Wilhelm Soldan (archaeologist)

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Franz Ludwig Wilhelm Soldan (born May 7, 1842 in Burkhards ; † July 2, 1905 in Darmstadt ) was a German teacher , ministerial official, archaeologist and monument protector . He was a member of the Imperial Limes Commission and did research mainly on prehistoric settlements from the Hallstatt period .

life and work

Minutes of the constituent meeting of the Reich Limes Commission in 1892

Wilhelm Soldan grew up as the son of a pastor in Münster in the Wetterau. After 1859 the school casting his high school had taken off, he studied at the University cameralism . During his studies he became a member of the Germania Gießen fraternity in the winter semester of 1859/60 . He passed the corresponding exams in 1864 and 1866 in order to re-enroll in Giessen, this time in the subjects of mathematics and physics . After the successful examination for a higher teaching position, he worked at the school teacher seminar in Friedberg , then as a conductor of the municipal secondary school in Groß-Umstadt , further as a teacher at the secondary school in Darmstadt , as director of the secondary school I and II in Gießen and finally as director of the Realgymnasium and the Realschule in Mainz . In 1888 he moved to the Hessian Ministry of the Interior as a senior school officer . On July 16, 1898 he was appointed Ministerialrat and chairman of the school department.

Excavations at the time of the commission. Here the Porta Decumana of the Holzhausen fort

In addition to his work as a teacher and civil servant, Soldan devoted himself intensively to archeology. Since 1877 he was an active member of the Giessen historical association and in 1890 became its vice-president. He took part in the uncovering of barrows on the drive and in the exploration of the Limes . In 1880 he published his first article on the pile ditch from the Wetter to Butzbach . Appointed a member of the Reich Limes Commission in 1891, he was involved in researching the Limes in Hesse and the Rhine Province and published relevant publications in the Limesblatt and other magazines. Later he began to be increasingly interested in prehistoric living quarters and graves, especially from the Hallstatt period. He researched the largest settlement of this type known at the time near Neuhäusel in the Westerwald and similar prehistoric settlements in Hesse, on the Schwenzer near Butzbach, on the Lee near Heppenheim and in the Traisaer Wald near Darmstadt.

In 1894 , Wilhelm Soldan was appointed a full member of the Imperial Archaeological Institute . In retirement, Wilhelm Soldan pursued his archaeological interests. When Hessen-Darmstadt passed the first German monument protection law in 1902, he became a member of the newly created monument council in the Grand Duchy in 1902 and in 1903 the first curator of monuments for the antiquities. In recognition of his archaeological achievements, the University of Giessen awarded him an honorary doctorate on December 9, 1904 .

He was married to Mathilde Dittmar. His daughter Anna (1870–1923) married the mathematician Jakob Horn , his son Wilhelm Soldan (1872–1933) was a secret building officer and one of the builders of the Edertalsperre .

Publications

  • Heinrich Doelp and W. Soldan: The determinants and their application to the solution of algebraic and analytical-geometric tasks. 2nd Edition. Roether [u. a.], Darmstadt 1877.
  • A Hallstatt branch near Neuhäusel. In: Nassauische Annalen, yearbook of the association for Nassau antiquity and historical research. Volume 31, 1900, pp. 91-96.
  • Branch from the Hallstatt period near Neuhäusel in the Westerwald. In: Nassauische Annalen, yearbook of the association for Nassau antiquity and historical research. Volume 32, 1901, pp. 145-189.
  • Branch from the Hallstatt period near Neuhäusel in the Westerwald (addendum). In: Nassauische Annalen, yearbook of the association for Nassau antiquity and historical research. Volume 33, 1902, pp. 35-41.

literature

  • B. Müller: Obituary. In: Central papers of the historical association for the Grand Duchy of Hesse. NF, III. Volume, No. 19 and No. 20, 1905.
  • Robert Sommer: Family research and genetics. Barth, Leipzig 1907, pp. 199-202.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Wentzcke : Fraternity lists. Second volume: Hans Schneider and Georg Lehnert: Gießen - The Gießener Burschenschaft 1814 to 1936. Görlitz 1942, R. Germania. # 116.
personal data
SURNAME Soldan, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soldan, Franz Ludwig Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher, archaeologist and monument protector
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Burkhards
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1905
Place of death Darmstadt