Alfred Götze (prehistoric)

Alfred Götze (also Goetze) (born June 1, 1865 in Weimar ; † November 20, 1948 in Römhild ) was a German prehistorian. Götze can be described as the first scientist to receive a doctorate in prehistory and early history . He worked for a long time in the preservation of monuments in Berlin and Brandenburg and was the founder and long-time director of the Steinsburg Museum in Römhild.

life and work

Alfred Götze was born on June 1, 1865 in Weimar and grew up there. After attending the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium in Weimar from 1875 to 1886, he studied in Jena with Friedrich Klopfleisch , where he majored in “Art history with a special emphasis on prehistoric times” with one of the first prehistoric dissertations on “The vessel shapes and ornaments” of Neolithic string-adorned ceramics in the Saale river basin ”. He then continued his studies in Jena, Berlin and Munich until 1894. In the same year he took part in the excavations of Wilhelm Dörpfeld in Troy . He then found a permanent job at the prehistoric department of the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin with Albert Voss , where he had already worked as a volunteer in the winter of 1887/1888. From 1906 to 1908, after his death, he took over the provisional management and worked as a scientific museum official under Carl Schuchhardt and Wilhelm Unverzagt , most recently as assistant director. From 1914 he was the state fund keeper for the province of Brandenburg. After he had been awarded the title of professor in 1908, Götze was appointed curator of the Berlin Museum and full professor at the University of Berlin in 1920. After the death of his colleague Gustaf Kossinna in 1931, he succeeded him as chairman of the Society for German Prehistory . In 1925 he became an honorary member of the Niederlausitz Society for Anthropology and Antiquity . In 1903 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Already at the turn of the century Götze was strongly committed to the Steinsburg at Römhild and often traveled to southern Thuringia during his summer holidays. In 1914 he moved into the "Keltenhof", a small single-family house on the Kleiner Gleichberg . He tirelessly advocated the amalgamation of all stone castle finds and initiated the construction of the stone castle museum . In 1928 he left the Prussian civil service at his own request and ran the Steinsburg Museum, which opened in 1929, on a voluntary basis in Römhild until his death on November 20, 1948 . During this time, among other things, archaeological excavations on Ulmenweg (1919), in the area of ​​the grave well wall (1934/35) and the uncovering of the Michaeliskapelle (1935-1940). Following Götze's request, Gotthard Neumann , with whom he had been known and also friends since the 1930s, not least because of his work as state steward for the prehistoric and early historical soil antiquities of Thuringia, took over the Steinburg research and the technical supervision of the museum.

His grave is in Weimar in the historic cemetery . In Römhild, whose honorary citizen Götze became in 1929, next to the Steinsburg Museum , a Prof. Götze Street commemorates him.

Götze was friends with the Greek archaeologist Pierre Mavrogordato from Berlin, whom he brought to Römhild.

Fonts (selection)

Götze's list of publications includes around 370 titles on prehistory and early history. Representative are:

• The vessel shapes and ornaments of Neolithic string-adorned pottery in the Saale river basin. Jena 1891, (Jena, University, dissertation, 1891; online ).
• The Neolithic cemetery of Rössen and a new ceramic group. In: Journal of Ethnology . Bd. 32, Dept .: Negotiations of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. 1900, pp. 237-253 .
• Gothic buckles (= Germanic finds from the migration period. ). Wasmuth, Berlin 1907.
• The prehistoric and early historical monuments of the Ostprignitz district (= The Art Monuments of the Province of Brandenburg. Vol. 1, Part 2, supplement). Voss, Berlin 1907, ( online ).
• as editor with Paul Höfer and Paul Zschiesche: The prehistoric antiquities of Thuringia. Curt Kabitzsch (A. Stubers Verlag), Würzburg 1909, ( digitized ).
• The old Thuringian finds from Weimar. (5th – 7th century AD) (= Germanic finds from the migration period. ). Wasmuth, Berlin 1912, ( digitized version ).
• The prehistoric and early historical monuments of the Westprignitz district (= The Art Monuments of the Province of Brandenburg. Vol. 1, Part 1, supplement). Voss, Berlin 1912.
• The stone castle near Römhild according to the more recent investigations. In: Prehistoric Journal . Vol. 13/14, 1921/1922, pp. 19-83, doi : 10.1515 / prhz.1922.13-14.1.19 .
• Guide to the stone castle near Römhild. Gadow, Hildburghausen 1922, (several editions).

literature

• Studies in prehistoric archeology. Alfred Götze was offered by colleagues, friends and students on his 60th birthday. Edited by Hugo Mötefindt … Kabitzsch, Leipzig 1925 (with biography and portrait).
• Bernd Bahn: Half a century for the Steinsburg. On the 30th anniversary of Alfred Götze's death. In: excavations and finds . Vol. 24, H. 5, 1979, pp. 212-217 .
• Bernd Bahn: Alfred Götze 1865–1948. In: Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt. Vol. 9, 2000, ISSN  1610-6148 , pp. 31-35.
• Willfried Büttner: Alfred Götze. Pioneer of spade research and archaeological monument preservation. In: Old Thuringia. Vol. 33, ISSN  0065-6585 , 1999, pp. 10-29 .
• Willfried Büttner: Steinsburg Museum. The center of archeology in southern Thuringia . In: Sigrid Dušek (Ed.): Pre- and early history of Thuringia. Results of archaeological research in text and images. Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1504-9 , pp. 16-19.
• Peter Donat : Alfred Götze. 100th birthday commemoration. In: excavations and finds. Vol. 10, H. 5, 1965, pp. 211-212 .
• Werner Gall: Brief biographical data on prehistorians, collectors, volunteers and other people with significance for the archeology and local history of South Thuringia. First delivery. In: Messages from the community of the Steinsburgfreunde. NF Jg. 6, Bd. 4, H. 5, 2002, ZDB -ID 802933-7 , p. 23 , table 1 .
• Thomas Grasselt: Alfred Götze (June 1, 1865 to November 20, 1948). In: Archaeological Society in Thuringia e. V. (Ed.): 100 years "The prehistoric and early historical antiquities of Thuringia". Contributions to the history of archaeological monument preservation in Thuringia (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Volume 59 = New excavations and finds in Thuringia. Special volume 2009). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2010, ISBN 978-3-937517-83-4 , pp. 9-11.
• Gotthard Neumann : Alfred Götze. A tribute to his scientific personality. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Vol. 34, 1950, ISSN  0075-2932 , pp. 185-187, plate 1.
• Tim Schüler: Alfred Götze's contribution to the research of the travertine site in Weimar-Ehringsdorf. In: Archaeological Society in Thuringia e. V. (Ed.): 100 years "The prehistoric and early historical antiquities of Thuringia". Contributions to the history of archaeological monument preservation in Thuringia (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Volume 59 = New excavations and finds in Thuringia. Special volume 2009). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2010, ISBN 978-3-937517-83-4 , pp. 38-46.

Web links

• Literature by and about Alfred Götze in the catalog of the German National Library