Exactly. I have the feeling Scandinavian and German prehistory includes most of the Dark Ages whereas in most parts of Europe prehistory was barbarian for not such a long time and the Neolithic is clearly delimited. One mustn't forget that, in opposition to everywhere else in Britain and the Continent, the Romans never got near there and Odin carried on til the Middle Ages until the adoption of Christianity. For instance, I've been reading about an extensive research of the Baltic coast in Germany and much of it includes early Germanic and Slavic prehistory (!?)
However, I am intrigued by monuments like Ales Stenar, who, although they are viking stone ships no doubt, may date to an earlier time. A sort of Neolithic precursor that the Vikings and other Indoeuropeans found and imitated on a massive scale without understanding the purpose or essential alignments with the sun etc when they eventually took over European megalithia. Therefore, one must keep an open mind. The proper number of remaining Danish 'dolmens' is around 5,300 plus the 400 or so in Southern Sweden, which include a gorgeous collection of passage graves.
As for the Germans, I have been met with the blank faces of some prehistorians when I have asked them about their concept of Prehistory. It seems that showing an excessive interest in that part of German history is a no-zone. German history in schools begings with the Third Reich and finishes with the Third Reich, which is fine to a certain extent, since most other famous countries still hide their own abuses, mistakes and genocides under the carpet and would not dare put them under discussion. However, most of the rest of history is ignored to the detriment of the sites and their preservation.
But, as I said before, and in spite of all that, wonderful sites there are all over Germany, and on a massive scale. The Dutch keep a cute little display on the long high ridge that is the Honsrug but that may be because it's all they have. Most of the Netherlands was water 5000 years ago and there were no borders that distinguished those groups from the huge bulk of the hunebetts further east.
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