Ludwig Kohl-Larsen (born ''Ludwig Kohl''; 5 April 1884 in

Landau in der Pfalz Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

– 12 November 1969 in Bodensee) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

physician, amateur anthropologist, and explorer.

Biography

In 1911, he traveled as ship's doctor with

Wilhelm Filchner Wilhelm Filchner (13 September 1877 – 7 May 1957) was a German army officer, scientist and explorer. He conducted several surveys and scientific investigations in China, Tibet and surrounding regions, and led the Second German Antarctic Expeditio ...

to Antarctica, but did not participate in the expedition to the Weddell Sea due to appendicitis. At

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

he cured himself out and met his wife, the daughter of

Carl Anton Larsen Carl Anton Larsen (7 August 1860 – 8 December 1924) was a Norway, Norwegian-born Whaling, whaler and Antarctic explorer who made important contributions to the exploration of Antarctica, the most significant being the first discovery of fos ...

, the founder of the town of

Grytviken Grytviken ( ) is a settlement on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and the largest settlement on the island. It is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, considered the b ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was a government doctor working in Micronesia. In 1928, he visited South Georgia with his wife and the cameraman

Albert Benitz Albert Benitz (17 November 1904 – 11 March 1979) was a German cinematographer who worked on more than ninety films. He also directed the 1949 film '' Das Fräulein und der Vagabund''. During the 1940s, he was under contract to Terra Film and wor ...

to lead the first scientific expedition to the island. In 1931, he joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

, and later undertook, partly on behalf of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, expeditions to Tanganyika Territory in search of "primitive man". In 1938/1939, he discovered ''

Australopithecus afarensis ''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ...

'' at Laetoli, without realizing the importance of his find. He also collected folklore of the Hadza and Isanzu. He and his wife Margit performed excavations at the

Mumba cave Mumba Cave, located near the highly alkaline Lake Eyasi in Karatu District, Arusha Region, Tanzania. The cave is a rich archaeological site noted for deposits spanning the transition between the Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age in Eastern Afri ...

where they found a numerous

Middle Stone Age The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of pa ...

artifacts. He attempted to prove that all people have a common origin, but that African peoples remained in the state of primitive man, while the

Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...

had developed. Such 'scholarship' was at odds with most anthropological concerns of the day in Africa. In 1939, Kohl-Larsen became Professor of Ethnology at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

. He lost his position in the course of denazification after the war, but worked from 1949 at the Institute of Early History in Tübingen. Due in part to his politics, but also to dubious scholarship, Kohl-Larsen is not highly regarded amongst contemporary East Africanists.

Bibliography

* Kohl-Larsen, Ludwig (1941): ''Die Issansu, Ackerbauer und Viehzüchter im abflußlosen Gebiet Deutsch-Ostafrikas. Medizin und Kult.'' Veröffentlichung der Reichsstelle für den Unterrichtsfilm. Reichsstelle für den Unterrichtsfilm. * The book is a collection of Hadzabe myths about giants, also some tribe myths about culture heroes, and anecdotical tales. * Kohl-Larsen (1956): ''Das Zauberhorn—Märchen und Tiergeschichten der Tindiga. Das Gesicht der Völker. Kulturkreis Ostafrikanische Steppenjäger. Dichtung der Kindiga.'' (Eisenach und Kassel) * Kohl-Larsen (1958): ''Wildbeuter in Ostafrika: Die Tindiga, ein Jager und Sammlervolk.'' Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag. * Kohl-Larsen (1991): ''Der Mann, der Lucy’s Ahnen fand: Lebenserinnerungen und Materialien herausgegeben von Erich Renner.'' (Landau 1991) bes. 15, 'Wir suchen die Tindiga' 172-186

External links

German National Library
on Kohl-Larsen 1884 births 1969 deaths Amateur anthropologists German anthropologists German explorers German male non-fiction writers 20th-century German historians 20th-century physicians People from Landau 20th-century anthropologists Nazi Party members Ethnologists Explorers of Africa Naval surgeons People of former German colonies {{Germany-archaeologist-stub