Gero Merhart von Bernegg (17 October 1886 in
Bregenz
Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...
– 4 March 1959 in
Kreuzlingen
Kreuzlingen () is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22 ...
) was an Austrian archaeologist. Although he worked at the same time when German nationalism and
Nazi archaeology
Nazi archaeology was a field of pseudoarcheology led and encouraged by various Nazi leaders and Ahnenerbe figures, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, which directed archaeologists and other scholars to search Germany's archeological pas ...
was dominant in Germany, he was not a "Nazi archaeologist". He came into conflict with
Hans Reinerth who exploited his position to get the Nazi government to essentially fire Merhart from the tenured position he held at the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...
in 1938.
He supervised Ph.D. dissertations in archaeology successfully defended by
Kurt Bittel
Kurt Bittel (born 5 July 1907 in Heidenheim an der Brenz, died 30 January 1991 in Heidenheim an der Brenz) was a German prehistorian. As president of the German Archaeological Institute (''Deutsches Archäologisches Institut'' - DAI) and excavato ...
, and
Joachim Werner, among a number of other scholars.
He died in Switzerland at the age of 72 on March 4, 1959.
1886 births
1959 deaths
Austrian archaeologists
People from Bregenz
20th-century German archaeologists
German prehistorians
Academic staff of the University of Marburg
Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
{{Germany-archaeologist-stub