1858-1931
Gustaf Kossinna was born in 1858 in Tilsit, East Prussia, the son of a schoolteacher. He started his education in 1875 and went to Goettingen, Leipzig, Berlin, and Strassburg. He attended many lectures on classical philology but later became interested in German philology, local history, and art history. Kossinna has been held responsible for the Nazis using prehistoric archaeology to prove Germany’s master race. However, Kossinna died before he could accuse the Nazis of misusing his theories.
In 1902, at Berlin University, Kossinna studied and taught prehistoric archaeology. Kossinna was one of the first people to make prehistory an academic discipline. While at Berlin University, he developed the siedlungsarchaeologische Methode and presented it at a meeting of the Anthropological Society. His method was for finding ancient settlements by looking at the spatial distribution of artifacts. This method was focused on European prehistory.
In 1911 Kossinna wrote a book called The Origin of the Germani: On the Settlement Archaeological Method. The book states the retrospective method of ethnic conditions of present to infer situations in prehistory by looking at the development of historic continuities in particularly settled areas. Kossinna believed that Germany was the center of prehistoric developments.
Kossinna’s reputation was later destroyed because his theory of people and race got involved with Germany’s Master Race. Hitler used archaeology to try and prove Aryan supremacy. As mentioned earlier, Kossinna died in 1931 and couldn’t accuse the Nazis of misusing his ideas about Germany being the center of prehistory.Still, others believe that Kossinna was part of an academic community that helped Hitler try to prove the case for Aryans.
Bahn, Paul. Collins Dictionary of Archaeology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. Pages: 265-266.
Fagan, Brian M. Oxford Companion to Archaeology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1996. Pages: 376.
“Unraveling Hitler’s Secrets Video.” Unraveling Hitler’s Secrets http://www.usd.edu/anth/courses/a230/nazi.html
Written by Sharry Severson