Karl Heinrich Roth-Lutra

Karl Heinrich Roth-Lutra (born May 14, 1900 in Kaiserslautern ; † February 20, 1984 , actually Karl Roth ) was a German anthropologist .

Life

Karl Roth passed his Abitur in Kaiserslautern. After finishing school, Karl Roth took on the nickname "Lutra", which he derived from the earliest known name of Kaiserslautern. This should make his name something extraordinary. Although he did not fight in World War I , he was later awarded the World War Cross of Honor . After the First World War he studied anthropology at the University of Munich . In 1925 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the anthropology of the Palatinate.

In March 1932 he became editor of the NSZ-Rheinfront supplement “Race and Culture”. In October of the same year he joined the NSDAP and a short time later the Sturmabteilung . He took on several functions in the NSDAP. In Kaiserslautern, for example, he was a propaganda warrior, Gaufach advisor science and training manager. He was also a Gaufachschaftswalter and specialist group administrator for the German Labor Front .

From 1933 to 1937 he was Secretary General and head of the Racial Studies department of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science (PGFW). In 1936 he began researching the so-called Rhineland bastards , which presumably served as the “basis for the registration and forced sterilization ” of this population group in the Palatinate. He was also in contact with Eugen Fischer , who was involved in the sterilization.

After 1937 he prepared an expedition to the Amazon for the State Museum of Ethnology in Berlin. He then completed an internship at the Kaiser Wilhelms Institute . From 1939 he became a volunteer assistant at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena , but was drafted into military service in 1941. In 1945 he was taken prisoner of war , from which he was released in 1948.

After the Second World War he worked at the Anthropological Institute of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and continued his work as an anthropologist. Among other things, he played a leading role in the investigation of the Barbarossa burial ground in Kaiserslautern.

After his death, his private library went to the Palatinate Museum for Natural History .

Publications (selection)

• Is social advancement associated with anthropological selection? , in: Archives for Social Hygiene and Demography 2 (1926/27) 449–452.
• Archaeological preliminary report on the Barbarossa burial ground in Kaiserslautern. From the anthropological institute of the University of Mainz . In: Mitteilungen des Historisches Verein der Pfalz Vol. 59 (1961) pp. 5–61.

literature

• Wolfgang Freund: People, Empire and Western Frontier. German studies and politics in the Palatinate, Saarland and annexed Lorraine 1925–1945 (=  publications of the Commission for Saarland State History and Folk Research . No. 39 ). Commission for Saarland State History and Folk Research, Saarbrücken 2006, ISBN 3-939150-00-2 , p. 211-213 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Border Crossing (=  History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism . No. 9 ). Wallstein Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-89244-799-3 , p. 293 .
2. ^ Library of the POLLICHIA in the Palatinate Museum for Natural History. Handbook of the historical book collections in Germany, Austria and Europe, accessed on October 4, 2012 .