Otto Lauffer (20 February 1874 – 8 August 1949) was a

German 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 **Ge ...

folklorist and

cultural historian Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

Life

Otto Lauffer was born in Weende (which is today is a district of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

) on 20 February 1874 and spent his childhood there, until 1886. He studied German language and literature studies, history and art history in

(enrolled on 22 August 1891),

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and again in Göttingen (enrolled 24 April 1894). In 1896 he was awarded his doctorate under the supervision of Moritz Heyne. In 1902, Lauffer became an assistant at, and in 1907 director of the

Historical Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

. From 1908 until the opening in 1922, he oversaw the building of the Hamburg History Museum (now "hamburgmuseum"), continuing in his role as director until 1946. In the same year that the

University of Hamburg 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 Vo ...

was founded, Otto Lauffer was granted the first professorship in folklore in Germany, which he retained until 1939. In 1922/23, he was also rector of the University. Lauffer died on 8 August 1949 in

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

, and was buried in the

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery (german: Ohlsdorfer Friedhof or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemete ...

there (grave reference: ''R9 (29-30)''). His collected works are to be found in the Hamburg University Library. On 20 February 1984, a memorial plaque was dedicated to his memory in Weende. The in Weende and the Otto Lauffer barge in Hamburg are named after him.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lauffer, Otto 1874 births 1949 deaths German folklorists Cultural historians Academic staff of the University of Hamburg German male non-fiction writers Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery