Othmar Skala

Othmar Skala (born April 27, 1895 in St. Christophen ; † June 2, 1958 in Wiener Neudorf ) was an Austrian teacher and local researcher .

Skala worked all his life as a hiking teacher in Lower Austria, most recently in Obermallebarn as primary school director. He used the numerous changes of location for his research, which mainly concerned the Waldviertel and Weinviertel .

Skala published mainly studies on prehistory and early history and on folklore . Its organs of publication were the journals Mitteilungen der Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Vienna , Find reports from Austria and the local history journal Das Waldviertel . In addition, numerous publications appeared in the local press.

Part of his work concerns field research. In this regard, the localization of numerous prehistoric settlements and the recovery and rescue of the most valuable cultural assets, mostly from several phases of the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, should be mentioned . The materials obtained are kept in the local museums in Gmünd , Korneuburg , Stockerau and in the Natural History Museum ( Vienna ). The Bronze Age ceramic depot from Maisbirbaum that he rescued gave Lower Austria its name to an entire time horizon (the corn birch tree).

Skala was a contemporary of Franz Xaver Kießling and Angela Stifft-Gottlieb . There has always been a fruitful collaboration with both of them.

Publications (selection)

• The history of the development of the Waldviertel , Verlag Verein deutsche Heimat, Vienna 1929.
• Addressing diseases. In: Das Waldviertel 7, 1934, p. 9ff.
• The cultural relations in the painting pottery. In: Das Waldviertel 8, 1935, p. 9ff.
• The plateau clay stations in the vicinity of Japons, N.Ö. In: Mitteilungen der Anthropologhische Gesellschaft 1937, pp. 157ff.
• Theoretical and practical tips for a systematic soil research on prehistoric and protohistoric antiquities. Vienna 1948
• The traces of prehistoric and protohistoric man. In: Home book of the political district Korneuburg I, Korneuburg 1957, p. 51ff.

literature

• Josef Fischer: Scale Othmar . In: Home book of the political district Korneuburg II, Korneuburg 1961, p. 131.