Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Russwurm (25 November 1812, Ratzeburg, Germany – 5 February 1883, Tallinn), historian, ethnographer and folklorist. His father was the principal of the Ratzeburg’s Dome School.

Graduated from the Ratzeburg’s Dome School (gymnasium), studied theology in the University of Bonn and Berlin, passed the vicar candidate’s exam in 1835 in Ratzeburg. He came to Estonia in 1835. In years 1835–39 he was a tutor in Ehmja manor in Lääne County, 1839–41 inspector of the Tallinn Dome School, 1841–68 teacher in Haapsalu gymnasiumand inspector of the schools of the Lääne County, 1869–77 the city archivist of Tallinn and in years 1877–83 the archivist of the knighthood’s office. His main area of research was the history of coastal Swedes, ethnography, Saaremaa and Ruhnu, folklore; Haapsalu and its surroundings, folk traditions of Saaremaa and Ruhnu, the history of the Haapsalu castle, genealogies of Baltic German families.

One of the founders of the Estonian Literary Society (1842), honorary doctor of the University of Uppsala, Demidov award of Russian Academy of Sciences (1855) for the work “Eibofolke oder die Schweden an den Küsten Ehstlands und auf Runö I–II”).

External link

• Rußwurm, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Eugen von Nottbeck in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band 30 (1890), S. 19–20 (in German)

EKABL, 1996; EE 14, 2000; ETeadBL 3, 2013 (Ü. Paras); updated in 2014