Anton Wilhelm Brøgger

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Anton Wilhelm Brøgger, 1934

Anton Wilhelm Brøgger (born October 11, 1884 in Stockholm , † August 29, 1951 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian prehistorian and politician, whose work in the scientific, administrative and organizational area has been important for archeology in Norway . He was Professor of Scandinavian Archeology and Director of the History Museum ( Universitetets Oldsaksamling ) at the University of Oslo .

He has published books, articles, and essays, and was co-editor of several professional journals. In addition, Anton Wilhelm Brøgger was politically active in the interwar period: from 1928 to 1930 he sat as a successor in the Norwegian parliament in Storting . In 1930/31 he was provisional chairman of the conservative Frisinnede Venstre party .

Origin and development

Anton Wilhelm Brøgger's father was the mineralogist and geologist Waldemar Christofer Brøgger (1851–1940), who taught as a professor at various Scandinavian universities and had an international reputation. The mother's full maiden name was Sophie Wilhelmine Sievers Scheel (1854–1933).

As a student, Anton Wilhelm assisted his father in his research and was thus introduced to scientific work at an early age. In 1903 he graduated from high school. Then he attended (probably at irregular intervals) lectures on archeology and Scandinavian history. In 1905 he published a small study on the Norwegian Stone Age ( Øxer av Nøstvettypen ) which received a lot of attention.

From 1905 to 1909 Anton Wilhelm Brøgger attended Scandinavian and North German museums for study purposes and may have also attended lectures at various universities in those countries; However, he never seems to have completed a longer course.

In 1909 he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Oslo with a thesis on the Norwegian Stone Age ( Den arktiske stenalder i Norge ). phil. PhD. On July 19, 1909, he married Inger Ursin (1882–1941). The marriage resulted in two sons who both became writers: Waldemar Christofer Brøgger (1911–1991) and Niels Christian Brøgger (1914–1966).

Fields of activity

Anton Wilhelm Brøgger's first activity was from 1909 to 1913 as a curator in the Stavanger Museum , which he thoroughly reorganized. To do this, he carried out extensive excavations in Vistehola, a Stone Age settlement about ten kilometers northwest of Stavanger in the coastal landscape of Jæren . He has written a number of articles for the Stavanger Zeitung ( Aftenblad ). A literary result of this period was a book on Stavanger's history in the Middle Ages ( Stavangers historie i middelalderen ), which was published in 1915. In 1913 he became director of the History Museum (Universitetets Oldsaksamling ) at the University of Oslo (then still Christiania) and in 1915 he became a full professor of archeology at this university.

Anton Wilhelm Brøgger held this position until his retirement in 1949 and during this time he made extensive progress in archaeological work and research in Norway. One of his first tasks was to continue work on the documentation of the Osebergfunnet (Osebergfunnet), which had been interrupted by the death of Gabriel Gustafson (1853-1915). Together with Haakon Shetelig (1877–1955) and Hjalmar Falk (1859–1928), four volumes were written and published under his leadership from 1917 to 1928. (Another project by Gustafson was realized by Brøgger: the construction of a museum to house all Viking ships found. The construction of this Vikingskipshuset [Viking Ship Museum ] was carried out in several phases and was essentially completed in 1932; the Oseberg ship was placed there in 1926, the Gokstad ship and Tuneschiff followed in the next few years.)

In addition, Anton Wilhelm Brøgger wrote and published a number of other works in the course of his working life, such as in 1921 Ertog og Øre (Ertog and Øre), a study on Iron Age units of weight and one of his main works, or in 1925 Det norske folk i oldtiden (The Norwegian people in olden times), a very witty and therefore contradicting font. In 1928 Anton Wilhelm Brøgger carried out an archaeological expedition to the Orkneys and Shetland Islands in order to investigate traces of Norwegian settlement there. The result of this research was published in 1930 in Den norske bosetningen på Shetland-Orknøyene (The Norwegian Settlements in the Shetlands and Orkneys).

Anton Wilhelm Brøgger's public influence on the development of archaeological science and thus on Norwegian cultural policy has been considerable throughout his working life. From 1918 to 1934 he was chairman of the National Association of Norwegian Museums (Norske museers landsforbund) and from 1936 until his death in 1951 he was general secretary of the Norwegian Archaeological Society (Norsk Arkeologisk Selskap), which he also co-founded.

He is described as an artist and he had the gift of seeing things at the right distance. His work Vinlandsferdene (Eng. Winlandfahrten, 1939) from 1937 measured information in the Nordic sagas on nautical expertise.

He was arrested twice during the German occupation of Norway and was imprisoned in the Grini police detention center from September 1941 to October 1942 . His scientific work suffered from the war. It was not until 1945 that Sagaen om norskebygdene på Grønland (The Saga of the Norwegian Settlement in Greenland) continued the list of his publications. With the book Vikingeskipene (Viking Ships ), written together with H. Shetelig, the work of Anton Wilhelm Brøgger comes to an end in 1950.

traces

  • A few letters from the 1930s by Anton Wilhelm Brøgger have survived from the estate of the German prehistorian Ernst Wahle (1889–1981).

Artistic portraits

  • An oil painting (half-length portrait) by the Norwegian painter Henrik Lund (1879–1935) from 1934, which is in the possession of the History Museum of the University of Oslo.
  • A portrait relief (for a medal or medallion) by the Norwegian sculptor and painter Stinius Fredriksen (1902–1977) from 1944.

Fonts (selection)

  • Øxer ar Nøstvettypen. H. Aschehoug & Co, Christiania 1905.
  • The arctic stenalder i Norge. Jacob Dybwards Forlag, Christiania 1909.
  • Borrefundet og vestfoldkongernes graver. Jacob Dybwards Forlag, Christiania 1916.
  • with H. Shetelig and H. Falk: Osebergfundet. 4 volumes, Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Christiania 1917–1928
  • Ertog and Øre. Jacob Dybwards Forlag, Christiania 1921.
  • Det norske folk i oldtiden. H. Aschhoug & Co, Oslo 1925.
  • Gamle emigrante: Nordmennenes bosetning på norskehavskystene. Gyldendal norsk Forlag, Oslo 1928.
  • Den norske bosetningen på Shetland-Orknøyene: Study and results. Jacob Dybwards Forlag, Oslo 1930.
  • Vinlandsferdene. Gyldendal norsk Forlag, Oslo 1937.
  • Winland trips: Vikings discover America. translated by H. Kurtzweil, Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1939.
  • Jernet and Norway's oldest economic history. Jacob Dybwards Forlag, Oslo 1940.
  • Stiklestadslaget. Jacob Dybwards Forlag, Oslo 1946.
  • with H. Shetelig: Vikingeskipene. Dreyers Forlag, Oslo 1950.

literature

  • Aa. P. Gjerde, S. Røyneland: Anton Wilhelm Brøgger. A bibliografi. Statens bibliotekhøgskole, Oslo 1988.
  • Heimann curry: I faderns och nationens skugga, Anton Wilhelm Brøggers livsverk. In: Viking , 67, 2004, pp. 7-34.
  • Anton Wilhelm Brøgger . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 4 : Bridge-Cikader . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1916, p. 178 (Danish, runeberg.org ).

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Brøgger, Anton Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brøgger, Anton W .; Brøgger, AW
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian prehistorian and politician, member of the Storting
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1951
Place of death Oslo