Alfred Mell

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General Custodian Alfred Mell (after 1938)

Alfred Mell (born August 2, 1880 in Graz , † May 22, 1962 in Vienna ) was an Austrian lawyer and historian . From 1934 to 1949 he was director of the Army History Museum .

Life

After graduating from the 1st kk Staatsgymnasium ( Academic Gymnasium ) in Graz, Mell studied law ( law ) and history at the University of Vienna . In 1907 he was promoted to Dr. jur. PhD. From 1901 to 1903 he completed the 24th training course at the Institute for Austrian Historical Research in Vienna. From 1903 he worked for Alfons Dopsch at the edition of the Princely Land Register .

Mell wanted to be a career officer since his youth, but this could not be realized. So, after his one- year volunteer year (lieutenant in the reserve medical department No. 26), he started a career as a military officer and in 1906 - following his voluntary service in 1905 - worked in the Imperial and Royal Army Museum in Vienna. In 1908 he became an artillery engineer with the service as a conservator . In 1913 he was involved in the exhibition to mark the centenary of the Wars of Liberation in the Centennial Hall in Breslau and contributed to the work of Archduke Karl edited by Wilhelm John (director) . The general and his army .

During the First World War , Mell stayed in the Balkans, where he was able to collect spoils of war for the Army Museum for the first time in 1916 . After the war he became a senior artillery engineer of the 8th class and moved as an archivist to the civil service of the war archive , where he was head of the library of the war archive under the directors Maximilian von Hoen and Edmund Glaise-Horstenau . In 1922 he was artillery chief engineer 2nd class decommissioned and Government . In 1931 Mell received the title of court counselor . After the death of the Army Museum Director John in 1934, Mell was appointed director of what is now known as the Austrian Army Museum on the basis of various recommendations . In 1934, Mell and Rudolf Pühringer opened several showrooms for the public. In 1936 he became custodian general and special services officer.

After Austria was "annexed" to the German Reich , the museum was placed under the authority of the head of the Army Museums in Berlin and renamed the Army Museum Vienna . The museum was badly damaged in the Second World War. Mell himself had probably not known for months how to proceed and whether he still had a role at all. In February 1945 he was 65 years old, so he should have already retired . Mell had never been a National Socialist and probably had the feeling that he shouldn't leave the museum during its most critical months. Mell continued to manage the museum, which was now subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Education and was renamed the Army History Museum at his suggestion .

In the years that followed, Mell made great contributions to the reconstruction of the Army History Museum and the Vienna Arsenal . Even after he was replaced as director by Rudolf Pühringer in 1949 , he remained with the museum as a consultant and was thus able to continue to participate in the reconstruction and reorganization of the inventory that had been thinned out during the war.

Alfred Mell was a member of numerous scientific institutions, societies and associations and also examination commissioner for the state examinations of the Institute for Austrian Historical Research. He was u. a. honored with the Swedish Gustav Wasa Order .

Familiar

His father was Alexander Mell , director of the Austrian Institute for the Blind , in whose honorary grave at the Ober Sankt Veiter Friedhof Alfred Mell was buried. Alfred Mell's brother was the poet Max Mell , his sister was the castle actress Maria Mell, who was married to the painter Alexander Demetrius Goltz . His uncle was the historian Anton Mell .

Fonts (excerpt)

  • (Mitw.): The sovereign land registers of Styria from the Middle Ages. Commissioned by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna (= Oesterreichische Urbare . Abt. 1, Bd. 2). Edited by Alfons Dopsch , Braumüller, Vienna a. a. 1910.
  • (Vorw.): Exhibition of selected new acquisitions from the age of Emperor Franz Josef. Army Museum in Vienna . Army Museum, Elbemühl 1937.
  • The flags of the Austrian soldier through the ages (= Austria series . Bd. 174/176). Bergland Verlag, Vienna 1962.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alfred Mell  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ »... significantly more cases than assumed« 10 years of the Commission for Provenance Research (= series of publications of the Commission for Provenance Research, Volume 001). Published by: Gabriele Anderl et. al., Böhlau Verlag Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78183-7 , p. 129
  2. ^ Géza Kövess von Kövessháza: Obituary Alfred Mell , in: Mitteilungen des Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung , Volume LXX, Graz / Cologne 1962, p. 519 f.
  3. ↑ Manfried Rauchsteiner: Phoenix from the ashes. Destruction and reconstruction of the Army History Museum 1944 to 1955. Volume accompanying the special exhibition of the Army History Museum June 21 to October 20, 2005, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85028-411-5 , p. 28
  4. ^ Friedrich Benesch:  Mell, Alexander. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 16 f. ( Digitized version ).
  5. ↑ Christoph Binder:  Mell, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 17-19 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Mell, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian historian and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1962
Place of death Vienna