Martin Hell

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Martin Hell (born April 6, 1885 in Liefering near Salzburg, † January 29, 1975 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian engineer and prehistorian .

Life

Hell graduated from the kk Staatsrealschule Salzburg in 1903 and then studied civil engineering at the Technical University in Vienna , but also studied geology and paleontology. From 1920 to 1923 he studied prehistory and early history as an adjunct student at the University of Vienna with Oswald Menghin . His essay "New contributions to the prehistory and early history of the Dürnberg" was accepted as a dissertation in 1931, but Hell did not take the Rigorosen.

Petersfriedhof Salzburg, grave of Martin Hell

After completing his engineering studies, he worked in the Salzburg State Building Office from 1911, from 1926 he was an official technician for the Salzburg and Hallein district authorities, in 1941 he became a lifelong civil servant in the Reich Service and until September 1945 he worked in the Reich Building Administration.

Together with his wife Lina, he tirelessly devoted his free time to researching the oldest history of Salzburg and the neighboring Bavarian region. Further areas of work were geology and cave studies as well as folklore and local history. In 1911 he was a founding member of the Salzburg section of the Association for Speleology in Austria , and from 1914 to 1919 he was its chairman. In 1915 he became a mandate and then a member of the board of directors of the SCMA , until 1924 he was curator of the museum's mineralogical and paleontological collection.

In the interwar period he became a member of the Anti-Semite Association and in the period of Austrofascism from 1933 a member of the Fatherland Front . After the annexation of Austria he applied for admission to the NSDAP, this application was rejected in 1943, until then he was a party candidate . In 1939 he became head of the “Working Group for Prehistory”, which had been set up by the Gauschulungsamt, which in turn was subordinate to the Rosenberg Office . On April 1, 1941, Hell was appointed “part-time guardian of the land antiquities in the Reichsgau Salzburg ” and on December 4, Gauleiter Gustav Adolf Scheel appointed him “Commissioner for Prehistory and Early History ( Land Monument Preservation) in the Reichsgau Salzburg”. In October 1943 he was drafted to work on the construction of fragmentation trenches, and in 1944 he received a provisional muster card for the Landsturm . During this time Hell participated in various excavations (e.g. on the Rainberg , securing finds during the construction of the Reichsautobahn , Roman excavation fields in Loig and Liefering ) and exhibitions of the SMCA. His discovery of a small clay plate from the Hallstatt period (Hellbrunner Berg) with a swastika pattern was published in a newspaper in 1940.

On September 21, 1945 Hell was dismissed from the public service due to his functions during the National Socialist era , but received advance payments until his retirement on November 24, 1947. In the following years he and his wife carried out the maintenance of monuments on a voluntary basis, in 1948 he was appointed "honorary conservator of the Federal Monuments Office for Speleology in the State of Salzburg and for found objects in the districts of Salzburg-Land, Hallein, St. Johann im Pongau and Zell am" See “appointed. In 1949, Governor Josef Rehrl appointed him "honorary state curator for the antiquities of the land of Salzburg".

Around 500 scientific publications are available from him, there are also countless reports in the most varied of professional, but also in popular organs. It is thanks to him that around 100 prehistoric settlements and 40 burial grounds were discovered. Martin Hell is buried in the Petersfriedhof Salzburg .

Honors

Publications (selection)

  • Two late Roman graves from Gröding near Salzburg. In: Annual books of the Austrian Archaeological Institute. 44, 1959, ISSN  0078-3579 , col. 139-146.
  • New discovery of a bronze sword from the Salzach. In: Archaeologia Austriaca. 27, 1960, ISSN  0003-8008 , pp. 76-79.
  • A prayer cord from the Carolingian era from Anger near Reichenhall. ' In: Bavarian history sheets . 23, 1960, pp. 210-212.
  • Antique stone coffins in the Abbey Church of St. Peter in Salzburg. In: Annual publication of the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum. 11, 1965, ISSN  0558-3438 , pp. 23-32.
  • On the question of Celtic coinage on the Hallein Dürrnberg. In: Archaeologia Austriaca. 47, 1970, pp. 44-48.
  • A Bronze Age residence in Salzburg-Taxham. In: Archaeologia Austriaca. 53, 1973, pp. 1-7.

literature

  • Fritz Moosleitner: Martin Heil. In: Commemorative publication for Martin Hell (= communications from the Society for Salzburg Regional Studies. Vol. 115, No. 2, ISSN  0435-8279 ). Society for Salzburg Regional Studies, Salzburg 1975, pp. 257–264.
  • Peter Danner: Martin Hell. In: Anschluss, War & Rubble. Salzburg and its museum under National Socialism. Salzburg Museum, Salzburg 2018 (= annual publication of the Salzburg Museum, vol. 60), pp. 179–190.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hell, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian engineer and prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Liefering near Salzburg , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1975
Place of death Salzburg , State of Salzburg , Austria