The turmoil created by the Russian Revolution prompted Anderson and his brother Wilhelm to leave Russia and to move to Tartu in Estonia.

[3] For the 1911/1912 winter semester he enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin,[4] returning to the Kazan to continue his studies in the autumn of 1912.

[6] Anderson's most significant students at the time were Oskar Loorits and August Annist [et; de] and later Isidor Levin.

After the end of the second world war he received a visiting professorship at the University of Kiel, which he held until his retirement.

A notable student he mentored at Kiel was W. F. H. Nicolaisen who had a distinguished career in folklore studies in the United States and Scotland.

He is best known for his monograph Kaiser und Abt (Folklore Fellows' Communications 42, Helsinki 1923)[12] on folktales of type AT 922.