Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Interactions Between British Archaeologists and National Socialism: Pragmatism, Neutrality, Opposition and Compromise

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
National-Socialist Archaeology in Europe and its Legacies

  • 140 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines interactions between British and German National Socialist archaeologists. Before the war, British archaeologists admired National Socialist practice and professionalism but regarded associated ideologies negatively. A façade of political neutrality was maintained towards German colleagues and active opposition was rarely articulated. The outbreak of war saw emphasis placed on Allied international archaeology that ran parallel to National Socialist transnationalism in Europe. With Allied victory, this vision came to dominate post-war archaeology. Post-war challenges and established ties meant that British archaeologists did not seek revenge on National Socialist colleagues, but instead sought ways to use their skills, now politically neutralised, and integrate them back into the new international order.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    TNA, PROKV2/2148.

  2. 2.

    Bodleian MS Myres 8: f. 92, Childe to Myres, 25.11.1933.

  3. 3.

    Bodleian MS Myres 8: f. 43, Childe to Myres, 19.6.1944.

  4. 4.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 37, Crawford to Myres, 25.8.1936.

  5. 5.

    J.G.D.C: Clark’s initials (John Grahame Desmond Clark). Use of initials when reviewing books was common in British publications at this time.

  6. 6.

    Evatt Collection, Childe to Mary Alice Evatt, 17.4.1933.

  7. 7.

    TNA, PROKV2/2148.

  8. 8.

    Bodleian MS Myres 8: f. 90., Childe to Myres, 27.2.1934.

  9. 9.

    Bodleian MS Myres 8: f. 90., Childe to Myres, 27.2.1934.

  10. 10.

    Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, 7th November 1933. Royal Anthropological Institute Archives 1933, pp. 66–67.

  11. 11.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 41, Crawford to Myres, 1.9.1936.

  12. 12.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 40, Myres to Crawford, 25.8.1936.

  13. 13.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 48–50, Hawkes to Myres, 1.10.1936.

  14. 14.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 53, Myres to Hawkes, 11.10.1936.

  15. 15.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 43, Myres to Crawford, 2.9.1936.

  16. 16.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 64, Peers to Myres, 25.10.1936.

  17. 17.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 70, Peers to Childe, 26.10.1936.

  18. 18.

    Bodleian MS Myres 57: f. 53, Myres to Hawkes, 11.10.1936.

  19. 19.

    TNA, PROKV2/2148.

  20. 20.

    TNA, PROKV2/2148.

  21. 21.

    The archaeological work of Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) and Italian fascists had been received with enthusiasm by many non-Italian archaeologists, including those in Britain and many were sympathetic to Mussolini and his social and political goals (Dyson, 2006, p. 181).

  22. 22.

    Institute of Archaeology Library Archives 2: 22, Wagner to Childe, 20.6.1948.

  23. 23.

    Institute of Archaeology Library Archives 2: 25, Westland to Secretary, 19.8.1948.; Institute of Archaeology Library Archives 2: 34, Westland to Taylor, 7.9.1948.

  24. 24.

    Bodleian MS Myres 8: f. 46, Childe to Myres, 22.2.1946.

  25. 25.

    Anonym, 1946a, p. i.

  26. 26.

    Institute of Archaeology Library Archives 2:14, Taylor to Jones, 5.3.1946.

  27. 27.

    BBC Archives, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, 3.5.1956.

References

  • Anonym. (1933). Aryan Nonsense. Professor Childe Explains. Misuse of the Term. The Scotsman, 28(204) (Thursday, 19th October 1933), 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonym. (1935). The term “Aryan”. Objections to Misuse. Professor Childe. The Scotsman, 28(868) (Thursday, 5th December 1935), 13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonym. (1945–1946). British Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, Archives, and Other Material in Enemy Hands (1945–1946). Works of Art in Italy: Losses and survivals in the war. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonym. (1946a). Great Britain. Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, Archives, and other material in enemy hands 1946. Works of art in Greece, the Greek Islands and the Dodecanese: Losses and survivals in the war. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anonym. (1946b). Monuments and fine arts and archives branch of the Control Commission for Germany (British Element) 1946. Works of art in Germany (British zone of occupation): Losses and survivals in the war. London: HMSO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, B., & Hassmann, H. (1995). Archaeology in Nazi Germany: The legacy of the Faustian Bargain. In P. L. Kohl & C. Fawcett (Eds.), Nationalism, politics, and the practice of archaeology (pp. 70–81). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, J. J., & Barnes, P. P. (2005). Nazis in Pre-War London 1930–1939. Brighton, Portland: Sussex Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biddiscombe, P. (2007). The Denazification of Germany. A history 1945–1950. Stroud: Tempus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biess, F. (2010). Introduction. In F. Biess & R. G. Moeller (Eds.), Histories of the Aftermath. The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe (pp. 1–10). New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, P. (1939). HAITHABU, eine germanische Stadt der Fruhzeit. By Herbert Jankuhn. Zweite erweiterte Auflage. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumiinster in Holstein, 1938. pp. XII, 207, with 207 illustrations and 4 plans. Antiquity, 13(52), 487–489. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00028234

  • Cahill, M. (2005). The strange case of the Strangford Lough Hoard. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 135, 5–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, G. (2010). The Archaeology of Occupation, 1940-2009: A Case Study from the Channel Islands. Antiquity, 84(323), 161–174. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X0009983X. Accessed May 2021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr, G. (2014). Legacies of occupation. Heritage, memory and archaeology in the Channel Islands. Cham: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Champion, T. (2015). Three nations or one? Britain and the national use of the past. In M. Díaz-Andreu & T. Champion (Eds.), Nationalism and archaeology in Europe (pp. 119–145). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Childe, V. G. (1933). Is prehistory practical? Antiquity, 7(28), 410–418. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00008589. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Childe, V. G. (1939). The dawn of European Civilization (3rd ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Childe, V. G. (1944). The future of archaeology. Man, 44, 18–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clapham, A. W. (1943). Anniversary address. The Antiquaries Journal, 23(3-4), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500016358. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. G. D. (1936a). A Premium on Antiquity. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2(1-2), 242–243. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00021940. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. G. D. (1936b). The Köln-Lindenthal Excavations. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2(1–2), 245–246. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00021976. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. G. D. (1938). Festschrift zur Hundertjahrfeier des Museums Vorgeschichtlicher Altertümer in Kiel 1936. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 4(1), 232. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00021216. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. G. D. (1939). Luftbild und vor und frühgeschichtliche Forschung, 1938. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 5(1), 204. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X0002079X. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. G. D. (1940). New world origins. Antiquity, 14(54), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00015003. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, O. G. S. (1955). Said and Done: The Autobiography of an Archaeologist. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, O. G. S., & Austin, R. (1939). Editorial notes. Antiquity, 13(52), 385–388. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00028040. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, S., Ulmschneider, K., & Elsner, J. (Eds.). (2017). Ark of civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crook, P. (2007). Darwin’s Coat-Tails. Essays on social darwinism. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Díaz-Andreu, M. (2007). Internationalism in the Invisible College: Political ideologies and friendships in archaeology. Journal of Social Archaeology, 7(1), 29–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Díaz-Andreu, M. (2009). Childe and the International Congresses of Archaeology. European Journal of Archaeology, 12(1–3), 91–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Díaz-Andreu, M. (2012). Archaeological Encounters. Building networks of Spanish and British Archaeologists in the twentieth century. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Díaz-Andreu, M., Price, M., & Gosden, C. (2009). Christopher Hawkes: His archive and networks in British and European Archaeology. Antiquaries Journal, 89, 404–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyson, S. L. (2006). In pursuit of Ancient Pasts. A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Edsel, R. M. (2009). Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. London: Arrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, J. (1956). A History of the Society of Antiquaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, C. (1989). Archaeology and Modern Times: Bersu’s Woodbury 1938 and 1939. Antiquity, 63(240), 436–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, C. (2008). Archaeology against the State: Roots of Internationalism’. In T. Murray & C. Evans (Eds.), Histories of archaeology. A reader in the history of archaeology (pp. 222–237). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fagan, B. (2001). Grahame Clark. An Intellectual Life of an Archaeologist. Cambridge: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, H., & Prostov, E. (1940). Archaeology in the Soviet Union. Antiquity, 14(56), 404–426. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00017427. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, E. (2008). The Hunt controversy: A shadow report. The Simon Wiesenthal Center. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/5086223/The_Hunt_Controversy_A_Shadow_Report_For_the_Simon_Wiesenthal_Center_Paris_France. Accessed June 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Givens, S. A. (2013). Liberating the Germans: The US Army and Looting in Germany during the Second World War. War in History, 21(1), 33–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, S. (1981). Prehistorian: A biography of V. Gordon Childe/Sally Green; with a Foreword by Jack Lindsay. Bradford-on-Avon: Moonraker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, R. (1980). Fellow travellers of the right. British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany 1933–1939. London: Constable.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, L. J. (2014). Nazi Archaeology abroad: German Prehistorians and the International Dynamics of Collaboration. Patterns of Prejudice, 48(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, A. D. (2003). Confiscated Nazi Books in the British Library. EBLJ, 4, 1–13. http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2003articles/article4.html. Accessed June 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauser, K. (2008). Bloody Old Britain. O.G.S. Crawford and the archaeology of modern life. London: Granta Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, J. (1982). Mortimer Wheeler: Adventurer in archaeology. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holman, B. (2012). ‘Bomb Back and Bomb Hard’: Debating reprisals during the Blitz. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 58(3), 394–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • I.W.C. (1964). Obituary for Frederick Zeuner. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 75(1), 117–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacob-Friesen, K.-H. (1939). Steinzeitliche Beziehungen zwischen Niedersachsen und England. Die Neueren Sprachen, 47, 260–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jankuhn, H. (1939). Haithabu and the Danewerk. Antiquity, 13(49), 103–105. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00117582. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jankuhn, H. (1943). Die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu (1937–1939): Vorläufiger Grabungsbericht. Berlin-Dahlem: Ahnenerbe-Stiftung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jorgensen-Earp, C. R. (2013). Discourse and defiance under Nazi occupation: Guernsey, Channel Islands, 1940–1945. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerig, T., & Zimmerman, A. (2010). Grahame Clark’s economic basis: A Central European perspective on his Holism and his systemic view. In A. Marciniak & J. Coles (Eds.), Grahame Clark and his legacy (pp. 114–149). Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kushner, T. (2008). H. J. Fleure: A Paradigm for inter-war race thinking in Britain. Patterns of Prejudice, 42(2), 151–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambourn, N. (2001). War damage in Western Europe. The destruction of historic monuments during the Second World War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Link, F., & Hare, J. L. (2015). Pseudoscience Reconsidered: SS Research and the Archaeology of Haithabu. In M. Black & E. Kurlander (Eds.), Revisiting the Nazi Occult: Histories, Realities, Legacy (pp. 105–131). Rochester, NY: Camden House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Longden, S. (2004). To the Victor the spoils: D-Day to VE Day, the reality behind the heroism. Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire: Arris Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahsarski, D. (2012). Von der “germanischen Stadt der Frühzeit” zum “Handelsplatz der Wikingerzeit”: Herbert Jankuhns Rückkehr in den Wissenschaftsbetrieb. In R. Smolnik (Ed.), Umbruch 1945? Die prähistorische Archäologie in ihrem politischen und wissenschaftlichen Kontext (pp. 20–27). Dresden: Landesamt f. Archäol. Sachsen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moshenska, G. (2011). ‘Impudent Lies’. Rhetoric and Reality in Heritage Protection, 1943–2003. Present Pasts, 3, 68–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moshenska, G. (2013). Reflections on the 1943 ‘Conference on the Future of Archaeology’. Archaeology International, 16, 128–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moshenska, G., & Schadla-Hall, T. (2011). Mortimer Wheeler’s theatre of the past. Public Archaeology, 10(1), 46–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mullins, G. (2007). Dublin Nazi No 1: The Life of Adolf Mahr. Dublin: Liberties Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, K. C. (1941). Nigerian Bronzes: Work from Ife. Antiquity, 15(57), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00015532. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donoghue, D. (2007). State within a State: The Nazis in Neutral Ireland. Dublin Historical Record, 60(2), 167–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neil, B. H. S. J. (1948). War and archaeology in Britain. Antiquaries Journal, 28(1–2), 20–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pape, R. A. (1996). Bombing to win. Air power and Coercion in War. Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peake, H. J. E. (1927). Presidential address. The beginning of civilization. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 57, 19–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, C. (1987). My life in archaeology. Stroud: Alan Sutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piggott, S. (1945). Farmsteads in Central India. Antiquity, 19(75), 154–156. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00022699. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piggott, S. (1989). Retrospect. In G. Daniel & C. Chippindale (Eds.), The Pastmasters. Eleven modern pioneers of archaeology (pp. 20–33). London: Thames and Hudson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Platt, L. (2007). Joyce, race and ‘Finnegans Wake’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Richter, V. (2014). The development of Czech Libraries, 1990-2013. Library Trends, 62(3), 161–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ripsman, N. M., & Levy, J. S. (2008). Wishful thinking or buying time? The logic of British appeasement in the 1930s. International Security, 33(2), 148–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roveland, B. E. (2000). Contextualizing the history and practice of paleolithic archaeology: Hamburgian research in Northern Germany. Unpublished Thesis (PhD), University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9978546/. Accessed June 2018.

  • Rybot, N. V. L., & Guiton, E. F. (1945a). Annual report. Annual Bulletin Société Jersiaise, 14(6), 175–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rybot, N. V. L., & Guiton, E. F. (1945b). Annual report. Annual Bulletin Société Jersiaise, 14(7), 191–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlegelmilch, D. (2012). Gero von Merharts Rolle in den Entnazifizierungsverfahren “belasteter” Archäologen. In R. Smolnik (Ed.), Umbruch 1945? Die prähistorische Archäologie in ihrem politischen und wissenschaftlichen Kontext (pp. 13–19). Dresden: Landesamt f. Archäol. Sachsen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skilbeck, C. (1940). Trelleborg. Antiquity, 14(55), 272–279.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowman, D. (2002). The Hitler Emigres. The cultural impact on Britain of refugees from Nazism. London: Chatto and Windus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Storer, C. (2010). Britain and the Weimar Republic. The history of a cultural relationship. London/New York: I. B. Tauris.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stout, A. (2008). Creating prehistory. Druids, Ley Hunters and archaeologists in Pre-War Britain. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Strobl, G. (2000). The Germanic Isle. Nazi Perceptions of Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trigger, B. G. (2006). A history of archaeological thought (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, S. (1988). War and the image of Germany. British Academics 1914–1918. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, P. F. (2004). Adolf Mahr and the making of Sean P. O’Riordain. In H. Roche, E. Grogan, J. Bradley, J. Coles, & B. Raftery (Eds.), From megaliths to metals. Essays in Honour of George Eoghan (pp. 254–263). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilhelm, C. (2002). Nazi Propaganda and the uses of the past: Heinz Kloss and the making of a ‘German America’. Amerikastudien/American Studies, 47(1), 55–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams-Freeman, J. P. (1934). Race and culture. Antiquity, 8(29), 90–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00116552. Accessed June 2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Ulrike Sommer and Maxime Brami for their support and helpful suggestions. Also to the archivist of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Flinders University, the Bodleian Libraries Special Collections team and colleagues in UCL Special Collections.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCL Library Services, Institute of Archaeology Library, London, UK

    Katie Meheux

Authors
  1. Katie Meheux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katie Meheux .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Martijn Eickhoff

  2. Department of Archaeology & Coin Cabinet, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria

    Daniel Modl

  3. UCL Library Services, Institute of Archaeology Library, London, UK

    Katie Meheux

  4. NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Erwin Nuijten

Archival Sources

Archival Sources

  • BBC Archives online

  • BBC Archives, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, 3.5.1956.

  • Bodleian Libraries, Oxford

  • Bodleian MS Myres 8

  • Bodleian MS Myres 57

  • Special Collections, Flinders University, Australia

  • Evatt Collection

  • National Archives (Britain)

  • TNA, PROKV2/2148, V. Gordon Childe Security Services File

  • Royal Anthropological Institute Archives

  • Executive Committee Minutes 1933

  • UCL (University College London) Archives and Special Collections

  • Institute of Archaeology Library Archives

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Meheux, K. (2023). Interactions Between British Archaeologists and National Socialism: Pragmatism, Neutrality, Opposition and Compromise. In: Eickhoff, M., Modl, D., Meheux, K., Nuijten, E. (eds) National-Socialist Archaeology in Europe and its Legacies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28024-5_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28024-5_17

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-28023-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-28024-5

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation