Hans Rhotert

Hans Rhotert (born September 20, 1900 in Hanover , † February 13, 1991 in Traunstein ) was a German ethnologist . He was a supporter of cultural morphology and mainly dealt with rock art research in North Africa and the Middle East .

Life

School and study

Hans Rhotert attended the Realgymnasium zu Linden near Hanover and was drafted into military service in 1918 after completing the Notabitur. After his release in 1919, he began studying German, history, art history and philosophy in Freiburg. In the summer of 1920 he moved to the University of Munich , where he met Leo Frobenius at a carnival festival in the house of the former colonial painter Walter von Ruckteschell in Dachau in 1924 . Impressed by his personality, he joined the circle around Frobenius and became his most important student alongside Adolf Ellegard Jensen . In 1927 Rhotert finished his studies with a dissertation on the history of literature on Ephraim Moses Kuh and became an assistant at the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt.

In the same year he married his fellow student Dorothea "Ebba" Daasch.

Assistant at the Frobenius Institute

Rhotert contributed significantly to the expansion of the institute and, together with Ad. E. Jensen to take on Frobenius' scientific legacy. Rhotert was more interested in prehistoric cultural artefacts, while Jensen was supposed to continue exploring the living cultures of Africa. Rhotert undertook his first research trip to Libya under Frobenius' direction ; later he himself led some expeditions to Africa.

Rhotert was fascinated by the colorful personality of Leo Frobenius. However, the relationship between the two ethnologists was put to the test in 1935 on a research trip to Egypt by the extravagance of the teacher. Rhotert tried to ensure that the expedition ran smoothly, while Frobenius missed the "adventure" and set off with a small group in the middle of the sandstorm. The vehicles were massively damaged and Rhotert finally had to collect the scattered parts and repair the cars. A dispute arose, but was soon settled.

With the beginning of the Second World War , Rhotert was drafted into the military and was dismissed from the Frobenius Institute. After the end of the war, Rhotert had to apply for a new position; he was no longer used at the institute. Rhotert initially worked in publishing for ten years before resuming his ethnological work as director of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.

Research trips

In 1933 Rhotert accompanied Leo Frobenius as an assistant on an expedition to the Libyan Desert, where the Hungarian Count Lazlo de Almasy had previously discovered the rock paintings of Ain Dua in the Auenat Mountains. Hans Rhotert later published the results of this research trip in his book "Libysche Felsbilder". In addition to his scientific work, Rhotert distinguished himself through his organizational talent and as a safe driver as well as a car repairer in the impassable desert.

In 1934 Rhotert led the northern group of the XII. German-Inner-African research expedition to Jordan and the Libyan desert. Elisabeth Charlotte Pauli, Käthe Marr, Maria Weyersberg, Hans Beck , and Douglas Claughton Fox took part in the expedition . The rock paintings discovered by Horsfield and Glueck in 1932 were edited on site. Rhotert later led his group to Egypt. In his book "Transjordan" Rhotert summarizes the experiences and research results of the trip.

In 1941 Rhotert was entrusted with the logistical organization of the " Sonderkommando Dora ", which took him back to Libya, in the Fezzan . In 1962/63 Rhotert, together with R. Kuper and W. Kühnau, undertook his last expedition back to the North African desert with the support of the Linden Museum. They documented the rock paintings of Wadi Ertan and Wadi Tarhoscht for nine weeks, Rhotert later published the results of the trip in his work "Rock paintings from Wadi Ertan and Wadi Tarhoscht".

Director of the Linden Museum

In 1957 the Linden Museum in Stuttgart chose Hans Rhotert as its new director. Until his retirement, Rhotert remained active in this position and managed to expand the Linden Museum within a few years, making it one of the most important ethnographic museums.

Chairman of the DGV

After Rhotert was able to bring the conference of the German Society for Ethnology (DGV) to Stuttgart in 1959 , he immediately became its chairman. He stayed in his office until 1963 and took over again from 1966 to 1967. The new statutes, which Rhotert was able to push through, remained valid until 1995.

retirement

In 1970 Hans Rhotert retired. He prepared the publication of the results of his research results in Wadi Ertan and Wadi Tarhoscht; continued to show an active interest in ethnological questions and research and particularly followed the further development of the Frobenius Institute and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. He also paid special attention to the expeditions to Libya that began in Cologne in 1980 and which followed on from his own research.

Works

• Ephraim Moses cow. Dissertation. Munich 1927.
• Transjordan: prehistoric research . Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1938.
• From the life of the Lindenmuseum . In: Tribus . Publications of the Linden Museum 8. Ed. By: Württ. Verein f. Commercial geography e. V., Stuttgart 1959.
• Report on the Linden Museum . In: Tribus . Publications of the Linden Museum 10. Ed. By: Württ. Verein f. Commercial geography e. V., Stuttgart 1961, pp. 7-14.
• Research trip to southwest Libya . In: Tribus . Publications of the Linden Museum 12. Ed. V .: Linden Museum. Society for Earth and Ethnology V., Stuttgart 1963. pp. 13-31.
• New rock art finds in Wadi Tarhoscht (southwest Libya) . In: Eike Haberland u. a. (Ed.): Festschrift for Ad. E. Jensen . Klaus Renner Verlag, Munich 1964.
• Ethnographic Museum today . In: Tribus . Publications of the Linden Museum 20, Stuttgart 1971, pp. 21–24.
• The Linden Museum Stuttgart 1957–1970 . In: Tribus . Publications of the Linden Museum 30. Friedrich Kussmaul on the sixtieth. Edited by: Linden Museum Stuttgart. State Museum of Ethnology, Stuttgart 1981.
• with Rudolph Kuper (ed.): Rock paintings from Wadi Ertan and Wadi Tarhoscht (southwest Fezzan, Libya) . Academic printing and Verl.- Anst., Graz 1981.
• Libyan rock art. Results of the 11th and 12th German Inner-African Research Expedition . Publication of the Frobenius Institute at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 1952.

literature

• Rudolph Kuper: Hans Rhotert 1900–1991. In: Paideuma. No. 38, 1992, pp. 7-16.
• Friedrich Kussmaul: Hans Rhotert (1900–1991) in memoriam. In: Tribus. Yearbook of the Linden Museum. No. 40, Ed .: State Museum for Ethnology, Stuttgart 1991.
• Jürgen Zwernemann: Hans Rhotert. In: Journal of Ethnology. No. 115, 1990, Dietrich Reimer, 1992, pp. 3-7.
• Nikolaus Benjamin Richter : Unforgettable Sahara. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1951 (the well-known astronomer was part of the expedition in the Dora special command as a co-driver of Hans Rhotert in 1942 ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Overview: History of the DGSKA. (PDF offers) German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology e. V.