Ernst Sprockhoff

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Ernst Sprockhoff (6 August 1892 – 1 October 1967) was a German

prehistorian and inventor of the Sprockhoff numbering system for megalithic
monuments in Germany.

Life

Sprockhoff was born on 6 August 1892 in

Frankfurt, initially as second director later to be promoted first director in 1937.[2] He held the position until 1945. In 1942 he joined the Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
as a corresponding member.

Sprockhoff became a member of

Machtergreifung by the Nazis.[4] In the same year he became a member of the National Socialist Teachers League and in 1937 after the freeze on admissions also of the Nazi Party
.

As Oberstleutnant of an artillery regiment he was the commander of the German coastal fortifications between Karmøy und Vanse during the occupation of Norway from 1943 to 1945.[4] While building a coastal fort at the southwestern coast of the Marka peninsula for the Atlantic Wall some of his soldiers dug into the Grønhaug, a large viking age tumulus 3 km southeast of Vestbygd. Sprockhoff joined in, excavated the double inhumation at the center of the mound and handed the finds over to the University Museum at Oslo, now Museum of Cultural History (Kulturhistorisk museum, KHM).[3] But two other large tumuli on Marka, Engelshaug and Tuptehaug, two of the largest prehistoric monuments of Norway, were destroyed without any investigation during those same fortification activities.[3][5] During that time he even wrote a book about Norwegian prehistory, mainly using sources from the area of his command. The book titled "...Und zeugen von einem stolzen Geschlecht" [...Bear witness to a proud race] was published in 1945 by the SS-Ahnenerbe. After the capitulation of the Wehrmacht in Norway on May 8, 1945, Sprockhoff was arrested and kept as a prisoner of war by the British for over two years.

Directly after his return to Germany in autumn 1947 he was appointed full professor of European

University of Kiel and held the post until his retirement in 1958.[1] In his later years he was a highly valued member of the German scientific community demonstrated by his 1955 election to the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften (German Academy of Sciences). In his obituary in 1968 professor Joachim Werner wrote:

Ernst Sprockhoff war ein ganzer Mann und ein bedeutender Gelehrter, von gleicher Zuverlässigkeit in seiner wissenschaftlichen Arbeit wie gegenüber seinen Mitmenschen. [Ernst Sprockhoff was a real man and an important scholar, as reliable in his scientific work as towards his fellow human beings]

— Joachim Werner, Ernst Sprockhoff 6. 8. 1892 - 1. 10. 1967

He died in Kiel

on 1 October 1967.

Sprockhoff numbers

Sprockhoff recorded about 900 German megalith structures in a sequentially numbered catalogue. The so-called Sprockhoff number (Sprockhoff No. or Sprockhoff-Nr.) is still used to refer to these sites today.

Publications

  • Atlas der Megalithgräber. Teil 1-3, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn, 1966-1975
  • Die nordische Megalithkultur. Handbuch der Urgeschichte Deutschlands Band 3, Berlin und Leipzig : W. de Gruyter & Co., 1938
  • Die germanischen Vollgriffschwerter der jüngeren Bronzezeit, Römisch-Germanische Forschungen 9, Berlin – Leipzig, 1934.
  • Jungbronzezeitliche Hortfunde Norddeutschlands (Periode IV), Mainz, 1937.
  • "... und zeugen von einem stolzen Geschlecht". Herausgeben vom Reichskommissar f. d. besetzten norw. Gebiete, Germanische Leitstelle Norwegen, Germanischer Wissenschaftseinsatz, Oslo 1945.
  • Jungbronzezeitliche Hortfunde der Südzone des nordischen Kreises (Periode V), Vo,. I – II, Mainz, 1956.

Literature

References

  1. ^ a b Werner, Joachim (1968). "Ernst Sprockhoff 6. 8. 1892 - 1. 10. 1967" (PDF). Jahrbuch der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1968 (in German). Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  2. ^ Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed.). "Mitglieder der Vorgängerakademien. Ernst Sprockhoff". Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Retrieved 2022-09-12.
  3. ^ a b c Stylegar, Frans-Arne (2009). "... und zeugen von einem stolzen Geschlecht" [Utstillingen er laget av Vest-Agder fylkeskommune i samarbeid med Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo, Vest-Agder-museet et Farsund kommune] (in Norwegian and German). Vest-Agder. Retrieved 2022-09-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^
    ISBN 3-11-018360-9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  5. ^ Stylegar, Frans-Arne (2007). Farmers, Mariners, and Lords of long ago. Archaeology and Prehistory in the Agder Region (PDF). Vest-Agder: Vest-Agder County Council. p. 56. Retrieved 2022-09-01.

External links

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