Post by Tamrin on Dec 21, 2009 10:28:29 GMT 10
The Real Story of Nazi Egyptology
[Excerpt - Article by Owen Jarus, heritage-key.com - Linked Above]
[Excerpt - Article by Owen Jarus, heritage-key.com - Linked Above]
It’s difficult to gauge the full impact that the events of 1933-1945 had on German Egyptology. But certainly the impact was negative.
“This was, what I think, a decisive turning point in the international history of Egyptology,” Said Professor Schneider.
“Germany lost its status and it has to struggle for many decades after the war until it again became recognized and appreciated (in) the discipline,” he said adding, “Germany had basically sacrificed, through the NS regime, its academic standing.”
The loss of people such as Steindorff, hindered the country’s knowledge base.
“They came not only from Egyptology but dozens of other disciplines, they established their fields of knowledge abroad, above all in the United States, and had they been given a perspective in a Germany without National Socialism they possibly would have stayed there. And many important strands of thinking or pools would have developed in Germany that now developed in the States,” said Professor Schneider.
“(The) people who stayed in Germany, or younger generations, as a direct consequence were different people than those who would have lived and had a career in (a) Germany without the Nazis,” he said.
“It is difficult to say how the discipline would look today without National Socialism but we can very certainly say that Germany would have a different standing today.”
The German Archaeological Institute in Cairo did eventually reopen after the war and today Germany is again a centre of Egyptological research.
Herman Kees and Walther Wolf were both removed from their positions after the war. Although in 1963 Wolf did get a professorship at the University of Münster. Kees notes were confiscated as part of de-nazification efforts something which hindered his writing efforts.
Years after the war Hermann Junker, while writing his memoirs, would choose to not write about the time of Nazi rule. Only saying that, “this was a dark time.”
“This was, what I think, a decisive turning point in the international history of Egyptology,” Said Professor Schneider.
“Germany lost its status and it has to struggle for many decades after the war until it again became recognized and appreciated (in) the discipline,” he said adding, “Germany had basically sacrificed, through the NS regime, its academic standing.”
The loss of people such as Steindorff, hindered the country’s knowledge base.
“They came not only from Egyptology but dozens of other disciplines, they established their fields of knowledge abroad, above all in the United States, and had they been given a perspective in a Germany without National Socialism they possibly would have stayed there. And many important strands of thinking or pools would have developed in Germany that now developed in the States,” said Professor Schneider.
“(The) people who stayed in Germany, or younger generations, as a direct consequence were different people than those who would have lived and had a career in (a) Germany without the Nazis,” he said.
“It is difficult to say how the discipline would look today without National Socialism but we can very certainly say that Germany would have a different standing today.”
The German Archaeological Institute in Cairo did eventually reopen after the war and today Germany is again a centre of Egyptological research.
Herman Kees and Walther Wolf were both removed from their positions after the war. Although in 1963 Wolf did get a professorship at the University of Münster. Kees notes were confiscated as part of de-nazification efforts something which hindered his writing efforts.
Years after the war Hermann Junker, while writing his memoirs, would choose to not write about the time of Nazi rule. Only saying that, “this was a dark time.”
Herman Kees, "Nazi Egyptologist"
(Born this day 1886)