Richard Thurnwald (18 September 1869 – 19 January 1954) was an Austrian anthropologist and sociologist, known for his comparative studies of social institutions.
[1] In 1917 he completed his habilitation at the University of Halle, and several years later, began giving lectures in sociology and anthropology in Berlin (1924).
[2] After World War II, as a professor at the Free University of Berlin, he established the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
[1] From 1931 to 1934, he published the highly acclaimed Die menschliche Gesellschaft in ihren ethno-soziologischen Grundlagen ("The ethno-sociological foundations of human society"; 5 volumes).
Several of his works have been published in English, such as: In Memoriam Richard Thurnwald by Leonhard Adam, Oceania volume 25 (3) March 1, 1955