After attending high school at the
Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in
Stuttgart, he began his study of the ancient world at
Tübingen and
Heidelberg University. He met his future wife, Marianne von den Steinen, there. He went on to study at
Jena, and in 1930 completed his doctorate at
Marburg under the supervision of
Paul Jacobsthal. Later he worked especially at the
German Archaeological Institute in
Rome and
Athens, and participated in excavations at
Larisa in
Thessaly. He was married on 5 February 1935 to Marianne von den Steinen, daughter of
Karl von den Steinen, a well-known ethnologist. Concerned by developments in Germany, he moved to
Basel the same year, and there completed his
Habilitation in classical archaeology. At first, he specialised in near-eastern and early-Christian archaeology. After the death of
Ernst Pfuhl in 1940, he gradually became more and more responsible for all areas of teaching and finally, in 1953, the chair was transferred to him. He declined numerous appointments in other countries; through his research, and the foundation of a museum of antiquities, he developed the field of archaeology at Basel. Schefold was a member of the German, Austrian, and American archaeological institutes, and of the Bavarian and British Academy of Sciences. He held an honorary doctorate at the
University of Thessaloniki. With
Herbert A. Cahn he founded the
Antikenmuseum Basel, the first museum for ancient art in Switzerland. He had at three sons, Dian Schefold, Professor for public law in Bremen, Germany, Reimar Schefold, Professor for cultural anthropology, who lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Bertram Schefold, Professor for Economics in Frankfurt, Germany. == Work ==