Albert Mays

Albert Mays (born March 31, 1818 in Heidelberg , † July 7, 1893 ibid) was a Heidelberg local politician , city ​​historian and art collector .

Live and act

Albert Mays was a lawyer by profession . In this function, he represented the city of Heidelberg in 1879 in the purchase of the art and antiquity collection on the history of Heidelberg and the Palatinate, which Charles de Graimberg had brought together. This collection, from which the Kurpfälzisches Museum later emerged, was supervised by Albert Mays as honorary director and in 1881 published the first catalog of the newly acquired collection. The third, improved and expanded edition of the catalog was published in 1892. In addition, Albert Mays privately acquired an extensive collection of art and other objects relating to the history of Heidelberg , which he bequeathed to the city of Heidelberg after his death.

Political commitment

From 1871 to 1889 Albert Mays was a member of the Baden state parliament . Until 1881 he was also a city ​​councilor in Heidelberg . After resigning from this office, he was elected city councilor. He gave up the legal profession in 1880.

Activity as lay historian

Albert Mays also made a name for himself as a lay historian . He wrote several works on the history of Heidelberg, for example on grave monuments and Neckar bridges and ferries. He was a co-founder of the New Archives for the History of Heidelberg and the Rhineland Palatinate . In this capacity he published several lists of Heidelberg residents from past eras. In 1886, to mark the 500th anniversary of Heidelberg University, he published the book Heidelberg celebrated by poets and thinkers , a collection of literary , especially lyrical, evidence about Heidelberg from the Middle Ages to the present day. In 1876 Albert Mays was appointed head of the Historical Commission for the history of the city of Heidelberg .

Grave site

Albert Mays and his wife Julie Mays, b. Mays were buried in the Heidelberg Bergfriedhof .

The tomb was abandoned in later decades. The inscription tablet over time was able to be preserved intact. In 1992, the marble tablet, decorated in the spirit of romanticism with a relief of interlocking hands, a motif often used in the 19th century to symbolize the close bond between the spouses, was again erected in the (Dept. D), above the original grave site .

Honors

In 1891 Albert Mays was made honorary citizen of the city of Heidelberg. In the Heidelberg district of Weststadt , a prominent Art Nouveau ensemble, a street was named after the important sponsor of the Heidelberg art collections and the spiritual father of the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Albert-Mays-Straße.

literature

• Albert Mays: Heidelberg celebrated by poets and thinkers. With an afterword by Reinhard Düchting. Manutius Verlag, Heidelberg 1994, ISBN 3-925678-11-5 , pp. 147-150 (afterword with biographical information).
• Heidelberg. Yearbook on the history of the city , published by the Heidelberger Geschichtsverein, No. IV / 1999, p. 260
• Leena Ruuskanen: The Heidelberg Bergfriedhof. Cultural history and grave culture. Selected gravesites , Heidelberg 1992, pp. 137f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Albert Mays in the catalog of the German National Library
• Information on the website of the Heidelberg History Association