Eberhard, Wolfram, 1909-1989

Wolfram Eberhard was born in Potsdam, Germany in 1909, the son of Gustav Eberhard. Beginning in 1927, Wolfram Eberhard studied sinology, ethnology and philosophy at the University of Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1933. He studied Chinese at the Seminar for Oriental Languages. In 1934, Eberhard married Alide Roemer. After Hitler's accession to power, Eberhard and his wife left Germany and went to China. While in China, he taught German-language and Latin classes. In 1935, he returned to Germany and worked as the curator of the Asian section of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. However, Nazi pressure to join their organizations forced him to leave again. In 1937, he traveled to the United States, Japan and China. Soon after, Eberhard took a position at the University of Ankara and spent the next eleven years in Turkey as a teacher of sinology. He taught and studied Chinese folklore and fiction, Chinese history, local cultures within China and a historically based theory of the development of Chinese civilization. He also studied Turkish and comparative folklore. In 1948, Eberhard accepted a position from the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught in the Department of Sociology until his retirement in 1976. From 1961 to 1977, he traveled almost every summer to some southeast Asian country, most often Taiwan, where he taught, studied and served as a consultant. Throughout his career, Eberhard published extensively and traveled widely. His publications comprise some 35 books, 185 articles, 300 book reviews and numerous shorter notes in German, Turkish and English. In 1983, he published his last major work, entitled "Dictionary of Chinese Symbols." After a long illness, Wolfram Eberhard died in 1989.

From the description of Wolfram Eberhard papers, 1933-1957. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122411892