Alfred Mirtschin

Alfred Mirtschin (born January 2, 1892 in Dresden ; † November 19, 1962 in Riesa ) was a German teacher , local researcher , curator and director of the local history museum in Riesa.

Life

Ernst Paul Alfred Mirtschin was born on January 2nd, 1892 as the son of the sergeant at the University of Veterinary Medicine Dresden , Ernst Mirtschin, and his wife Johanna geb. Beeg was born in Dresden. He started school at Easter 1898. When his father got a job as a hospital inspector in Zwickau , Alfred Mirtschin attended the local elementary school.

In 1902, after passing the entrance exam, he switched to the Realgymnasium. From 1906 he attended the Royal Saxon Teachers' College in Plauen to train as a primary school teacher. After six years, he graduated with an overall grade of “good”, with an “excellent” in history, drawing and gymnastics. These talents later benefited the local prehistory research.

After graduating, he did a year of military service with a Leipzig infantry regiment, from which he was released at the end of March 1913 as a non-commissioned officer in the reserve and, at his own request, took up his first position as a junior teacher in Riesa. At first he seemed to have found it difficult to leave the command tone of the sergeant behind barracks walls and to grow into the teaching position. In any case, in the summer of 1914, an interim certificate attested to his lack of pedagogical skills, but within a year Mirtschin is said to have proven himself well in history and local history lessons and developed a growing understanding of clear communication. From the first day of mobilization in the summer of 1914 to 1918, the NCO was in the military, but obviously not on the battlefield. In March 1918, his career as a young teacher ended with an election due check , which entitled him to take up an initially limited-term primary school teacher position in Märzdorf on May 1, 1918. There Mirtschin met the daughter of a master locksmith and innkeeper, Magdalene Lengenfeld, and married her on August 1, 1918. With a position at the Albert School in Riesa, the young teacher had been relieved of material worries since April 1, 1919. A daughter was born to the couple in July 1920.

Entry into research

At the beginning of the 1920s, Mirtschin organized excursions to the Riesa area as a local history teacher. As a result of the economic boom and the brisk construction activity, prehistoric finds repeatedly came to light, which the Riesa patron and antiquity friend Franz Xaver Hynek jr. who took care of the recovery and documentation of the sites. Alfred Mirtschin became friends with him. In February 1922, Hynek took him to a site for the first time. On February 24, 1922, Mirtschin's notes on prehistoric antiquity began on the occasion of the discovery of Iron Age urns on the grounds of the Göhlis manor . Together, the two of them examined three graves the next day, which Mirtschin documented meticulously. Since that day Alfred Mirtschin never let go of the digging fever. Gradually he took over from his friend Hynek as the contact person for antiquities. Right from the start, the teacher involved his students in working in the field. In March 1922, on the occasion of a find in Schänitz, he published a newspaper article in which the find was described, the finder was praised and the general public was asked to report finds. This article was followed by a long series of similar press releases. Alfred Mirtschin became known and loved in Riesa and the surrounding area as Scherbel-Alfred, after all, he made sure that the respective finder was recognized in the newspaper. Hardly a month has now passed without finds to be recovered and documented somewhere in the area. His friend and sponsor Hynek gave him access to excavation missions, conferences, material studies in private collections and museums, and excavation visits.

Museum director, teacher and archaeologist

His work as an excavator bordered on an obsession to which he subordinated everything else. From 1922 the establishment of the new local history museum began in Riesa, whose prehistoric department he designed. The museum was opened in August 1923. Alfred Mirtschin was initially employed as a nurse and a little later as an honorary director. The prehistoric section grew quickly, as Mirtschin's excavation work kept adding new exhibits. But he also tried to make purchases that were financed by supporters of the museum. The Zehmen Collection, which was collected over many years by manor owners and comes from the region around Oschatz , was purchased. In 1928 the prehistoric collection had grown to become the fifth largest in Saxony .

Since there was no antiquity association in Riesa, Alfred Mirtschin joined the prehistoric section of the Natural Science Society ISIS in Dresden in search of like-minded people . He gave his first talk at a meeting in 1925 and served as deputy secretary and chairman. In 1923 he joined the German Society for Prehistory , the founder of which, Professor Gustaf Kossinna, took on increasingly folkish and nationalistic tones. This affected Mirtschin's views, as well as the interpretation of his finds, which he assigned to Germanic tribes , whereby he only mentioned the Slavic peoples in passing . In 1933 his main work Germanen in Sachsen was published , which is still consulted by archaeologists today, despite the partly outdated interpretation of the finds. 70% of all known sites in the Riesa- Grossenhain area come from his work.

time of the nationalsocialism

On April 1, 1933, Alfred Mirtschin joined the National Socialist Teachers' Association and on May 1, 1933, the NSDAP . He probably hoped the Nazis would upgrade the archaeological preservation of monuments. In addition, National Socialism revered the Teutons and so-called Nordic peoples, while the Slavs were viewed as inferior, which corresponded to its own views. Two outbursts of fanaticism in 1934 and 1937 indicate that he joined the new movement out of inner conviction. His former students remembered him as a staunch National Socialist.

After the Second World War

After the Second World War , Alfred Mirtschin was not allowed to work as a teacher or museum director because of his NSDAP membership. Until 1948 he worked as a machine worker in a Riesa wood goods factory. This was followed by a job as a model painter in the steel and rolling mill , which he owed to his talent for drawing. As a volunteer, he quickly resumed his work as a hobby archaeologist. In 1951, at the age of almost 60, he returned to school.

He quickly adapted ideologically to the new era and in 1951 designed a special exhibition on the five-year plan for the local history museum. Until his death in 1962 he worked on an inventory of his finds, which he was ultimately unable to complete.

Publications

• Alfred Mirtschin: Teutons in Saxony, in particular in northern Saxony. Elbe area during d. last BC Centuries: A Study of the Local History . 1st edition. Langer & Winterlich, Riesa 1933, p. 223 .
• Alfred Mirtschin: Chronicle of the City of Riesa / [Alfred Mirtschin; Ernst Hering. Ed. By the Lord Mayor] . 1-7 Edition. Hübsch, Berlin 1936, p. 32 .

literature

• Dörthe Gromes: Learning from Alfred Mirtschin . 1st edition. Sächsische Zeitung edition Riesa, Riesa July 3, 2017, p. 15 .
• Michael Strobel: A life for archeology. The Riesa teacher and museum director Alfred Mirtschin (1892–1962) . In: Archeology in Saxony . No. 3 , 2014, p. 38-45 .
• Dörthe Gromes: The shard collector . 1st edition. Saxon Newspaper Edition Riesa, Riesa May 26, 2017.