Herbert Jankuhn (8 August 1905 – 30 April 1990) was a German archaeologist who specialized in the archaeology of

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

. He is best known for his excavations at the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

site of

Hedeby Hedeby (, Old Norse: ''Heiðabýr'', German: ''Haithabu'') was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig ...

, and for his instrumental role in the publishing of the second edition of the ''

Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ''Germanische Altertumskunde Online'', formerly called ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', is a German encyclopedia of the study of Germanic history and cultures, as well as the cultures that were in close contact with them. The first ...

''. Jankuhn joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, SS and SA in the 1930s.

Early life and education

Herbert Jankuhn was born in Angerburg,

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

, Germany on 8 August 1905. His paternal grandfather was Lithuanian, and his mother was a

Masur Masur can mean: *Masurians The Masurians or Mazurs (; ; Masurian dialects, Masurian: ''Mazurÿ''), historically also known as Prussian Masurians (Polish language, Polish: ''Mazurzy pruscy''), are an ethnic group originating from the region of ...

. Spending his youth in

Mitau Jelgava () is a state city in central Latvia. It is located about southwest of Riga. It is the largest town in the Semigallia region of Latvia. Jelgava was the capital of the united Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1578–1795) and was the ad ...

and

Tilsit Sovetsk (; ) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania. History Early history Tilsit, which received civic rights from Albert, Duke of Prussia in 1552,''Sło ...

, Jankuhn studied Germanistics, history, philology and physical exercise at the universities of

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Having studied under Max Ebert and

Carl Schuchhardt Carl Schuchhardt (6 August 1859 – 7 December 1943) was a German archaeologist and museum director. For many years, he was the director of the pre-historic department of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. He was involved in numerous excavations, ...

, Jankuhn received in

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in archaeology at the University of Berlin in 1931. Jankuhn was strongly influenced by Wilhelm Unverzagt and Albert Kiekebusch, both of whom where critical of the settlement archaeology theories of Gustaf Kossinna.

Early career

Jankuhn completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

in 1935. Since 1930, Jankuhn had conducted excavations at the

settlement of

. From 1938, with the help of

Ahnenerbe The (, "Ancestral Heritage") was a pseudoscientific organization founded by the ''Schutzstaffel'' in Nazi Germany in 1935. Established by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler in July 1, 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to promoting racial the ...

, Jankuhn organized the excavations at Hedeby into one of the largest archaeological projects in the world. The results of his excavations at Hedeby were initially published in 1936, and have since been republished in numerous revised editions. Jankuhn's work at Hedeby greatly impressed

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

, leader of the

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...

, with whom Jankuhn became friendly. Jankuhn eventually joined both the

, the Schutzstaffel, and became Head of the Excavation and Archaeology Department Ahnenerbe in 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Jankuhn travelled across

German-occupied Europe German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly military occupation, militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the governmen ...

, where he reported to the

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...

on the reliability of scholars in occupied countries. Jankuhn was made an associate professor at the University of Kiel in 1940. In the summer of 1942, Jankuhn followed

5th SS Panzer Division Wiking The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking () or SS Division Wiking was an infantry and later an armoured division among the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. During World War II, the division served on the Eastern Front. It surrendere ...

into the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

to conduct excavations at Mangup, capital of the

Crimean Goths The Crimean Goths were either a Greuthungi- Gothic tribe or a Western Germanic tribe that bore the name '' Gothi'', a title applied to various Germanic tribes that remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the ...

. From 1942 to 1943, Jankuhn was Professor at the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...

. He spent the last years of the war as an intelligence officer in 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which surrendered to the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in 1945.

Post-war career

Jankuhn was imprisoned from 1945 to 1948. After his release from prison, Jankuhn was forbidden from teaching, but nevertheless continued to teach and research privately. He returned to Kiel in 1949 in to work on restoring museums destroyed during

. He subsequently served as a guest lecturer at the universities of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and Kiel. From the 1950s onward, Jankuhn played an instrumental role in reviving the field of settlement archaeology, and advocated an

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

approach to the study of

prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

. Since 1956, Jankuhn served as associate professor, and from 1959 professor of prehistory and

protohistory Protohistory is the period between prehistory and written history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures that have developed writing have noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in the ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. During this time, Jankuhn founded and led a number of scholarly organizations, and edited several scholarly publications. From 1968, Jankuhn was instrumental in the publishing of the second edition of the ''

'' (1969-2008). He advocated broadening the scope of the series to include not only

, but also

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

and other peoples of ancient north-central Europe. Jankuhn retired from the University of Göttingen in 1973.

Selected works

* ''Gürtelgarnituren der älteren römischen Kaiserzeit im Samland'', 1932 * ''Die Wehranlagen der Wikingerzeit zwischen Schlei und Treene'', 1935 * ''Haithabu – eine germanische Stadt der Frühzeit'', 1938 * ''Gemeinschaftsform und Herrschaftsbildung in frühgermanischer Zeit'', 1939 * ''Die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu (1937–1939)'', 1943 * ''Haithabu – Ein Handelsplatz der Wikingerzeit'', 1956 * ''Die Römische Kaiserzeit und die Völkerwanderungszeit'', 1966 * ''Einführung in die Siedlungsarchäologie'', 1977

References

Sources

* *

External links

Herbert Jankuhn
at the website of the Kiel Directory of Scholars {{DEFAULTSORT:Jankuhn, Herbert 1905 births 1990 deaths People from Węgorzewo People from East Prussia German people of Lithuanian descent German editors Germanic studies scholars 20th-century German archaeologists SS-Sturmbannführer Waffen-SS personnel Ahnenerbe members Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Jena alumni University of Kiel alumni University of Königsberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Rostock Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of the University of Kiel German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States