[1] His nationalistic theories about the origins of the Germanic peoples and Indo-Europeans influenced aspects of National Socialist ideology.

Though politically discredited after World War II, Kossinna's methodological approach has greatly influenced archaeology up to the present day.

[a] In the years following World War II, Kossinna's theories of settlement archaeology were widely dismissed as pseudoscience.

[4] While in this capacity, Kossinna began the work of systematically building up the university institute in view of improving its study and teaching of prehistoric archaeology.

One of his best-known books was Die Deutsche Vorgeschichte - Eine Hervorragend Nationale Wissenschaft (German Prehistory: A Pre-Eminently National Discipline).

[citation needed] Despite justified criticism of the method and its application by Kossinna, the central technique was not unique to him, but it has also developed elsewhere in Europe and the US.

His methods influenced those of V. Gordon Childe, whose associates dominated the field of archaeology for decades after World War II.

[a] In the years following World War II, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a counterreaction against Kossinna's theories of settlement archaeology, and the migration was generally considered not to have been a major factor in prehistoric culture change.

[10] More recently, studies of prehistoric migration through archaeogenetics have been described as marking a return of Kossinna's cultural-historical thinking,[c][b] drawing criticism from archaeologists.

[11] Archaeogeneticist David Reich, who worked on a study related to the Corded Ware culture, drew criticism and lost several archaeologist collaborators when they believed that the ancient DNA results promoted ideas similar to Kossinna's.