The Protectorate-period roots of the Brno branch of the Institute of Archaeology

Abstract

When Karl Hucke assumed the directorship of the Moravian Museum including its Department of Prehistory in November 1941, he very soon attempted to transfer administrative authority over the archaeological heritage care in Moravia from the Institute of Archaeology in Prague in order to take control over Moravian Prehistoric research and to emancipate it from the influence of the Reichsdeutsche archaeologists active in Bohemia. His proposal presented in December of 1941 to the Office of the Reichsprotektor and to the president of Moravia (governor) conceived the transfer of the competences of the Institute of Archaeology to the Department of Prehistory of the Moravian Museum. However, the Reichsprotektor office had no interest in decentralisation of archaeological heritage protection and, therefore, Hucke’s proposal ended up being substantially reworked. Based on an idea of a Reichsprotektor office staffer, Wolf von Both, the Brno branch of the Institute of Archaeology was established in the summer of 1942 as a de facto detached institution with some autonomy. Its establishment was therefore a compromise between Hucke’s original plan and the effort of maintaining the central role of the Institute of Archaeology as stipulated by the 1941 Government decree on archaeological heritage.