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Obermaier Grad, Hugo

(1877–1946)

Hugo Obermaier Grad was born into a traditional and cultured family fond of humanist studies and collecting. Between 1886 and 1895, Obermaier’s training alternated between the study of the classics (Greek and Latin) and reading the work of the archaeologist heinrich schliemann, which, combined with familiarity with Roman Bavarian antiquities, awoke his interest in archaeology. He then studied philosophy and theology and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1900.

At the University of Vienna, Obermaier studied geology with A. Penck, anatomy and anthropology with C. Toldt, and prehistoric archaeology with M. Hörnes. In 1904, he obtained his Ph.D. Between 1904 and 1906, he completed his training in Paris where he was in contact with the great French prehistorians Lapparent, Gaudry, marcellin boule, emile cartailhac, Commont, and Capitan and studied French Paleolithic sites, museums, and private collections. It was here and at this time that he began to work with the French prehistorian and priest henri breuil. Indeed, Obermaier and Breuil shared the secretariat position in sessions of the Congrès International d’Anthropologie de Monaco in 1905.

In 1909, Obermaier visited spain for the first time, and he subsequently spent summers participating in the excavations and study of the art of important Cantabrian Paleolithic sites in the caves of Castillo (1910–1914, with Breuil and H. Alcalde del Río), at altamira (1925 on), and in La Pasiega as well as in the Pileta Cave, Málaga, among other sites.

From 1909 to 1911, Obermaier taught a course on the Primitive History of Man at the University of Vienna without giving up his cooperative work with French researchers. In 1911, he went to Paris to work with Boule and Breuil, who were directors of the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine founded by Prince Albert I of Monaco in 1910.

In view of the great importance of his research in Spain, the Real Academia de la Historia (Royal Academy of History) made Obermaier an honorary member in Munich in 1913. His connection with the Institut de Paléontologie was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, but the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (Board for the Expansion of Study and Scientific Research) offered him the post of assistant lecturer in the Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Museum of Natural Sciences) in Madrid while the Duke of Alba took him into his household as chaplain. From then until 1938, Obermaier worked in Spain and became a Spanish citizen in 1924. In 1922, at the request of the Philosophy and Arts Faculty of the Universidad Central (Central University) in Madrid, the chair of Primitive History of Man was created for him, and he was head of the section of the Museo Antropológico in Madrid until 1936.

In 1926, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of History, and he was made an honorary doctor by the universities of Friburg, Oporto, and Lisbon as well as the Skandinaviska Släkt Tudie Samfundet (Germanitas Genealogiae Gothica). He belonged to the Academy of Sciences of Bavaria and the Pontificia of the Nuovi Lincei of Rome. He was a member of the deutsches archäologisches institut (German