingen faculty 1944 births Living people