Otto-Friedrich Gandert

Otto-Friedrich Gandert (born August 8, 1898 in Söllichau , † July 7, 1983 in Berlin ) was a German prehistoric scientist .

Life

He was the eighth child of Pastor Emil Ludwig Gandert. After attending the local elementary school, Gandert graduated from high school in Torgau . After its graduation he was drafted into the military in 1917 at the time of the First World War ; the following year he was wounded. In 1921 Gandert began studying in Berlin , which he completed with a doctorate to become a Dr. phil. ended in hall . His dissertation was entitled: The Stone Age cultures of Europe and their domestic dogs . At the same time, he worked as a voluntary scientific assistant at the prehistory department of the State Ethnographic Museum in Berlin. After completing his studies, he worked as an assistant at the State Institute for Prehistory in Halle from 1925 .

In 1928 he was appointed head of the Department of Prehistory and Early History at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Görlitz , which he remained until 1936. In 1933 he was also appointed director of the Görlitz municipal art and antiquity collection. At the same time, from 1928 he was head of the maintenance of the cultural and historical soil antiquities of Upper Lusatia and from 1929 to 1936 a shop steward for the cultural and historical soil antiquities of Prussian Upper Lusatia. Due to his scientific reputation, Gandert was appointed director of the prehistoric and natural science departments at the Märkisches Museum in Berlin in 1936 . Here, in particular, he led extensive excavation activities. In this position, too, he was state shop steward for the cultural and historical soil antiquities of the province of Brandenburg until 1945. In the Second World War , Gandert was drafted into the military again, but at the end of the war he was only taken prisoner for a very short time.

At the end of 1945 / beginning of 1946 he resumed work, now as the director of the Museum of Natural History and Prehistory in Oldenburg , where his family had fled from Berlin. In 1951, however, he was again called to Berlin (West), where he worked as curator at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History until 1958. In addition, he worked as a state shop steward for cultural and historical soil antiquities, as an honorary professor at the Free University of Berlin (until 1952), as a full member of the German Archaeological Institute as well as in other offices and functions. Appointed director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin in 1958 , he held this position until his retirement in 1963.

Gandert wrote for scientific publications (for example in 1954 for the Berliner Blätter für Vor und Frühgeschichte and 1962 for the Madrider Mitteilungen ) as well as regional publications (such as the Elbinger Jahrbuch 1938, the Oldenburger Jahrbuch 1948/1949 and the font Die Dübener Heide - Eine Illustrierte Monthly ) numerous articles on his research results. In addition, he also issued independent publications.

Publications (selection)

• Research on the history of the domestic dog. The Stone Age races in Northeast Europe (= Mannus Library. Volume 46). Curt Kabitzsch, Leipzig 1930.
• The Stone Age cultures of Europe and their domestic dogs. Part 1: The culture of dimple and comb ceramics. Unpublished dissertation, University of Halle 1930.
• The younger Stone Age in the Prussian Upper Lusatia (= messages from the Görlitz art and antiquity collections. Volume 2). Kaiser Friedrich Museum for Art and Antiquity, Görlitz 1933.
• with Max Hellmich: Upper Lusatian dugouts (= messages from the Görlitz art and antiquity collections. Volume 3). Kaiser Friedrich Museum for Art and Antiquity, Görlitz 1933.
• with Max Arendt, Eberhard Faden : History of the City of Berlin. Festschrift for the 700th anniversary of the Reich capital. Mittler, Berlin 1937.
• Heimatchronik Berlin. Archive for German Homeland Care, Cologne 1962.

literature

• Adriaan von Müller : Otto-Friedrich Gandert. In: Acta praehistorica et archaelogica. Volume 16/17, 1984/1985, pp. 7-8.
• Hans-Joachim Böttcher : Gandert, Otto-Friedrich. In: Significant historical personalities of the Dübener Heide (= series of publications of the Working Group for Middle German Family Research. Number 237). Working Group for Central German Family Research, Leipzig 2012, p. 28.