Hans Jürgen Eggers

Hans Jürgen Eggers (born January 2, 1906 in Saint Petersburg , † April 19, 1975 in Bad Pyrmont ) was a German prehistorian .

He was born in St. Petersburg and grew up in Estonia . In 1918 his family moved to Greifswald . He completed his studies in Tübingen , Berlin and Greifswald with a dissertation on the magical objects in ancient Icelandic prose literature .

At the State Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin, Eggers initially worked with Wilhelm Unverzagt on the recording of prehistoric and medieval castle walls . In 1933 he came to Otto Kunkel at the Pomeranian State Museum in Stettin . After the suspension of admission was lifted, he joined the NSDAP in 1937 . In 1941 he completed his habilitation on the state graves of Lübsow . After the Second World War he was the chief curator of the prehistoric department at the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology and Prehistory and taught from 1946 to 1971 as an adjunct professor at the University of Hamburg .

His research focus was on the Roman Empire in Germania . The work on Roman imports to Germania, on the relative chronology and on the graves of the Lübsow type from the early imperial period are basic works to this day, although the progress of research has brought about modifications of some views. In terms of methodology, the focus was on working with distribution maps. Based on the approaches of Gustaf Kossinna , he critically dealt with his ethnic interpretations and thus came to a concept of archaeological thesis, literary antithesis and historical synthesis.

Eggers' “Introduction to Prehistory” is well known, although it is now outdated, but nevertheless developed some important concepts (for example “living culture” - “dead culture”).

Eggers became a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute in 1941 and a full member in 1956 .

Publications (selection)

• The Roman import in free Germania (= Atlas of Prehistory. 1, ZDB -ID 533679-X ). 2 volumes. Hamburg Museum of Ethnology and Prehistory, Hamburg 1951.
• Introduction to the prehistory. Piper, Munich 1959 (Newly edited by Christof Krauskopf. With an afterword by Claudia Theune . 6th edition, Scrîpvaz, Schöneiche bei Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-942836-17-3 . With a directory of the writings by Hans Jürgen Eggers) .

literature

• Claus von Carnap-Bornheim : Hans Jürgen Eggers and the way out of the impasse of ethnic interpretation. In: Heiko Steuer (Ed.): An outstanding national science. German prehistorians between 1900 and 1995 (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 29). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2001, ISBN 3-11-017184-8 , pp. 173-198.
• Heidelies Wittig: Eggers, Hans-Jürgen. In: Franklin Kopitzsch , Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie. Lexicon of persons. Volume 2. Christians, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1366-4 , pp. 112-113, Google Books .
• Herbert Jankuhn :  Eggers, Hans Jürgen. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, ISBN 3-11-010468-7 , pp. 458-460.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Jürgen Eggers in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry by Hans-Jürgen Eggers in the Hamburg professors' catalog