Joachim Herrmann (archaeologist)
Joachim Herrmann (19 December 1932 - 25 February 2010) was a German historian, archaeologist, scientist, and institutional director. He was a figure for scholars in East Germany GDR. Early life and career. Herrmann was born in the village of Lübnitz in the district of Bad Belzig to a farming and milling family. He graduated from high school in Belzig. From 1951 to 1955, he studied history and then prehistory at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he presented his doctoral dissertation in 1958 on the subject of the prehistoric and protohistoric fortifications of Greater Berlin and the district  of Potsdam. His most notable university teacher was Karl-Heinz Otto. In 1956 Herrmann became a research assistant at the Institute for Prehistory and Early History of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin (DAW) and in 1960 a senior research assistant. In 1964 he finally became a scientific work manager. Herrmann's habilitation took place in December 1965 with a thesis about archaeological excavations dealing with topics of "Slavic archaeology". Somewhat surprisingly, Herrmann, who was just 36 years old, was not only appointed professor at DAW in 1969 but instead of Otto was appointed head director of the newly  created Central Institute for Ancient History and Archaeology (ZIAGA) of the renamed Academy of Sciences of the GDR (AdW) because of his conception of a centralized academic institution. He held the position until reunification of Germany in 1990. Herrmann was not only highly regarded in the GDR. In 1970, he helped organize the second "International Congresses for Slavic Archaeology" by (UIAS). In 1971 Herrmann was awarded the National Prize of the GDR (II. Class) and in 1981 the Hero of Labour. In 1972 he became a corresponding member, in 1974 a full member of the AdW, and in 1982 a  member of the German Archaeological Institute. During the 1970s he was elected as a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Polish Archaeological Society. In 1985 he became a member of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (CISH), and after his five-year re-election in September 1990, he was the only German representative there causing a protest from West German archaeologists. From 1986 to 1990 Herrmann was president of Urania and towards the end of the GDR member of the presidium of the Historians' Society of the GDR. In 1989 became a member  of Bulgarian and 1990 of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and the University of Athens awarded him an honorary doctorate. After the reunification of Germany, the East German academic institutions where Herrmann worked were restructured or closed, and Herrmann's work, status, and authority as a scholar were publicly criticized making it difficult for him to continue his academic career. He retired in 1992. After which, his national and international reputation declined. Ultimately he succeeded in finding support in 1993 at the Leibniz Association, where he was secretary of the social sciences and humanities class from 1993 to 2008. A  five-volume monograph on the excavations in the Slavic period settlement chamber of Ralswiek on Rügen island stands as a conclusion to his professional work. In 2009 he was awarded the "Daniel Ernst Jablonski Medal" by the Leibniz Association. A year later he passed away in Berlin. Legacy. Retrospectively, Herrmann remains a figure in science. The so-called "Herrmann Era" (1969–1990) was "characterized by the attempt to anchor the communist state ideology in research and teaching and by a more intense broad effect". His habilitation thesis (1965–68) was, or so it was thought at the time, the only one of  the "caliber" to "adequately implement Marxism". The period 1989–1991 was part of a massive public criticism of his "historical propagandist activity". Herrmann obtained his position at ZIAGA behind closed doors not only because of his professional achievements and organizational skills but also because of his support of the system of GDR and ruling SED of which he had been a member since 1954. Although under his leadership it became the most important research institute in the GDR with regard to all classical studies, it was difficult for scientists who were viewed suspiciously or who were not members of the SED  to make a career under him. On the other hand, he sometimes allowed freedom for the scientists and placed long-term scientific research and projects above politics. Herrmann was an editor and author, but more of a "desk" scholar because of his administrative duties. The so-called East German "Slavic archaeology" research of the history, culture, and contribution of Early Slavs in East-Central Europe, specifically within the East German borders, is inevitably linked to him. However, it was also ideologically and politically motivated; based on Marxist archaeology and historical materialism, anti-"Ostforschung" and pro-socialist bloc Pan-Slavism. Herrmann uncritically  theorized about several early, distinct, and major waves of immigration of the early medieval West Slavs to the East German territory and proposed that they had almost the same cultural, societal and structural level of development as Germanic peoples. He "deliberately distorted the view of history for political reasons ... stubbornly holding on to the old interpretation after the dendrochronological dating of the constructions became known" (see Leipzig group#Research, Sukow-Dziedzice group#Later stages and Tornow group).