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Roland Hampe

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Roland Hampe (born 2 December 1908 in Heidelberg); † January 23, 1981 was a German classical archaeologist.

The son of the historian Karl Hampe first studied law at the University of Kiel. After a short time he moved to the subjects History and Economics, which his father had once studied. Through his teacher Friedrich Wolters he came into contact with the George circle. He decided to study Classical Archaeology in Munich with Ernst Buschor and was awarded his doctorate in 1934 with his work Early Greek Legendary Images in Böotien. In August 1933 he had joined the Reiter-SS. In 1934/1935 he received the travel scholarship of the German Archaeological Institute. From 1936 he was assistant at the German Archaeological Institute in Athens and took part in the excavation in Olympia in 1937 with Ulf Jantzen. From 1938 he was assistant to Reinhard Herbig at the University of Würzburg. There he also completed his habilitation in 1939 via the charioteer of Delphi.

During the German occupation period, Hampe – used as an interpreter for the Wehrmacht in the rank of a Oberfähnrich in Greece – remained at the German Archaeological Institute in Athens together with the art protection officers, the historian Hans von Schoenebeck, the archaeologist Wilhelm Kraiker and the historical geographer Ernst Kirsten. In autumn 1941, the German Archaeological Institute succeeded, with the support of the Kunstschutz, which was subordinated to the High Command of the Army, Quartermaster General Eduard Wagner, and the Foreign Office, in driving the Sonderstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg out of Greece. Hampe, who was proficient in the ancient and modern Greek languages, conspiratorially contacted General Hellmuth Felmy in August/September 1944 to help save Athens in October 1944. At the end of 1944, Hampe handed over the key of the completely preserved building of the German Archaeological Institute in an orderly manner to Greek colleagues and returned to Germany unharmed.

After the war, Hampe received the Chair of Classical Archaeology at the University of Kiel in 1946 as a full professor, but could neither set accents there nor as simultaneous director of the Kiel Antiquities Collection. From 1948 to 1957 Hampe was a professor at the University of Mainz, from 1957 he taught until his retirement in 1975 at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Heidelberg. He refused a call to Munich. In 1959 he was accepted as a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. From 1979 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society. Hampe is buried with other members of his family at the cemetery in Heidelberg-Neuenheim.

The early Greek period was the focus of his research. He acquired numerous pieces for the antiquities collection of the University of Heidelberg, including some Boeot fibs. Powerful were Hampes