Gingrich, Andre, and Peter Rohrbacher. “Socio-Cultural Anthropology in German-Speaking Countries.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Published May 21, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.650
Abstract
Sociocultural anthropology (Völkerkunde, later Ethnologie and Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie) emerged in German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed from Enlightenment philosophy, travel accounts, and comparative linguistic studies, despite the region’s polities lacking overseas colonies. The Kant–Herder debate on universalism versus relativism, together with the work of the Forsters and the von Humboldt brothers, as well as early terminological innovations by August Ludwig von Schlözer and Adam F. Kollár, established lasting foundations that continue to influence global discussions on human diversity and culture. A priority for studying the material and mental dimensions of culture through a strong emphasis on language emerged as an enduring paradigm of sociocultural anthropology in German.
From the mid-19th century, the discipline became institutionalized through museums, university lectureships, and major theoretical schools. The emphasis on universal “elementary thoughts” by Adolf Bastian, the diffusionist ideas of Friedrich Ratzel, and, above all, the work of the Vienna School of Ethnology (Wilhelm Schmidt and Wilhelm Koppers), with its theologically influenced Kulturkreislehre (culture circle theory), all contributed to the international prominence of German-language anthropology until well after 1945. Other notable contributions included Leo Frobenius’s cultural morphology and Richard Thurnwald’s functionalist ethnosociology.
Between 1933 and 1945, the discipline in Germany and Austria was extensively collaborating with National Socialist policies. The majority of anthropologists either accommodated with, or actively supported, the regime, participating in colonial planning, prisoner of war research and in projects by the Nazi party’s elite unit (i.e., the Schutzstaffel or SS) and its research division (Ahnenerbe), while a minority either resisted or went into exile. After 1945, the discipline reemerged in different forms: In Switzerland, there was continuity; in Austria, there was rupture and a partial return of exiles; in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany), a Marxist-oriented historical ethnography gained hegemonic influence; and in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany), there were initial personnel continuities followed by the decisive paradigm shift of 1968 to 1969. Since the 1990s—the period marked by the end of the Cold War, German reunification, the Bologna Process, the rise of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, and the increasing dominance of English as the academic lingua franca—German-speaking sociocultural anthropology has become a fully internationalized branch of the global discipline. It is characterized by strong regional expertise, critical engagement with its own history, and active participation in debates on museum provenance and restitution.
Keywords: Völkerkunde, Kant–Herder debate (universalism vs. relativism), diffusionism, Vienna School of Ethnology, Anthropology and National Socialism, post-1945 reemergence (Switzerland–Austria–GDR–FRG), Cold War anthropology, 1968/1969 paradigm shift, ethnographic museums and restitution debates, Anglophone turn and Europeanization (Bologna/EASA)
Subject
AnthropologySocial and Cultural Anthropology
Collection: Oxford Research Encyclopedias