Die DGUF-Gründung 1969 als Reaktion auf den extrem rechten Kulturkampf

Abstract

Often it has been acknowledged that the establishment of the German Society for Pre- and Early History (DGUF) initiated the key reforms of German prehistory in the 1970s. Without this event, many positive changes would not have taken place this quickly, or surely not in this way, such as the establishment of the “Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt” and “Archäologische Informationen” as well as the founding of working groups in several of the Societies for Antiquity. The actual reason for founding was the resistance to the revitalization of Gustaf Kossinna’s “Gesellschaft für Deutsche Vorgeschichte” (“Society of German Prehistory”) but this became a minor story. Contrary to what is hinted at in many stories, be it with good or bad intention, this Society was in its early days absolutely no marginalizable somewhat eccentric Old Boys’ Club. Instead, this threatened to turn into a medium through which the extreme right executives worldwide could connect without being hindered. The analysis of these structures allows a rare insight into the global communication of the extreme right in the early 1970s.