Ernst Wahle

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Ernst Wahle (born May 25, 1889 in Magdeburg , † January 21, 1981 in Heidelberg ) was a German prehistorian .

Life

Wahle studied in Halle , Berlin and Heidelberg . During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Heidelberg . In 1909 he became a member of the German Society for Prehistory . He received his doctorate in 1913 with his thesis "East Germany in the Neolithic Age, a prehistoric-geographical experiment" under Alfred Hettner and Friedrich von Duhn . After the First World War , he worked in the prehistoric collection at the Heidelberg City Museum from 1919 to 1921.

From his habilitation in 1920 until his retirement in 1957 he represented prehistory and early history at the University of Heidelberg, initially only as part of a teaching position at the Archaeological Institute, and since 1933 in a separate "teaching center for early history", from which the Institute for Prehistory and Early History the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (today: Institute for Prehistory and Early History and Near Eastern Archeology). He was co-editor of the racist magazine for racial studies . From 1922 to 1938 Wahle was also responsible for the preservation of monuments in Unterbaden. In this function he founded the "Baden Fund Reports", which were incorporated into the 1972 "Fund Reports from Baden-Württemberg". Since 1923 he was a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute . From 1935 he was a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he worked since 1934 in the section for German prehistory of the Kampfbund for German culture . In 1933 Wahle joined the NS teacher association and in 1937 the NSDAP .

In 1944 Ernst Wahle was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

After the end of the Second World War he was initially released, but received his teaching post back in 1946. In 1961 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

meaning

Wahle's academic spectrum was very broad. It ranges from studies of the Neolithic to dealing with medieval finds. In terms of research history, his examination of the settlement archeology of Gustaf Kossinna , one of his teachers during his Berlin studies. The criticism of this field of research, which had a strong influence on archeology during National Socialism, appeared in print in 1941. However, Wahle also represented völkisch research in principle and his criticism was not directed against the ethnic interpretation of archaeological finds in general, but only against "lex Kossinna", according to which cultural provinces and peoples would always coincide. This was preceded by a dispute about the origin of the Indo-Europeans, in which Vahle advocated an origin in the eastern steppes, contrary to the Nazi ideology, which provided for a Nordic origin.

Already in 1920 Wahle emerged with his habilitation thesis on the settlement history of southwest Germany, which was at the beginning of modern settlement archeology. He expressly addressed the natural foundations of settlement in southwest Germany, with the emphasis on the Neolithic. The results are outdated today ( steppe theory theory ), but the methodological approach was trend-setting. Wahle's work is characterized above all by its participation in many overview presentations on prehistory and early history as well as some more theoretical-conceptual considerations on prehistoric archeology. Typological work was withdrawn in Wahles work in favor of a historical perspective. Despite the criticism of Kossinna, cultures and peoples were also the main figures of (pre) history at Wahle. The collaboration on the “Historical Atlas of Baden-Württemberg” is also worth mentioning.

Publications (selection)

  • The settlement of south-west Germany in pre-Roman times according to its natural basis (= reports of the Roman-Germanic commission of the German archaeological institute Frankfurt a. M. , Volume 12), Brügel, Ansbach 1920, pp. 1-75.
  • German prehistory , Kabitzsch, Leipzig 1932.
  • Prehistoric times on the Upper Rhine , Winter, Heidelberg 1937.
  • Early history of Germanicism . In: New Propylaen World History , Vol. 2, Propylaen, Berlin 1940.
  • For the ethnic interpretation of prehistoric cultural provinces. Limits of early historical knowledge (= meeting reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Phil.-Hist. Class 2, Treatises 1), Heidelberg 1941.
  • Early history as regional history , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1943.
  • Studies on the history of prehistoric research (= treatises of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Phil.-hist. Class ), Heidelberg 1950.
  • Prehistory and early history in Central Europe . (= Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte , Volume 1), dtv, 9th edition, Munich 1999.
  • Is early history still in demand? On the situation of a “loaded” science . In: Die Zeit , No. 34/1947.
  • Unity and independence of prehistoric research (= writings of the Society of Friends of Mannheim and the former Electoral Palatinate , Volume 12), Mannheim 1974.
  • And it went its way with him. Habelt, Bonn 1980 (autobiography, with list of publications).

literature

  • Jonas Beran: Choose, Ernst. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 .
  • Uwe Gross: Ernst Wahle. Documentator of lost early medieval finds. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. 32nd year 2003, issue 3, pp. 245–248 ( full text of the article as PDF ; entire issue as PDF ).
  • Dietrich Hakelberg: Ernst Wahle in the context of his time . In: Heiko Steuer (Ed.): An outstanding national science. German prehistorians between 1900 and 1995 . De Gruyter, Berlin 2001, pp. 199-310 (with list of publications).
  • Horst Kirchner (ed.): Prehistory and early history as historical science. Festschrift for Ernst Wahle's 60th birthday. Winter, Heidelberg 1950.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 238.
  2. ^ Website of the Institute for Prehistory and Early History and Near Eastern Archeology .
  3. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 640.
  4. ^ Ernst Wahle , entry in the member database of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, accessed on November 26, 2013.
  5. ↑ Member entry of Ernst Wahle at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 10, 2016.
  6. ^ Ernst Wahle obituary by Georg Kossack in the 1982 yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (PDF file).
personal data
SURNAME Choose, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1981
Place of death Heidelberg