Hans Reck

Hans Reck (* January 24, 1886; † August 4, 1937 in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa, now Mozambique ) was a German geologist specializing in volcanology.

Life

Reck traveled in 1908 with Ina von Grumbkow to the Öskjuvatn in Iceland. They were married on February 9, 1912. Together with his wife he traveled from research purposes to Africa. Hillside Tendaguru in what was then German East Africa they made excavations for the Berlin Museum of Natural History. In 1913 he discovered in the Olduvai Gorge, the first Hominini Fossil, a 20,000 year old skull of Homo sapiens ( Archive No. 1 = OH Olduvai hominid 1).

In World War Reck stayed with the German troops in Africa and was interned by the British in four years. Reck was appointed professor at the Humboldt University later. After his early retirement Reck died on an expedition in the present-day Mozambique.

Works

Reck was from 1923, co-editor of the Journal of Volcanology. His main work was the exploration of the volcano of Santorini, for which he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens. The following monographs were published under his authorship:

• The hegau volcanoes (Berlin, 1923)
• Olduvai. The gorge of primitive man (Leipzig, 1933)
• Santorini. The career of an island volcano and its eruption (3 volumes, Berlin, 1936)
• Together with Ludwig Kohl- Larsen: First overview of the jungdiluvialen animal and human findings Dr. Kohl - Larsen in the northeastern part of the Njarasa - trench ( East Africa). In: Geological Rundschau 27, 1936, pp. 401-441