17 Facts About Herbert Jankuhn

Herbert Jankuhn was a German archaeologist who specialized in the archaeology of Germanic peoples.

Herbert Jankuhn is best known for his excavations at the Viking Age site of Hedeby, and for his instrumental role in the publishing of the second edition of the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde.

Herbert Jankuhn was born in Angerburg, East Prussia, Germany on 8 August 1905.

Herbert Jankuhn's paternal grandfather was Lithuanian, and his mother was a Masur.

Herbert Jankuhn was strongly influenced by Wilhelm Unverzagt and Albert Kiekebusch, both of whom where critical of the settlement archaeology theories of Gustaf Kossinna.

Herbert Jankuhn completed his habilitation at the University of Kiel in 1935.

Since 1930, Herbert Jankuhn had conducted excavations at the Viking Age settlement of Hedeby.

From 1938, with the help of Ahnenerbe, Herbert Jankuhn organized the excavations at Hedeby into one of the largest archaeological projects in the world.

Herbert Jankuhn eventually joined both the Nazi Party, the Schutzstaffel, and became Head of the Excavation and Archaeology Department Ahnenerbe in 1940.

Herbert Jankuhn was made an associate professor at the University of Kiel in 1940.

From 1942 to 1943, Herbert Jankuhn was Professor at the University of Rostock.

Herbert Jankuhn spent the last years of the war as an intelligence officer in 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which surrendered to the United States Army in Bavaria in 1945.

Herbert Jankuhn returned to Kiel in 1949 in to work on restoring museums destroyed during World War II.

Herbert Jankuhn subsequently served as a guest lecturer at the universities of Hamburg and Kiel.

Since 1956, Herbert Jankuhn served as associate professor, and from 1959 professor of prehistory and protohistory at the University of Gottingen.

From 1968, Herbert Jankuhn was instrumental in the publishing of the second edition of the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde.

Herbert Jankuhn advocated broadening the scope of the series to include not only Germanic peoples, but Celts, Slavs, Sarmatians and other peoples of ancient north-central Europe.