Leo Viktor Frobenius (June 29, 1873 - August 9, 1938) was an ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography. In 1897/1898 Frobenius defined several "culture areas", cultures showing similar traits that have been spread by diffusion or invasion. With his term paideuma, he wanted to describe a gestalt, a manner of creating meaning, that was typical of certain economic structures. He undertook his first expedition to Africa in 1904 to the Kasai district in Congo, formulating the African Atlantis theory during his travels. In 1920 he founded the Institute for Cultural Morphology in Munich. His writings with Douglas Fox were a channel through which some African traditional storytelling and epic entered European literature. In the 1930s, Frobenius claimed that he had found proof of the existence of the lost continent of Atlantis. Due to his studies in African history, Frobenius is a figure of renown in many African countries even today He died in 1938 at the age of 65.