Otto Krasa

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Otto Erich Rudolf Krasa (born June 25, 1890 in Radungen , † June 1, 1972 in Siegen ) was a German prehistorian .

Life

Krasa was born in Radungen in the administrative district of Wroclaw . His ancestors came from Bohemia as persecuted people and settled in Silesia .

On October 1, 1911, he began teaching at the elementary school in Gosenbach . Even before the end of the First World War , he was taken on as the main teacher there on April 1, 1918.

In 1927 Krasa was admitted to the NSDAP with the number 63,693 . In 1929 and 1930 the Prussian state government decided that civil servant activity in the public service was incompatible with membership in the NSDAP and KPD . It is unknown whether that or something else justified Krasa's exit from his party. In any case, he rejoined it in 1933. He was a member of the SA and, as senior squad leader, led the storm Gosenbach (1937). He took on various functions in associations / structures of the NSDAP. After the end of the regime, he was initially classified as “intolerable” in the denazification process . According to the denazification committee, he was “very active in representing the interests of the party”. The main teacher allowance was canceled and his promotion withdrawn. The reduced salary was also cut for two years. Voices were raised on site to “bring him back into his job and his folk work”. The original assessment improved step by step up to “unencumbered” / Category V (1949).

Especially since the 1930s Otto Krasa researched early iron smelting in his area. He found smelting sites and slag heaps in small streams, valleys or wells. He examined u. a. a Latène period hut area near Oberschelden , although there he only discovered a slag dump and a medieval re-use. It was only in our time that the corresponding smelting furnace was discovered.

In decades of searching, Krasa found over 140 smelting sites, especially in the south and south-west of Siegerland , the use of which dates back to prehistoric times. The ovens, up to 2 m high and about half as wide, were built in the shape of a dome made of clay with flat stones and were placed in artificially created hollows near the water.

On his initiative, the Heimatverein Gosenbach was founded on October 13, 1958 , and he became its first chairman. In 1964 he wrote the chronicle of the community of Gosenbach , in which he a. a. described iron smelting in the region.

In 1970 Otto Krasa was made an honorary citizen of the city ​​of Eiserfeld . A street in Gosenbach was named after him in his honor.

Krasa was an honorary member of the Siegerland Heimatverein and holder of the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon.

Fonts

  • New research on the prehistoric iron industry in Siegerland , in: Westfälische Forschungen , Volume 8, 1955, pp. 194–197.
  • Discovery of a two-thousand-year-old smeltery site for copper, lead and silver in Siegerland , in: Westfälische Forschungen , Volume 13, 1960, pp. 195–197.
  • Der Gosenbacher Bergbau , in: Unser Heimatland , 1961, pp. 2–6.
  • Chronicle of the community of Gosenbach , Verlag Weyandt, Hilchenbach, 1964.
  • Latène-Schmieden in Siegerland , in: Westfälische Forschungen , Volume 17, 1964, pp. 200-205.
  • 2000 years of Siegerländer Eisen , in: Eiserfelder Heimatblatt , Volume 15 (1967), No. 10, pp. 11-13.
  • From the prehistory and early history of Gosenbach , in: Siegerländer Heimatblatt , Volume 37 (1988), no. 2, p. 5.

literature

  • Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann : Siegerland and Wittgenstein under National Socialism. People, data, literature , Siegen 2001, p. 236.
  • Hans Rudi Vitt : The regional studies publications by Otto Krasa , in: Siegerland , Volume 47, 1970, pp. 65-67
  • Manuel Zeiler : Otto Krasa, a local researcher in the pioneering phase of prehistoric archeology , in: Siegener Contributions , Volume 17 (2012), pp. 247–270 ( PDF ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ [1] Regionales Personenlexikon, article Otto Krasa.
  2. ↑ Manuel Zeiler, Otto Krasa. A local researcher in the pioneering phase of prehistoric archeology, in: Siegen contributions. Yearbook for Regional History 17 (2012), pp. 247–270, here: p. 247.
  3. ↑ Irle, Lothar , Siegerland Personalities and Gender Lexicon, Siegen 1974, p. 192.
personal data
SURNAME Krasa, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krasa, Otto Erich Rudolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Etchings
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 1972
Place of death Wins