Werner Friedrich Theodor Kissling was an ethnographer and photographer.
28 Facts About Werner Kissling
1.
2.
Werner Kissling's mother, Johanna, was a photographer and she was a central figure in his life.
3.
Werner Kissling was born into an aristocratic, land-owning family but spent his multimillion-pound inheritance and died in a Dumfries care home.
4.
Werner Kissling is known for the short film Eriskay: A Poem of Remote Lives, which is based on his footage, shot in 1934, of crofting life on the island of Eriskay in the Western Isles.
5.
Werner Kissling's mother, Johanna, was a photographer and a central figure in his life.
6.
When Werner Kissling died, 83 years later, that same postcard would still be in his possession, found in his single suitcase in his room.
7.
Werner Kissling was born on 11 April 1895, near Breslau in Silesia, then part of the German Empire, today in Poland.
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Werner Kissling was the second son of a wealthy, aristocratic family of land-owners and brewers.
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Werner Kissling's mother was Johanna Kissling and his father was the great grandson of the founder of the wealthy brewing family, Conrad Kissling KG, established in Breslau in 1835.
10.
Werner Kissling was part of the German delegation to the League of Nations.
11.
In 1931, Werner Kissling came to Britain as Second Secretary in the German embassy in London.
12.
The rise of the Nazi Party in the Weimar Republic continued to distress him and after Adolf Hitler's National Revolution in 1933, Werner Kissling was forced to resign his position at the German embassy.
13.
Werner Kissling moved to Cambridge, having acquired the position as 'Keeper of Collections' at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
14.
Less than a year later with Hitler's intelligence services keeping him under surveillance, Werner Kissling decided to move on.
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Werner Kissling was particularly interested in the architecture of the traditional house, and the Hebridean blackhouse of the Western Isles would feature prominently in his work.
16.
Four years later, in 1938, Werner Kissling made an enthnographic field trip to New Zealand, financed by himself, where he photographed the traditional skills of the Maori peoples.
17.
Werner Kissling is reported to have recorded a film of the Maori peoples, but, the film has not been located.
18.
When he returned to Britain in 1939, at the start of World War II, Werner Kissling, being a former German diplomat, was interned in the Tower of London.
19.
Werner Kissling was released in 1942 and returned to Cambridge to continue his ethnographic work.
20.
Between 1952 and 1961, Werner Kissling earned a living as a part-time writer and photographer for the School of Scottish Studies, photographing traditional skills in the Hebrides, the Scottish Borders and south-western Scotland.
21.
In 1968, Werner Kissling settled in Dumfries, where he spent the last 20 years of his life, working as an anthropologist and photographer for the town's Burgh Museum, basing himself in a lean-to out-building.
22.
Werner Kissling spent the summer of 1934 on the island of Eriskay in the Western Isles of Scotland.
23.
Werner Kissling was always concerned with the plight of the islanders including the expansion of the road network and the water supply.
24.
Werner Kissling's film formed the centre-piece of a "Hebridean Evening", hosted at the Marquess of Londonderry's London residence, on Tuesday, 30 April 1935, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary of Teck, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Ramsay MacDonald, Macleod of Macleod and Cameron of Lochiel.
25.
Werner Kissling died penniless, on 3 February 1988 at the Moorheads Nursing Home in Dumfries, leaving behind him one of the most extensive photographic records of the Scottish Hebrides ever made.
26.
Werner Kissling was buried in the town's St Michael's kirkyard in an unmarked grave, a stone's throw from that of Robert Burns.
27.
Werner Kissling made a splendid film on the Maoris of New Zealand, and he spent three months in a black house getting an insight into crofting life.
28.
Werner Kissling was a private man who wished no public recognition for himself or his work while he was alive.