Werner Jorns

Werner Jorns (born May 20, 1909 in Kassel ; † January 29, 1990 in Darmstadt ) was a Hessian archaeologist with a focus on prehistory and head of archaeological monument preservation in the Darmstadt administrative district .

Career

As a result of an accident in his earliest youth, Jorns had a severe handicap, which he did not give up. After graduating from high school in Kassel in 1928, he began studying art history, which brought him to many European universities (Munich, London, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Marburg). Under the influence of Johannes Boehlau and Hans Möbius , he turned to prehistory and early history. During his studies, Jorns gained practical excavation experience, among others with the Roman-Germanic Commission under Gerhard Bersu . In 1936 he received his doctorate in Marburg with Gero von Merhart with the thesis The Hallstatt Period in Kurhessen. This was followed by activities in the Oberhessisches Museum in Gießen (1936/37) and at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (1937/38).

In 1938 he was appointed head of the prehistoric department at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig . The main focus of his activities there was the preservation of monuments in the administrative district of Leipzig. On the side, Jorns tried to pursue a university career. He held lectures and exercises on behalf of the full professor at Leipzig University. Its quite far gediehenen work on a habilitation The development of the map image for the pre- and early history of science were a result of the Second World War nullified, as well as the plans to establish an ancient Europe Department at the Leipzig Museum.

After a short period of unemployment in the immediate post-war period, Jorns was hired in 1947 as head of the newly established Office for Ground Monument Preservation in the Darmstadt administrative district . Like Helmut Schoppa (Wiesbaden), Hans Schönberger ( Saalburg ) or Otto Uenze (Marburg), Jorns belonged to a generation of Hessian archaeologists and archaeologists who were faced with an almost impossible task. In addition to the stocks that were destroyed or relocated as a result of the war and the lack of financial and personnel resources, there was the construction boom in Hesse and the Rhine-Main area in the post-war period . His excavations in the administrative district were very numerous. He examined the burial grounds of the Bronze Age tumulus in Wixhausen near Darmstadt (1948), Wahlen near Alsfeld (1957) and Ziegenberg near Friedberg (1962) as well as the Urnfield Age burial ground in Bürstadt (1963). He has also uncovered many Roman monuments in the ground, including the Echzell fort (1961/62), the Groß-Gerau fort (1962/63), the Degerfeld fort and the Butzbach fort (1964/65 and 1953-56). In addition, there were excavations in the Iron Age saltworks of Bad Nauheim (1958–1964), which were supported by the German Research Foundation, and towards the end of his activities, the excavation of the Zullestein at the mouth of the Weschnitz in 1970–73.

The management of the Darmstadt office was associated with the voluntary management and reconstruction of the prehistoric collections of the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt . The work turned out to be difficult because the remains of the Darmstadt collections were still at great risk from moisture after the museum fire in September 1944 . They had to be restored despite limited financial and human resources. The spatial situation was not eased until 1961, when the office was able to move into the bell building of the Darmstadt Palace , where it is still located today as a branch of the State Office for the Preservation of Hesse .

In addition to the preservation of monuments, he was particularly interested in museology and the transfer of knowledge. Jorns organized numerous special exhibitions throughout his life. In 1964 he was a founding member and later 1st chairman of the Association of Friends of Antiquities in the Darmstadt administrative district. The Eduard Anthes Prize was founded under his chairmanship in 1984 .

Honors

Werner Jorns was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon.

literature

• Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann : Werner Jorns 65 years . In find reports from Hessen 14, 1975, pp. VII – XIX (with list of publications up to 1975).
• Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: Dr. Werner Jorns † in: Monument Preservation in Hessen 1/1990, p. 35.

Fonts

• Liguria. Society of Friends of Antiquity Darmstadt 1986.
• Witnesses of cultural history - signposts to the future. District Committee d. Darmstadt-Dieburg district, Darmstadt 1982
• Inventory of the prehistoric site monuments and finds from the city and district of Giessen. Association of antiquity friends in Reg.-Bez. Darmstadt, 1976.
• The stone castle . Association of friends of antiquity in the administrative district of Darmstadt e. V., 1971.
• From the world of the oldest Darmstadt residents from the Stone Age to the early Middle Ages. Darmstadt 1960.
• The Felsberg in the Odenwald . Bärenreiter, Kassel, 1959.
• The fire god volcano. Stahleisen, Düsseldorf 1957
• Brick manufacture and use in Germany in Roman times. Construction, Wiesbaden 1956.
• New land documents from Starkenburg. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1953.
• Roemerkastell u. -bad Wuerzberg / Odenwald. Office f. Soil monument preservation in the Reg. Bez. Darmstadt, 1952.
• To the eastern demarcation of the Hunsrück-Eifel culture. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1942
• Prehistoric and early historical settlements in Rötha-Geschwitz. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1942.
• The Hallstatt period in Kurhessen. Berlin 1936.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Award of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on April 23, 1990 . In: The Hessian Prime Minister (Ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1990 No. 19 , p. 810 , point 431 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 4,2 MB ]).