Bodo Spranz

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Bodo Spranz (born January 1, 1920 in Nordhausen am Harz , † September 1, 2007 in Bremen ) was a German officer and successful assault gun commander in the Wehrmacht . In October 1943 he was awarded the 308th Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . After the war he was a well-known German ethnologist ( old Americanist ).

Life

Wehrmacht

Bodo Spranz attended elementary school and secondary school in Schwerin . After the Reich Labor Service , he joined the 8th Battery of Artillery Regiment 12 (Schwerin) as a flag squire in 1938. With this unit he fought as part of the 12th Infantry Division during the attack on Poland . In January 1940 he was transferred to the 209 Artillery Regiment ( 209th Infantry Division ), where he was promoted to lieutenant on April 1, 1940 . After participating in the western campaign , he reported to the assault artillery and on July 21, 1940 came to the IV. Department of the Artillery Training Regiment. On August 18, 1940 he became platoon leader of the assault gun division 185, with which he fought on the Eastern Front with Army Group Center from June 1941 .

On April 1, 1942 Spranz was promoted to first lieutenant and was chief of the 2nd battery of assault gun division 185, which he led in the autumn of 1942 in the fierce fighting during the Battle of Velikiye Luki . On May 6, 1942, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold . On June 2, 1943 he became the battery chief of the 1st battery of the assault gun division 237, which he successfully led in the Smolensk area in the summer and autumn of 1943 , for which he was promoted to captain on August 1, 1943 and by Adolf Hitler on October 3, 1943 was awarded the Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . As reported in the press, the 23-year-old Spranz had shot down 74 tanks by September 1943 and was wounded a total of nine times. He was thus one of the most successful assault gun commanders in the Wehrmacht. On November 9, 1943, Spranz signed the Golden Book of his hometown Nordhausen. In April 1944 he took on a tank combat course.

On December 1, 1944, he became an orderly officer at the Chief of the General Staff of the Army . From March 1945 he was sent to Italy for general staff training in the 14th Army . At the end of the war he was with the 12th Army in the Halbe pocket and was taken prisoner by the Americans in May 1945, from which he was released in October 1945.

Awards

science

From 1947 to 1950 Spranz attended the art college in Bremen and in 1951 was employed as a technical assistant at the Übersee-Museum . At the University of Hamburg he studied ethnology, folklore and prehistory. Under the then professor Franz Termer , he specialized in the field of ancient American studies and received a dissertation topic in this direction from him. In 1958 he was born in Hamburg with the work “Der Codex Borgia . Studies on the Iconography of a Mexican Illuminated Manuscript in the Vatican Library in Rome ”. After completing his doctorate, he initially stayed at the Übersee-Museum Bremen.

On June 1, 1962, he became the full-time museum director of the Museum of Ethnology in Freiburg im Breisgau . He completed his habilitation in 1969 with a thesis "The Pyramids of Totimehuacan / Puebla (Mexico) and their classification in the development of pre-classical pyramid construction in Mesoamerica" ​​at the University of Freiburg and received the Venia Legendi for ethnology. In 1984 he retired.

Publications (selection)

  • The Codex Borgia . Bremen 1958.
  • Figures of gods in the Mexican illuminated manuscripts of the Codex Borgia group . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1964.
  • Art in ancient Mexico . Museum of Ethnology, Freiburg i. Br. 1968.
  • The pyramids of Totimehuacan, Puebla and their classification in the development of pre-classical pyramids in Mesoamerica. Freiburg i. Br. 1969.
  • with DE Dumond, Peter Hilbert: Las pirámides del Cerro Xochitecatl, Tlaxcala (México) . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1978.
  • Boats, technology and symbolism. Shipping in non-European cultures . Municipal museums, Freiburg i.Br. 1984.

literature

  • Rolf Herzog : Bodo Spranz on his 65th birthday . In: Tribus 33, 1984, pp. 61-62 ( digitized version , with picture).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Kuhlbrodt , City Archives Nordhausen (Ed.): Chronicle of the City of Nordhausen. 1802 to 1989. Geiger, Horb am Neckar 2003, ISBN 3-89570-883-6 , p. 397.
personal data
SURNAME Spranz, Bodo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, knight's cross holder and old Americanist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordhausen am Harz
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 2007
Place of death Bremen