GRAEBNER, FRITZ (1877–1934), German ethnologist, was born on March 4, 1877, the son of a schoolteacher in Berlin. Graebner attended school in Berlin from 1887 to 1895 and studied history, German philology, and geography, and other subjects (especially ethnology) at the universities of Berlin and Marburg (1895–1901). In 1901 he received his doctorate in philosophy at Berlin with a dissertation on medieval history. By this time he was already employed at the Berlin Museum of Ethnology as an auxiliary scientific assistant.

In 1906 he transferred to the museum of ethnology in Cologne (called the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum after those who endowed it), became a full assistant there in 1907, and the museum's director in 1925. In 1911 he qualified as a privatdocent at the University of Bonn. His work was interrupted by his capture in Australia at the outbreak of World War I; because he was German, he was kept prisoner there until 1919. In 1921 he was appointed professor...