author
Robert Lehmann-Nitsche
1872–1938
A German anthropologist and ethnologist, he spent decades in Argentina documenting Indigenous communities, folklore, and popular culture. His work made him an important early figure in the study of anthropology in Argentina.
1 Audiobook
Ulrich Schmidel Der erste Geschichtschreiber der La Plata-Länder (1535-1555)
by Robert Lehmann-Nitsche
About the author
Born on November 9, 1872, in what is now Poland, he trained in Germany in both anthropology and medicine, earning doctorates in the 1890s. Soon after, he moved to Argentina, where he would live and work for more than thirty years.
In Argentina he served as director of the Anthropological Section of the La Plata Museum and also taught at the University of Buenos Aires. He became known for his research on Indigenous peoples as well as for collecting a wide range of materials on Argentine folklore, language, and popular traditions.
Lehmann-Nitsche later returned to Germany and ended his academic career in Berlin, where he died on April 9, 1938. Today he is remembered for the breadth of his fieldwork and for helping shape early anthropological and folkloric studies in Argentina.