Career
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. During the World World War II he worked in antisemitic organisation Ahnenerbe.
He is well known for a bitter dispute about the ethnicity of the Lusatian and Pomeranian cultures with the Polish archaeologist Józef Kostrzewski.
In 1964 he received the Bundesverdienstkreuz. He died in Seehausen am Staffelsee, Bavaria.