Richard Wolfram

Richard Wolfram (16 September 1901 – 30 May 1995) was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies.

Richard Wolfram
Photograph of Richard Wolfram in 1970
Born	(1901-09-16)16 September 1901 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	30 May 1995(1995-05-30) (aged 93) Traismauer, Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Awards	Knight 1st Class of the Order of Vasa (1930) Commander of the Order of the Polar Star (1970)
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Academic advisors	Rudolf Much
Academic work
Discipline	Philology
Sub-discipline	Germanic philology
Institutions	University of Vienna
Main interests	Early Germanic culture

Biography

Richard Wolfram was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on 16 September 1901. His family was well educated and middle class. Since 1920, Wolfram studied Germanistics, Scandinavistics and art history at the University of Vienna. He gained his PhD at the University of Vienna in 1926 with a thesis on Ernst Moritz Arndt. Wolfram completed his habilitation in Germanic studies at the University of Vienna in 1934 under the supervision of Rudolf Much. His thesis was on the comitatus in early Germanic society.

Wolfram lectured at the University of Vienna since 1928, where he in 1939 was appointed an associate professor of Germanic studies. A member of the Nazi Party and the Ahnenerbe, Wolfram was dismissed from the University of Vienna after World War II. He subsequently worked as a freelance scholar, but resumed lecturing at the University of Vienna in 1954, here he was reappointed an associate professor in 1959, and a full professor in 1963.

Wolfram retired in 1972, after which he was elected a Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Wolfram was the recipient of a large number of prestigious awards, including the Knight 1st Class of the Order of Vasa (1930), Commander of the Order of the Polar Star (1970), and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, 1st Class (1977). He died in Traismauer, Austria on 30 May 1995.

See also

• Otto Höfler
• Jan de Vries
• Herbert Jankuhn
• Kurt Ranke
• Franz Rolf Schröder
• Hermann Güntert

Selected works

• Schwerttanz und Männerbund, 1936-1937
• Die Volkstänze in Österreich und verwandte Tänze in Europa, 1972
• Brauchtum und Volksglaube in der Gottschee, 1980
• Südtiroler Volksschauspiel und Spielbräuche, 1987

Sources

• U. Kammerhofer-Aggermann: „In memoriam Richard Wolfram (1901-1995)“, in: Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, Vol 125/126, Wien 1995/96, pp. 317–318
• K. Köstlin: „Richard Wolfram 1901-1995“. In: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. No. 4. Wien 1995. pp. 480–483.