Karl Weule

Karl Weule (29 February 1864, in Alt-Wallmoden – 19 April 1926, in Leipzig) was a German geographer, ethnologist and museum director.

Biography

Weule studied history, geography and German philology at the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen. In 1891, he moved to Berlin, where he served as assistant geographer to Ferdinand von Richthofen, followed by work as assistant to Adolf Bastian at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. In 1899, he was appointed assistant director at the Leipzig Museum of Ethnography (Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig).

In 1906, he traveled to German East Africa, where he made use of photography, cinematography and the phonograph for his ethnological research. In 1907, he returned to Germany and was appointed director of the Leipzig museum. The report about his travels and research was published in German in 1908 and the following year in English as Native life in East Africa; the results of an ethnological research expedition.

In 1914, he was named head of the ethnographic department and the anthropological research center at the University of Leipzig. In 1920, he became full professor, and in 1923/24, he became Dean of the Department of Philology and History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Leipzig.

Publications

Der afrikanische Pfeil: eine anthropogeographische Studie, 1899 – The African arrow: an anthropogeographical study.

Negerleben in Ostafrika. Ergebnisse einer ethnologischen Forschungsreise, 1908; Translated into English by Alice Werner as: "Native life in East Africa; the results of an ethnological research expedition" (1909).