Kurt Langenheim

Kurt Maximilian Hermann Langenheim (born January 21, 1903 in Redingsdorf , † September 18, 1990 in Wendelstein ) was a German prehistorian .

Life

He was the son of a farmer in what is now Schleswig-Holstein . However, he later attended - far from his home - the elementary schools in Brüel and in Berlinchen (in the sub-province of Brandenburg east of the Oder). Then he went back to Holstein, where he was a high school student in Eutin from 1913 to 1923 . Then he is said to have completed an agricultural apprenticeship.

Study time

Langenheim studied prehistory at the Universities of Kiel , Munich , Berlin and finally back in Kiel. In December 1931 he submitted his dissertation to the University of Kiel , in which he dealt extensively with the megalithic ceramics of Schleswig-Holstein and for which the archaeologist Herbert Jankuhn had proofread. In February 1932 Langenheim passed his doctoral examination with Gustav Schwantes . In 1934 his work was printed. A special focus was his excavations on the Stellerburg in Dithmarschen . In 1932 he became a volunteer at the Museum of the City of Kiel. In the same year he married Hertha Kirchhoff, with whom he later had three children.

Danzig

In 1933, Langenheim received a scholarship from the Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft as a volunteer at the State Museum for Natural History and Prehistory in Danzig , which he held until 1934. In the Free City of Danzig , which was then under the administration of the League of Nations , he was immediately and intensely involved in local and West Prussian archaeological prehistory.

Wroclaw

Due to his publications, which have meanwhile become known throughout the German Empire (especially about Danzig, Elbing , History of the Vikings), he received the offer in 1934 to work as custodian in the State Office for Prehistoric Monument Preservation in Wroclaw . After moving there, a very active, fruitful and wide-ranging activity began, which extended almost to Upper Silesia . A considerable number of publications, combined with a large number of lectures, document his extensive excavation work. Kurt Langenheim now also became a member of the Kampfbund for German Culture founded by Alfred Rosenberg in 1929 . Before that (in 1928) he had already become a member of the NSDAP , and in 1938 he was also a local group training leader.

According to the prehistory dossier that can be viewed on the Internet, Langenheim is said to have been “scientifically excellent, outstanding in character”, but also “the sharpest opponent of Hans Reinerth ”, the head of the Reich Association for German Prehistory (DGV). On the other hand, Langenheim was described by Reinerth as "ideologically unreliable". ...

Back in Gdansk

In 1938 Langenheim was promoted to 1st curator in Breslau. A short time later, on August 15, 1938, he took over the position of director of the State Museum for Nature and Prehistory in Danzig and thus succeeded Wolfgang La Baume , who had followed a call to Königsberg in East Prussia. In 1939, Langenheim also received a lectureship in prehistory at the Technical University from the Danzig Senate . At the same time he became a member of the examination committee for teaching at secondary schools. He had taken over the museum's series of publications from La Baume, which he now ran under the new name Gothiskandza as editor and editor. This item had "chosen to the place where the island by the Long Home Scandza -down Goths are first come ashore."

However, his museum and excavation activities were interrupted after the outbreak of World War II because he was entrusted with different tasks in occupied Poland. In addition, as a reserve lieutenant, he also had military training. At the Imperial University of Posen , he also had to take over the vacancy for the professorial position for German-language lectures (the professor Ernst Petersen had been called up for military service). In 1943 Langenheim was also drafted. No further details are known. In a list of German prehistorians compiled by Karl Hermann Jacob-Friesen for December 1945, “Dr. habil. Kurt Langenheim ”without comment with the note“ captured in USA ”.

Ratzeburg

Langenheim's family had in the meantime fled or been driven from Danzig. She returned to Holstein because there were still family connections there. Kurt Langenheim, too, had meanwhile been released from captivity, and Herbert Jankuhn's second list of German archaeologists (for January 1947) gave his address as “Lütjenburg in Ostholstein”. He still lived there in 1949. In the Lauenburg family calendar for 1951, he was first mentioned as an employee of the district administration of the Schleswig-Holstein district of the Duchy of Lauenburg . He was head of the “Office for Cultural Affairs including the local museum and district archive” in the district town of Ratzeburg . According to today's terminology, he was a "cultural advisor". An [official] habilitation by Kurt Langenheim mentioned by Herbert Jankuhn and already achieved earlier cannot be proven by documents.

There is evidence of extensive activity in Ratzeburg, especially since after the end of the war and the immigration of hundreds of thousands of expellees - mainly from East and West Prussia, Danzig and Pomerania - it was necessary to set up new structures, schools and other state institutions. In addition to his duties as district archivist and museum director, Langenheim took on the role of second secretary of the Lauenburgische Heimat magazine of the Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Herzogtum Lauenburg e. V. A short time later he was elected first secretary and in 1954 second managing director of the association. During his time in the Duchy of Lauenburg, he documented more than 225 of his own publications for this area and Schleswig-Holstein alone, as well as many lectures, excursions and some archaeological excavations. After 20 years of service for the association, he was made an honorary member on April 7, 1973 with a detailed tribute.

Langenheim died on September 18, 1990 in Wendelstein near Nuremberg .

Publications

Selection from over 300 own publications

• Urholstein (to the Stellerburg ). In: Dithmarschen Nov. 9 / Dec. 1933, pp. 60-65, with 2 plates.
• Traces of the Vikings around Truso . In: Elbinger yearbook. Elbing 1933, pp. 262-284. with 19 fig.
• with Wolfgang La Baume: The Stone Age in the area of ​​the lower Vistula. in: sheets for German prehistory. Danzig, Issue 9/10, Verlag Curt Kabtizsch, Leipzig 1933, pp. 1-53, with 1 tab., 4 maps and 25 plates.
• Germanic settlement finds in Lower Silesia. In: Altschlesische Blätter 9, Breslau 1934, pp. 96–97.
• Megalithic ceramics in Schleswig-Holstein. 144 S., Ill., Graph. Darst; Dissertation Kiel 1934.
• The earthenware of the giant stone graves in Schleswig-Holstein ( research on prehistory and early history from the Museum of Prehistoric Antiquities in Kiel, vol. 2). Wachholtz, Schleswig 1935 (print version of the dissertation).
• The meaning of the Vikings for Silesia’s early history . In: Altschlesien 6, 1936, pp. 273-316.
• (Ed.): Gothiskandza - sheets for Danzig prehistory. Issue 1, 1939 with a foreword by the editor Dr. Kurt Langenheim, Curt Kabitzsch Verlag, Leipzig 1939.
• The Gau Museum for Prehistory (in Gdansk). In: Gothiskandza 4, Leipzig 1942, flyleaf o.P.
• Report on the conference of east [!] And west German prehistory and early historians in Mölln - Duchy of Lauenburg - Waldhalle am Schmalsee. from March 12 to 16, 1956. In: Lauenburgische Heimat. NF, issue 12, October 1956, Ratzeburg 1956, pp. 1-4.
• with Wilhelm Prillwitz (ed.): Ratzeburg - 900 years, 1062–1962. A festival book ... Ratzeburg 1962.

literature

• Hans Joachim Bodenbach: In: Life and work of the archaeologist Dr. phil. Kurt Langenheim , pp. 121–175, 11 Fig. In: Werner Budesheim and Horst Keiling (eds.) On Archeology in Northern Germany, Contributions to Science and Culture , Volume 7, Free Lauenburg Academy for Science and Culture, self-published, Wentorf near Hamburg , 2006, 176 p., Here: p. 135. [In it also "report on the conference of East and West German prehistory and early historians in Mölln , Duchy of Lauenburg, Waldhalle am Schmalsee from March 12 to 16, 1956, with the following Participants: Behm-Blancke / Weimar, Behrens / Halle, Bersu / Frankfurt, v. Brunn / Berlin, Asmus / Hanover, Coblenz / Dresden, Eggers / Hamburg, Grimm / Berlin, Hingst / Schleswig, Jahn / Halle, Jankuhn / Kiel, Kersten / Schleswig, Kramer / Potsdam, Otto / Berlin, Schuldt / Schwerin, Schwantes / Kiel, Sprockhoff / Kiel, Tode / Braunschweig, Uenze / Marburg, Unverzagt / Berlin, v. Uslar / Bonn, Wegewitz / Harburg, Röschmann / Flensburg, Langenheim / Ratzeburg].
• Hans Joachim Bodenbach: Dr. phil. Kurt Langenheim as museum director in Danzig (1938–1945) and other biographical supplements . In: Werner Budesheim (ed.): Festschrift 20 years of the Free Lauenburg Academy - with 11 articles from their departments - (Articles for Science and Culture, Vol. 10), Free Lauenburg Academy for Science and Culture, self-published, Wentorf near Hamburg 2011, p 226–266, 6 figs.
• The research documents on Kurt Langenheim (4 volumes) were submitted to the Ratzeburg district archive in 2013.

Web links

• Literature by and about Kurt Langenheim in the catalog of the German National Library
• Photo with K. Langenheim, 4th from left

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Middle names
2. ↑ Assessment of Langenheim
3. ↑ after Jordanes : Getica 4, 25.