Alfred Wyss

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Alfred Wyss-Nolting (1929–2016) art historian, monument conservator. Family grave, Wolfgottesacker cemetery, Basel
Grave in the Wolfgottesacker cemetery

Alfred Wyss (born November 2, 1929 in Basel ; † December 5, 2016 there ) was a Swiss art historian and preservationist .

life and work

Alfred Wyss studied art history , archeology and French literature at the Universities of Basel and Paris . When Joseph Gantner he was with a dissertation on the Bellelay abbey in the Bernese Jura doctorate .

Wyss became a cantonal monument conservator in Graubünden in 1960 , where he first had to build up the office. In the early years, the cantonal conservationist was responsible for looking after the specialist areas of monument preservation and nature and landscape protection . Together with Peter Zumthor and Diego Giovanoli, the first basic settlement inventories were created. Wyss dealt intensively with scientific methods in the preservation of monuments and encouraged scientific work. He supported the revision of Erwin Poeschel's castle book by Otto P. Clavadetscher and Werner Meyer , the inventory of the buildings of the Rhaetian Railway by Leza Dosch and the organ inventory by Willy Lippuner. Wyss accompanied the research and restoration of the Benedictine convent St. Johann in Müstair for many years .

As one of the best monument conservationists in Switzerland, Wyss was appointed monument conservationist for the city of Basel in 1978 as the successor to Fritz Lauber (1917–1988), where - as before in the canton of Graubünden - he set up a contemporary specialist unit and, above all, played a key role in shaping the new monument conservation law .

The backlog in restoration and conversion was considerable. In the 1980s, almost all of the three-star monuments in Basel were restored at once. Wyss began systematic (and not just sporadic) building research until the end of his term of office and established building research as a sub-area of ​​medieval archeology.

As an expert and vice-president of the Federal Commission for Monument Preservation (EKD) and as vice-president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS Suisse) throughout Switzerland, Wyss was in demand as a specialist. He was one of the founding members of ICOMOS Suisse and the Association of Swiss Conservationists (VSD), today the Conference of Swiss Conservationists (KSD). Relations with preservationists beyond the state border, especially with colleagues in Freiburg im Breisgau , were important to Wyss.

Even after his retirement in 1994 as a monument conservationist for the canton of Basel-Stadt , Wyss continued to be active in specialist monument conservation committees.

He found his final resting place in the Wolfgottesacker cemetery in Basel.

Publications

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wyss, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss art historian and monument conservator
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 2016
Place of death Basel