Hans Schleif
Encyclopedia
Hans Philipp Oswald Schlief (born February 23, 1902 in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

 - died April 27, 1945 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

) was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 architect, architectural and classical archaeologist and member of the SS (member number 264,124), last occupying the rank of Standartenführer
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...

 (since 30 January 1945). He was a member of the Nazi Party since 1937, with membership number 5,380,876.

Greece

In 1936 the government of Germany provided a considerable sum of money to reactive a moribund project of archaeological excavation on the site of Olympia, Greece
Olympia, Greece
Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every Olympiad , the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 BC...

. Schleif was chosen as one of the principal archaeologists in this prestigious project. His Greek work produced a number of books, notably Alt-Olympia (1935), Alt-Athen (part one 1937; part two 1939) and Erechtheion (1942).

Poland

In 1939 Schleif worked against Peter Paulsen and together with Ernst Petersen in the plunder of the Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 archaeological museum in Lazienki Park
Lazienki Park
Łazienki Park is the largest park in Warsaw, Poland, occupying 76 hectares of the city center. The park-and-palace complex lies in Warsaw's Downtown , on Ujazdów Avenue on the "Royal Route" linking the Royal Castle with Wilanów palace to the south...

. He transported five crate loads, to Poznan
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

 on November 30, after Standartenführer Mühlmann had given the order for such activity to cease, and founded a new collection and museum in Poznan. He was suspended in September 1940 from the position of a general trustee in Poznan due to his misunderstanding of his function, because the Gestapo expected him to plunder public and private art and cultural objects, what he did not follow.

Reputation

In contrast to some academics who were part of the Ahnenerbe
Ahnenerbe
The Ahnenerbe was a Nazi German think tank that promoted itself as a "study society for Intellectual Ancient History." Founded on July 1, 1935, by Heinrich Himmler, Herman Wirth, and Richard Walther Darré, the Ahnenerbe's goal was to research the anthropological and cultural history of the Aryan...

 Schleif enjoyed a strong international reputation, something he shared with a handful of fellow Nazi archaeologists such as Herbert Jankuhn
Herbert Jankuhn
Herbert Jankuhn was a German archaeologist and supporter of the Nazi Party...

. Schleif was never comfortable in the Ahnenerbe, given the group's tendencies towards racial pseudo-science, and he conspired with Wolfram Sievers
Wolfram Sievers
Wolfram Sievers was Reichsgeschäftsführer, or managing director, of the Ahnenerbe from 1935 to 1945.-Early life:...

 to delay indefinitely a scheme suggested by Gunther Kirchhoff and Karl Maria Wiligut
Karl Maria Wiligut
Karl Maria Wiligut was an Austrian Ariosophist- Biography :...

, and endorsed by Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

, to excavate a valley near Kirchhoff's home town of Gaggenau
Gaggenau
Gaggenau is a town in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located some 8 km northeast of Baden-Baden.- Geography :...

 after Kirchhoff had decided that it housed an ancient Teutonic religious complex.

Death

When it became clear that Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

was on the verge of collapse Schleif took his own life.
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