KRAUSS, FRIEDRICH SALAMO

KRAUSS, FRIEDRICH SALAMO (pseudonym, Suljo Serhatlya ; 1859–1938), Austrian ethnographer and folklorist. Born at Pozega, Slavonia, Krauss studied classical philology but soon turned his attention to ethnography and folklore. He specialized in the southern Slavs, being the first to make a scientific investigation of these groups. A commission from the archduke Rudolph to study the folklore of the various Slavic provinces of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire – Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia – led to the writing of Sagen und Maerchen der Suedslaven (1883–84), Sitte und Brauch der Suedslaven (1885), and others. At the same time he discovered much Slavic and Moslem folk music and popular poetry, including the epic poem of the Bosnian Muslims,Smailagić Meho, which he published in 1886. A German translation appeared in 1890 under the title Mehmeds Brautfahrt. Krauss edited the monthly folklore journal Der Urquell, and wrote many important works on folklore, some of which have become classics. One of these was Allgemeine Methodik der Volkskunde (jointly with Lucien Scherman). Krauss developed a special interest in human sexuality as reflected in folkways, beliefs, and law, and in the evolution of sexual morality (Das Geschlechtsleben im Glauben, Sitte, Brauch und Gewohnheitsrecht der Japaner, 1911). He also did some creative writing, in particular a popular play, Kuenstlerblut. He was active in Jewish communal affairs in Vienna, and was for some years secretary of the Israelitische Allianz.

add. bibliography:

C. Daxelmueller, "Friedrich Salomo Krauss 1859–1938," in: W. Jacobeit, Voelkische Wissenschaft (1994), 463–76; R.L. Burt, F.S. Krauss 1859–1938 (1990).

[Ezra Fleischer]