Wilhelm Schmidt

Wilhelm Schmidt ( 1868 – 1954 ) was a German Linguist , Anthropologist , and Ethnologist .

Wilhelm Schmidt was born in Hörde , Germany in 1868. He entered the Society Of The Divine Word in 1890, and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1892. He studied linguistics at the universities of Berlin and Vienna .

His early work in linguistics was on the Mon-Khmer languages of South East Asia, which led him to hypothesize the existence of a broader Austric group of languages, connected to the Austronesian language group.

From 1912 on, Schmidt began to publish his 12-volume ''Der Ursprung der Gottesidee'', and developed his theory of primitive Monotheism — the belief that Primitive Religion in almost all tribal peoples began with an essentially monotheistic concept of a high god — usually a sky god — who was a benevolent creator.

In 1906, Schmidt founded the journal Anthropos , and in 1931, the Anthropos Institute, both of which still exist today. In 1938, Schmidt and the Institute fled from Nazi-occupied Austria to Freiburg , Switzerland.

His works available in English translation are: ''The Origin and Growth of Religion'' (1931), ''High Gods in North America'' (1933), ''The Culture Historical Method of Ethnology'' (1939), and ''Primitive Revelation'' (1939).

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Wilhelm Schmidt