Hermann Baumann (February 9, 1902 – June 30, 1972) was an influential German Africa expert.
In 1928, Baumann became editor-in-chief of the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, a post which he held until 1941. During the Third Reich, he was active as a government adviser, working on the eventual restoration of German colonies in Africa. After the war, he continued to work as a government adviser.
The museum in Dundo, Angola houses 1,018 pieces collected by Baumann in 1954.
Baumann was Professor of African Studies and Social Anthropology in Vienna and Munich. He retired in 1972, and returned to Angola, to continue the work on the material he had collected two decades earlier. Baumann fell ill with Malaria, and died within hours of his transfer to Munich from a Lisbon hospital.
Bibliography
Jürgen Braun: Eine deutsche Karriere. Die Biographie des Ethnologen Hermann Baumann (1902–1972). 1995; (Münchener ethnologische Abhandlungen) Peter Linimayr: Wiener Völkerkunde im Nationalsozialismus, Frankfurt am Main, 1994 Helmut Straube: Hermann Baumann. 9. Februar 1902 – 30. Juni 1972. In: Paideuma 18, 1972: 1–15
External links
Michael Lackner / Cristian Alvarado: Kultur und Rasse nach dem Nationalsozialismus. Ein Gespräch mit Michael Lackner über Hermann Baumann als akademischer Lehrer Jana Schmitter: "weil ja Rasse und Kultur sich gegenseitig bedingende Wesenheiten sind". Zur Wechselwirkung ethnologischer Arbeit und politischer Haltungen im Nationalsozialismus — das Beispiel Hermann Baumann Christoph Seidler: Wissenschaftsgeschichte nach der NS-Zeit: das Beispiel der Ethnologie. Die beiden Ethnologen Wilhelm Mühlmann (1904–1988) und Hermann Baumann (1902–1972) http://www.ethno-im-ns.uni-hamburg.de - On German anthropology during National Socialism