Wilhelm Schmidt (linguist)
German anthropologist, linguist and historian of religion (1868–1954)
Wilhelm Schmidt (February 16, 1868 — February 10, 1954) was a German-Austrian Catholic priest, linguist and ethnologist. He presided over the Fourth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences that was held at Vienna in 1952.
Biography
Wilhelm Schmidt, born in Hörde, Germany in 1868, 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.
Schmidt’s main passion was linguistics. He spent many years in study of languages around the world. His early work focussed on the Mon–Khmer languages of Southeast Asia, and on languages of Oceania and Australia. The conclusions from this study led him to hypothesize the existence of a broader Austric group of languages, which included the Austronesian language group.
From 1912 to his death in 1954, Schmidt published his 12-volume work Der Ursprung der Gottesidee (The Origin of the Idea of God).
In it he explained his theory of primitive monotheism: the belief that primitive religion among almost all tribal peoples began with an essentially monotheistic concept of a high god — usually a sky god — who was a benevolent creator.
“Wilhelm Schmidt (linguist)” enters the record as german anthropologist, linguist and historian of religion (1868–1954). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wilhelm, Schmidt and linguist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q62827. VIAF identifies the subject as 27082555. The Library of Congress control number is n82153933. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1868, 1954, 1952 and 1890.
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