Bolko von Richthofen

He is sometimes confused with his distant cousin and namesake, Karl Bolko von Richthofen (1903–1971) – the youngest brother of the fighter ace.

Richthofen was born in Mertschütz (Polish Mierczyce), Silesia, and fought in World War I.

After the war ended, he participated as a Freikorps volunteer during the Silesian Uprisings.

In the early post-war period he entered tertiary studies and quickly became an eminent scholar.

He is well known for a bitter dispute about the ethnicity of the Lusatian and Pomeranian cultures with the Polish archaeologist Józef Kostrzewski.