Franz Altheim

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Franz Altheim (* October 6, 1898 in Frankfurt am Main; † October 17, 1976 in Münster in Westfalen) was a German historian, best known for his trip with Erika Trautmann funded by the Ahnenerbe and Hermann Göring.

[edit] Early life

Altheim was born to an eccentric sculptor of a father in Frankfurt, Germany, who passed his Bohemian ways onto his son. But after Franz's mother left, his father committed suicide on Christmas Day 1914. In 1917, Altheim joined the German army, became a translator and was then stationed in Turkey.

[edit] Career

Altheim went on to university, studying classical philology, archaeology and linguistics, paying for his education with a bank job. After making several annual trips to Italy funded by government grants, he became a private lecturer at the University of Frankfurt in 1928. After making friends with Leo Frobenius, a well known researcher in Germany at the time. Frobenius attended annual events at the home in the Netherlands of former kaiser Wilhelm II where he invited academic elites, and Frobenius asked Altheim to join them.

In 1938, Altheim went on an expedition through the Middle East with his lover, Erika Trautmann.