John Meier (14 June 1864 – 3 May 1953) was a German

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

. He founded both the (

Deutsches Volksliedarchiv The Deutsche Volksliedarchiv, a research institute for Volkslied (folk song) in German, was founded in 1914 and was integrated into the University of Freiburg in 2014, now called Zentrum für Populäre Kultur und Musik (Centre of popular culture ...

, DVA) and also the Swiss Volksliedarchiv. Meier was born in Vahr, a part of

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, and died in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

at the age of 88.

Career

Meier studied German, Romance and English philology, history and anthropology at the Universities in Freiburg im Breisgau and

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

. In 1888 he obtained his doctorate at Freiburg with the Dissertation ''Researches concerning the poet and the language of the ' Iolande' ''. In 1891 there followed his formal faculty admission to the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

with the work ''Studies in the Linguistic and Literary History of the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

s in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

''. In the years which followed this, he busied himself intensively with folk-song investigations, and put forward his thesis of ''Sunken Cultural Patrimony''. In 1899 he became professor in ordinary for German philology at the

Basel University The University of Basel ( Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universi ...

and concerned himself principally with a systematic collection of folk-songs. Between 1905 and 1912 he was Overseer for the Swiss Society for Folk-studies. In 1906 he founded the Swiss Folk-song archive. From 1911 he became president of the Council of the German Congress for Folk-studies. In 1912 he became professor in ordinary for folk-studies at Freiburg. In 1914 he founded there the German Folk-song Archive. In the 1920s he was working with Max Friedlaender and Johann Bolte on the German song archive. From 1935 he published a collection of German folk-songs with critical commentaries: the annual Journal for Folk-Song Publication. With hindsight the subject, insofar as it from 1933 to 1945 reflected the interests of

National-socialist The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

ideology, is governed by no absolute Science. One can say that Meier began the work towards scientific standards in Folk-studies. It was for this that, at the Fifth German Folk-Studies Congress in 1938, he appealed to the intelligence and collective understanding of the delegates. In his role as Chairman of the convention, he found himself - especially in view of the threats of the Rosenberg party - forced to cooperate with the

Ahnenerbe The Ahnenerbe (, ''ancestral heritage'') operated as a think tank in Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1945. Heinrich Himmler, the ''Reichsführer-SS'' from 1929 onwards, established it in July 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to the task of promot ...

of the SS. In 1948 he abdicated from the role of congress leader. He retained the directorship of the German Folk-song Archive for the

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

region.

Prizes and Honours

* 1934 Goethe-Medal for Art and Science * 1952 National Prize of the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

* 1952 Bundes Service Cross

Works

* ''The German soldier-songs in the field''. Straßburg 1916 (Trübners Library Vol. 4) * ''Folk-song studies''. Straßburg 1917 (Trübners Library Vol. 8) * ''German soldier-speech''. (Karlsruhe 1917) * ''Goethe, Freiherr vom Stein and German folk-study. Past, present and future''. (1926)

Sources

* Neue Deutsche Biographie Vol. 16, p. 643-644.

External links

The German Archive of Folk Song
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meier, John 1864 births 1953 deaths German philologists German folklorists Writers from Bremen Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German male non-fiction writers

Career

Prizes and Honours

Works

Sources

See also

External links