Wolfram Eberhard

Wolfram Eberhard (March 17, 1909 – August 15, 1989) was a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley focused on Western, Central and Eastern Asian societies.

He taught a wide variety of courses specializing in the societies and popular cultures of Western, Central and Eastern Asia.

Eberhard entered Berlin University in 1927 where he focused his attention to classical Chinese and Social Anthropology.

He enrolled secretly because at the time his professors at Berlin University, and teachers of classical Chinese did not approve of his interests in colloquial languages.

He received his diploma at the Seminar in 1929, and then worked for his long-time friend Lessing at the Berlin Anthropological Museum.

In Zhejiang, Eberhard traveled in the countryside, studied temples, and collected folktales with the help of Ts'ao Sung-yeh; most of these tales were published in Erzählungsgut aus Südost-China (1966).

The next year Eberhard travelled across northern China to Xi'an, the sacred mountain Mount Hua, Taiyuan, and the Yungang Grottoes at Datong.

Adam von Trott helped Eberhard obtain a Moses Mendelssohn Fellowship which enabled him to purchase a round-the-world ticket and received permission to leave Germany.