Education
He studied medicine in Bonn and Berlin, and in 1896 was habilitated as an anatomist at the University of Strasbourg.
anthropologist politician university professor
He studied medicine in Bonn and Berlin, and in 1896 was habilitated as an anatomist at the University of Strasbourg.
Afterwards he participated in research trips to Tunisia and the South Pacific. In 1900 he became a professor of anthropology and ethnology at the University of Breslau, and several years later (1904) was appointed director of the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg (Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg). a position he maintained up until his retirement in 1935. As director of the Hamburg Museum of Ethnography, Thilenius coordinated the 1908-1910 Südsee-Expedition, a scientific expedition to German administered territories in Micronesia and Melanesia.
Over 15,000 objects and artifacts from the South Pacific were brought back to Hamburg, which were documented up until 1938 (23 volumes).
He also worked as a lecturer at the institute, which was the predecessor of Hamburg University. He would later become director of the chair for anthropology at the university.
Members of the research group included Friedrich Fülleborn (1866-1933), Augustin Krämer (1865–1941), Paul Hambruch (1882-1933), Otto Reche (1879-1966), Ernst Sarfert (1882-1937) and Wilhelm Müller-Wismar (1881-1916). He was a member of the Kolonialinstitut in Hamburg, an institute where he served as chairman from 1908 to 1910.