Hugo Obermaier
(Regensburg, Alemania, 1877 - Friburgo, Suiza, 1946)

Hugo Obermaier obtained a Ph.D. in theology at the University of Regensburg. He also studied humanities with F. Birkner, M. Hoerner, and A. Penk at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his second Ph.D. with a dissertation on the Quaternary's geology of the Pyrenees. He was appointed assistant professor at the University of Vienna.
His interest in geology and prehistory took him to Paris in 1904, where he met Henri Breuil. His association with Breuil and the projects sponsored by Prince Albert I of Monaco, led to his appointment as professor of Quaternary Geology at the Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris (1911-1914).

Obermaier first came with Breuil to Spain in 1909 to explore the caves of Cantabria, a project funded by Prince Albert. They conducted excavations in the caves of El Castillo and La Pasiega.The First World War forced him to stay in Spain until 1919 (being a German, he was no longer able to return to Paris). The Comisión de Investigaciones Paleontológicas y Prehistóricas, sponsored by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios (JAE), welcomed him, and he became Professor of Human Prehistory at the Universidad Central in Madrid (1922 -1939). After the Civil War, he took up a professorship at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland.

Obermaier had influential supporters during his stay in Spain, such as the Duke of Alba, José Ortega y Gasset, and the Count de la Vega del Sella, and he continued his research on Spanish prehistory, Quaternary geology, and cave painting art in Cantabria, and Levante. He also founded and directed the journal Investigación y Progreso (1927-1936), under the auspices of the Centro de Intercambio Cultural Germanoespañol. Among his numerous publications were El hombre fósil, published by the JAE (1916, second edition in 1925), the first major overview of European prehistory published in the 20th century, and El hombre prehistórico y los orígenes de la humanidad (1932), translated from German by A. García Bellido, and published by the Revista de Occidente.