James R. Dow Book order

Germany is a land of fascinating customs and traditions. Through the work of the Grimms, many of its folk and fairy tales have become widely read around the world. German folklore has also inspired numerous literary, artistic, and musical works. Written especially for high school students and general readers, this volume is an accessible introduction to German folklore.The volume begins by defining and classifying different types of German folklore. It provides numerous examples of German folkways and presents a wide ranging selection of texts. The book reviews critical and scholarly approaches and discusses the pervasive influence of German folklore on literature and popular culture.

The study of ethnology or ’Volkskunde’ in Austria has had a troubled past. Through most of the 20th century it was under the influence of the so-called Viennese ’Mythological School’ and the controversy between the two opposing branches, the ’Ritualist’ and the ’Mythologists', set much of the agenda from the 1920s until long after the World War ended in 1945. The volume examines two Austrian characters, Richard Wolfram and Karl Haiding, and the impact of their research and sets them in the context of Austrian ethnology before, during and after the war years. The book concludes by examining the present day ethnological outlook in the country.

This book reflects the multifaceted interests of Werner Enninger's personality as well as his professional career. All of the contributors to the volume have worked with him at some time in their own scholarly careers and their studies reflect a wide diversity of their interests as well as his. Most of the studies are linguistic in their focus, and deal directly with «languages.» It has, however, always been Enninger's concern that languages not be divorced from the speaker's lives, and thus other studies included here focus specifically on the «lives» of the speakers of these languages, thus the «Languages and Lives» of the title. There are also studies here dealing with philosophy, with literature, and even with language didactics. Readers interested in the life of a language, from its acquisition to its symbolic value, from its development even to its death, will find a large body of information in the collection of essays that mirror Werner Enninger's own wide range of publications.

Contributors examine the establishment of folklore departments at German and Austrian universities during the National Socialist era; the perversion of the discipline for political ends by the government; and the attempt to establish a pan-German Reich Institute as an instrument of a fascist ideology.