The History of the Institute since the First World War

When the First World War broke out, Gustaf Dalman was visiting Switzerland and could not go back to Jerusalem. The successful work at the Institute was interrupted. The library and the archaeological collection were located for a long time in the Syrian Orphanage.

In the years 1921 and 1922 Albrecht Alt held the office of director and provost. In 1924 the library and the collectionwere placed in the Lutheran Hospice, where today the residence of the provost is; the ethnological collection was brought by Dalman to Greifswald, where it can be viewed today in the Gustaf-Dalman-Institute. Since 1923 Albrecht Alt worked in the Institute only during the summer months, when he held the archaeological courses; eight years later no more courses were held. As a consequence the staff came only sporadically to Jerusalem and from 1939 until 1952 activity at the Institute ceased completely.