Hans Reinerth

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Hans Reinerth (born May 13, 1900 in Bistritz , Austria-Hungary , † April 13, 1990 in Unteruhldingen ) was a German archaeologist . He was a pioneer of pollen analysis and modern settlement archeology , but is controversial because of his role before and in the time of National Socialism .

Life

Reinerth completed his short course of study with a doctorate in Tübingen in 1921 , followed by his habilitation in 1925 . The Tübingen Prehistoric Research Institute under the direction of Robert Rudolf Schmidt carried out extensive excavations at the Federsee , where Reinerth soon played an important role. Among other things, he examined the Bronze Age moated castle in Buchau , but failed to publish the excavation publication for his life.

Reinerth was a member of the ethnically -minded, anti-Semitic Kampfbund for German culture and joined the NSDAP in 1931 . In March 1933 he signed the declaration of 300 university lecturers for Adolf Hitler . From 1933 until the end of the Second World War Reinerth was head of the Reich Association for German Prehistory . In 1944 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In 1934 Reinerth succeeded Gustaf Kossinnas on the chair at the University of Berlin . He became editor of the magazines Germanen-Erbe and Mannus, magazine for German prehistory and was also head of the department for prehistory and early history at the National Socialist cultural community , the successor organization to the Kampfbund. In 1936 he played a key role in setting up the archaeological open-air museum in Oerlinghausen . In 1937 he wrote in the journal Volk und Heimat : "Whoever reviles and disparages our Germanic ancestors is no longer faced with isolated völkisch fighters, but with the united front of all National Socialist Germans". In June 1938 Reinerth inaugurated an open-air museum with 14 reconstructed Stone Age huts in Radolfzell in the presence of the Baden Gauleiter, Robert Wagner . In 1939 he became the Führer’s representative in Alfred Rosenberg’s surveillance office for monitoring the entire intellectual and ideological training of the NSDAP, head of the “Prehistory Office”.

From 1940 Reinerth belonged as head of a "Special Task history" the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce , ERR, to which, in particular so-called "unclaimed inheritance of Jews ' robbed . As a rule, the owners had been murdered beforehand. In 1941, after the German conquest of Greece, he headed an excavation of Neolithic settlement in Thessaly , with which he "proved" that Teutons had colonized Greece from the north. Some of the finds were brought to Germany and only appeared after his death in his private holdings in Unteruhldingen, from where they were restituted in 2014 by Gunter Schöbel .

In September 1942, Rosenberg set up a “Working Group for Greek-Iranian Antiquities Research in the Occupied Eastern Territories” as a working group in the Institute for Indo-European Intellectual History , based in Munich. Richard Harder was to lead research in this area . Reinerth, head of the Special Staff Prehistory, was appointed as his representative in order to strengthen the cooperation between the Special Staff and this working group. In a letter dated September 29, 1942, Rosenberg wrote to Harder, whereby "security" means "robbery" in today's terms

“From September 21, 1942 I have Dr. Reinerth was entrusted with the determination, safeguarding and research of prehistoric Germanic and Slavic finds and other legacies in museums, scientific institutes, private collections and other places in the occupied eastern territories. "

- Rosenberg to Harder : Federal Archives (Germany), signature NS 8/265, p. 15

Reinerth was expelled from the NSDAP on February 27, 1945 by the Supreme Party Court . The reason was that he “had friendly relations with Jews”. The real reason will have been the conflict of competencies between the Rosenberg Office and the SS organization Ahnenerbe , since Reinerth belonged to the Rosenberg Office.

After the Second World War, Reinerth became director of the Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen , which for a long time conveyed a very conservative picture of prehistory. He was one of the few archaeologists burdened by the Nazis who was unable to continue their career in the post-war period. In 1949 colleagues, including several former SS members such as the former SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Jankuhn , later professor of prehistory in Göttingen , resolved at a meeting in Regensburg because of "unobjective and tendentious science of prehistory" excluded from the scientific community of prehistoric and early historians.

Reinerth was the first chairman of the newly founded Association of German Sport Divers (VDST) between 1954 and 1958 . In 1958 he was made honorary president of the VDST. From 1954 to 1961 he headed the underwater research department within the association. During these years Reinerth published several articles about his research on the pile dwellings near Unteruhldingen in “Delphin”, the member magazine of the VDST.

Fonts (selection)

Editor of the magazines Mannus and Germanen-Erbe

  • The pile dwellings of Lake Constance in the light of the latest research , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 50th year 1922, pp. 56–72 ([scan missing digitized])
  • The Federseemoor as a settlement of prehistoric man . Schussenried 1923; Revised and greatly expanded new edition in the picture section: Leipzig 1936
  • The chronology of the Younger Stone Age in southern Germany . Augsburg 1923
  • The settlement of Lake Constance in the Middle Stone Age . Schumacher Festschrift for Karl Schumacher's 70th birthday . Mainz 1930, pp. 91-95
  • with other authors: Das Pfahldorf Sipplingen. Results of the excavations of the Bodenseegeschichtsverein 1929/30 , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 59th year 1932, pp. 1–154 ( digitized version )
  • The Federseemoor as a settlement of prehistoric man. Kabitzsch, Leipzig 1936
  • Editor and co-author: Prehistory of the German Tribes. Germanic deed and culture on German soil. 3 volumes. Bibliographical Institute / Herbert Stubenrauch, Leipzig / Berlin 1940
  • Handbook of the prehistoric collections of Germany, southern and central Germany including the Protectorate of Bohemia a. Moravia . Ed. “Reich Association for German Prehistory” and “Reich Office for Prehistory of the NSDAP”. JA Barth publishing house, Leipzig 1941
  • Stilt houses on Lake Constance . Überlingen 1977

literature

  • Katharina Krall: Prehistory in National Socialism. A comparison of the writings of Herbert Jankuhn and Hans Reinerth between 1933 and 1939 . Master thesis. University of Konstanz 2005 ( full text )
  • Helmut Maurer: Obituary in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 109th year 1991, pp. V – X ( digitized version )
  • Gunter Schöbel: Hans Reinerth. Researcher - Nazi functionary - museum director . In: Achim Leube , Morton Hegewisch (ed.): Prehistory and National Socialism. Central and Eastern European Prehistory and Early History Research in the years 1933–1945 . Studies on the history of science and universities 2. Heidelberg 2002. ISBN 3-935025-08-4 , pp. 321–396.
  • Michael Strobel: The Schussenrieder settlement Taub Ried I . Stuttgart 2000, p. 28ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 487.
  2. ^ Quote from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 488.
  3. ↑ See Hans Reinerth: Radolfzell-Mettnau open-air museum, guide through the Stone Age buildings. Radolfzell (1938).
  4. ^ A b Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 488.
  5. ↑ to joining ERR see 2013 detailing the dissertation of Giessen Nazarii Gutsul: The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce and its activities in Ukraine (1941-1944) , pouring 2014, online d-nb.info/1068591870/34 .
  6. ↑ Hubert Filser: The Shards of the Aryans , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 5, 2014, p. 24
  7. ^ Rosenberg wrote similarly to Reinerth himself on August 21, 1941, quoted in with Ulrike Hartung, abducted and missing. Temmen, Bremen 2000 ISBN 3-86108-336-1 , p. 80. - In addition to “security” or “security”, Rosenberg's people also liked to use the words “rescue” and “salvage” for art and book theft.
  8. ^ Theo Toebosch in NRC Handelsblad , December 8, 2007.
  9. ↑ The Dutch archaeologist Harm Tjalling Waterbolk in NRC Handelsblad , December 8, 2007. Waterbolk knew Jankuhn, Reinerth and other German colleagues. He told the newspaper about the careers and disputes of his German colleagues. For Harm Tjalling Waterbolk see Dutch Wikipedia nl: Tjalling Waterbolk
  10. ^ Karl-Heinz Kerll: Chronicle of diving sports 1954-2009 . Self-published, CD edition 1, version December 14, 2008.
  11. ↑ cf. from Schöbel also the full text, web link
personal data
SURNAME Reinerth, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Bistrița
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1990
Place of death Unteruhldingen