100 Years of Anthwpos
5
Anthropos 101.2006
Every year the journal consists of about 700
pages with some 140 authors and contributors; it
contains roughly 45 articles and other contribu
tions and 120 book reviews. Every year Anthwpos
is published in two issues, the first in January/
February and the second in August/September.
Looking back over 100 years, the output of An
thwpos is remarkable and enough to command
one’s respect. Over these years there have ap
peared some 3,850 articles, 11,000 book reviews,
plus miscellaneous items and brief reports, spread
over roughly 84,000 pages. Anthwpos has a circu
lation of about 800 copies, going to more than 60
countries.
Over the past several years the editorial staff
and the publisher have been discussing the ques
tion how far Anthwpos can, should, or must offer
their readers and subscribers the possibilities or ad
vantages of online communication. Up to now no
positive decision has been reached. What worries
us especially is the limited durability of materials
stored digitally as compared with the proven 100
years of stability which a journal printed on paper
offers.
The list of editors-in-chief over the past 100
years is comparatively short. In addition to Wil
helm Schmidt himself (1906-22, 1937-49) the
following filled that position:
Wilhelm Koppers (1923-31),
who for many years was Ordinarius (tenured
professor) for Ethnology at the University of
Vienna;
Georg Hôltker (1932-35),
Wilhelm Schmidt’s successor as holder of the
Chair (in Ethnology) at the University of Fri
bourg;
Fritz Bomemann (1950-54),
the immediate successor to Wilhelm Schmidt
as editor. He did not see eye to eye with
W. Schmidt as he said in his biography of
Schmidt, all the while struggling himself to
remain objective;
Rudolf Rahmann (1936, 1955-59),
who took over the editorship during the difficult
years after W. Schmidt’s death;
Arnold Burgmann (1960-68) and Günter Tiemann
(1969);
Josef Franz Thiel (1970-77, 1983),
the Director of the Museum of Peoples and
Cultures (Haus Vôlker und Kulturen) in Sankt
Augustin and later of the Anthropological Mu
seum (Museum der Weltkulturen) in Frank
furt;
Joseph Henninger (1978-79),
who very early on helped W. Schmidt with the
editorial work and with various other tasks;
Louis Luzbetak (1980-82),
who died at Techny (USA) in the middle of
March, 2005. His obituary, written by Ernest
Brandewie, can be found in the latest issue of
Anthwpos (Brandewie 2005: 553-559);
Anton Quack (1984-93),
at present the book review editor, and finally
Othmar Gachter, editor since 1994.
25 years after the founding of the journal, W.
Schmidt tried to put the editorial staff on a firm
footing, to institutionalize it. He set up the “An-
thropos Institute” (cf. Schmidt 1932). The result
was not particularly successful. Practically and
juridically it did not have any meaningful conse
quence; the times simply did not allow it. Later
efforts to give some structure to the editorial staff
after the Institute moved to Sankt Augustin were
more successful. 7
For three decades Anthwpos was located in
St. Gabriel’s. When Austria became part of the
Greater German Reich in 1938, the editorial staff
and the Anthropos Institute moved to Posieux
near Fribourg in Switzerland. 8 In 1962 Anthwpos
and the Institute made another move, this time to
Sankt Augustin. Here the staff has at its disposal
a library of over 90,000 titles and about 300
journals that are kept current. For more than 62
years the journal has continued to be printed
7 On March 12, 1962, the “Anthropos-Institut für völkerkund
liche Forschung e.V.” was founded and on June 27, 1962,
was registered as such in the district court of Siegburg. This
gives the editorial staff a legal structure. The “Statutes of
the Anthropos Institute” of June 24, 1982, give a more
detailed structure to guide the work of the editorial staff
and their coworkers. A reworking of these “Statutes” to
make them more pertinent to present-day conditions is now
being prepared.
8 After the “Anschluss” (the incorporation of Austria into
the Greater German Reich), W. Schmidt left Austria on
April 4, 1938. For the Anthropos editorial staff to remain
in the “German Reich” was not an option. The decision
to move everything to Froideville/Posieux near Fribourg
in Switzerland was taken already by November 1938. A
good part of the Anthropos library could still be taken
to Froideville; the rest was transferred to the University
of Vienna. In 1938 and 1939 volumes 33 and 34 of the
Anthropos were still published at St. Gabriel’s, printed by
the Mechitarists (Mekhitarists) in Vienna. In July 1942,
volumes 35 and 36, 1940-41/1-3 appeared, the first to
be printed and published by the Paulus Printing Company
(Paulusdruckerei und -verlag).