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The contributions of this first of two volumes investigate, by order of birth dates, the lives of fifteen well-known German and Italian 20th-century Classical archaeologists. Their biographies are supplemented by a foreword of the editors, an introduction on archaeologists and the German past [Brands], a list of abbreviations, captions, and short biographies of the present authors and editors. The biographies are not limited to the 12 years of National-Socialist dictatorship, respectively the 21 years of Italian fascism, but provide complete curricula vitae in each case, which enable the reader to appreciate continuity, breaks, and developments of longer paths of life of the selected archaeologists. Despite all differences, the quality of the biographies is characterised by a high degree of homogeneity. Apart from the individual academic œuvre, they cover the entire spectrum of possible behaviour in a totalitarian system, from victims of racist or political discrimination and persecution to advocates of an ideology of Aryan overmen, from party members to emigrants and opponents of the regime, from followers to apolitical persons and silent deniers.