Hans-Dietrich Kahlke

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Hans-Dietrich Kahlke (born May 27, 1924 in Weimar ; † January 30, 2017 ) was a German prehistorian and paleontologist who primarily dealt with Pleistocene excavations. He is considered to be the founder of the Weimar Quaternary palaeontology.

Life

Hans-Dietrich Kahlke showed an early interest in nature in his childhood by collecting rocks and preparing small animals. After graduating from high school, Kahlke was drafted into World War II in 1942. In 1944 he was taken prisoner by the British in Italy and attended a so-called desert university in the prison camp in Egypt , where lectures were organized by captured academics. When he was later transferred to England, he was allowed to attend geoscientific and archaeological lectures at Cambridge University .

In 1948 Kahlke returned to Weimar, helped rebuild the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Thuringia and then studied archeology, geology and anthropology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . He completed his studies at the end of 1952 with a thesis and a few days later with a doctorate.

Hans-Dietrich Kahlke carried out his first excavations in Sondershausen and Bruchstedt , and the ceramic grave fields were discovered. In 1954, during excavations in Voigtstedt, he discovered finds of fossil remains of carnivores from the Pleistocene , which brought him worldwide renown. Then he organized an annual meeting in Weimar of researchers on Quaternary palaeontology from West and East . Further excavations followed, which he led, for example in Stránská skála , in the Mosbacher Sande and in the caves of Hag-Hum and Tan-Van in Vietnam . Kahlke also gave guest lectures at universities around the world.

In 1962, Kahlke founded the Institute for Quaternary Paleontology in Weimar , today part of the Senckenberg Research Institute , which offered him more affordable research opportunities. In the same year he was appointed founding director of the Quaternary Commission of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . In 1987 he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Jena and retired in 1991. In retirement he worked on a voluntary basis for the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research . In 1995 he became an honorary member of the Thuringian Geological Association .

Hans-Dietrich Kahlke was married. He died on January 30, 2017 at the age of 92 after a long illness.

Publications (selection)

  • The Large Mammals in the Ice Age (1955)
  • Stone Age Man (1957)
  • Excavations on four continents (1968)
  • Excavations Around The World (1972)
  • The Ice Age (1981)

literature

  • Gunter Bantiek: Hans-Dietrich Kahlke on his 70th birthday. Life's work and bibliography . In: Quaternary. International Yearbook for Research into the Ice Age and the Stone Age 45/46, 1995, pp. 237–250 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Gunter Bantiek: Hans-Dietrich Kahlke on his 70th birthday. Life's work and bibliography . In: Quaternary. International Yearbook for Research into the Ice Age and the Stone Age 45/46, 1995, pp. 237–250.
  2. ^ Honorary members of the TGV
  3. ^ Weimar's famous ice age researcher has died , Thüringer Allgemeine, February 1, 2017, accessed on February 2, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Kahlke, Hans-Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German prehistorian and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Weimar
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 2017