Otto Benndorf was born in 1838 in the Principality of the Reuss Elder Line. As a youth he showed much interest in archaeology and eventually decided to pursue it in his higher education. He held a variety of academic positions over the years and participated in numerous archaeological expeditions in Greece, including in Samothrace (1875), Lycia (1881–82), and Ephesus (1895). In 1896 he began efforts to open a facility in Athens to oversee Austrian-run archaeological projects in Greece. Within a year he had convinced King George I of Greece to…
