Richard Carl Theodor August Wossidlo (26 January 1859, in

Friedrichshof Schlosshotel Kronberg (Castle Hotel Kronberg) in Kronberg im Taunus, Hesse, near Frankfurt am Main, was built between 1889 and 1893 for the dowager German Empress Victoria and originally named Schloss Friedrichshof in honour of her late husb ...

– May 1939, in Waren an der Müritz) was a German schoolteacher and

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 ...

. From 1876 to 1883 he studied classical and

German philology German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

at the universities of

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

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 ...

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 ...

. From 1886 to 1922 he taught classes in Greek, Latin and German at the gymnasium in Waren. Beginning in 1886, he travelled throughout

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

, collecting and writing down legends, fairy tales, anecdotes and folk traditions that were compiled during interviews with local inhabitants. His interviewees included farmers, craftsmen, labourers and sailors. From 1897 to 1931 he published a well-received, four-volume on Mecklenburg folk traditions, titled ''Mecklenburgische Volksüberlieferungen''. Today, the " Wossidlo-Archiv" of about two million documents is preserved at the University of Rostock.

Published works

* ''Imperative Bildungen im Niederdeutschen'', 1890 – Essential training in

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

. * ''Mecklenburgische Volksüberlieferungen'', (4 volumes, 1897–1931) – Mecklenburg folk traditions. ** ''Rätsel'' (1897) – Riddles. ** ''Die Tiere im Munde des Volkes'' (1899) – Folklore about animals. ** ''Kinderwartung und Kinderzucht'' (1906) – On child rearing. ** ''Kinderreime'' (1931) –

Nursery rhymes A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

. * ''Ein Winterabend in einem mecklenburgischen Bauernhause'', (1901, 2nd edition 1906) – A winter evening in a Mecklenburg farmhouse. * ''Über die Technik des Sammelns'', 1906 – On the art of collecting. * ''Über die Erforschung der Rethrasagen'', 1908 – Study of

Rethra Rethra (also known as ''Radagoszcz'', ''Radegost'', ''Radigast'', ''Redigast'', ''Radgosc'' and other forms like ''Ruthengost'') was, in the 10th to the 12th centuries, the main town and political center of the Slavic Redarians, one of the four m ...

sayings. * ''Aus dem Lande Fritz Reuters'', 1910 – From the land of

Fritz Reuter Fritz Reuter (7 November 1810 – 12 July 1874; born as ''Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter'') was a novelist from Northern Germany who was a prominent contributor to Low German literature. Early life Fritz Reuter was born at Stavenha ...

. With Hermann Teuchert, he created a Mecklenburg dictionary, ''Wossidlo-Teuchert Mecklenburgisches Wörterbuch''.Wossidlo-Teuchert mecklenburgisches Wörterbuch
OCLC WorldCat

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wossidlo, Richard 1859 births 1939 deaths University of Rostock alumni Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni People from Rostock (district) Germanists German folklorists