Rolf Wilhelm Brednich

Rolf Wilhelm Brednich (born February 8, 1935 in Worms, Germany) is a German Europeanist ethnologist and ethnographer (Volkskundler) and folklorist.

Brednich studied Volkskunde, German studies, history, and theology at the Universities of Tübingen and Mainz, in Germany, getting his doctorate from the latter with a dissertation entitled Volkserzählungen und Volksglaube von den Schicksalsfrauen.

Between 1963 and 1980 he was the leader of the Deutsches Volksliedarchiv in Freiburg. From 1965 through 1974 he was head of the commission for song, music and dance research within the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde. From 1969 und 1881, he taught at the University of Freiburg, receiving his habilitation in 1973 with his Die Liedpublizistik im Flugblatt des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts.

In 1975 Brednich edited the Volkskunde-Bibliographie. In 1982 he became editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the Folktale and co-editor of the journal Fabula. Between 1983 and 1999 he was head of the Volkskundliche Kommission für Niedersachsen e.V. and from 1991 through 1999 head of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde e.V.. In 2000 he was designated Senior Honorary Research Fellow at Stout Centre of the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Since 2005 he has been Visiting Professor of Anthropology at the School of Social and Cultural Studies at that university. He has carried out research in Germany, Canada, and New Zealand.

Among the general German-speaking public, he made his name with collections of urban legends, starting with Die Spinne in der Yucca-Palme.

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