Arnold Keller (Numismatist)
Arnold Keller (born January 31, 1897 in Freiburg im Breisgau , † 1972 in Berlin ) was a German philologist , numismatist and specialist author who can be described as a pioneer of paper money collecting in Germany .
Life
Keller's father was director of the Höhere Töchterschule in Freiburg, and in 1906 the family moved from Freiburg to Frankfurt am Main . In 1915 he made his Abitur at the Frankfurt Goethe-Gymnasium . Keller began collecting banknotes at the age of 14 . From 1915 he studied in Munich , 1916 and 1917 in Leipzig and then again in Munich history and oriental studies . When more and more emergency money issues came into circulation with the First World War , he collected them and published a first small catalog for it while still a student. 1919 Arnold Keller was at the University of Munich with a thesis on the Coinage of the Rhenish electors with Hesse from 1572 doctorate . With the post-war inflation , there was a veritable spate of emergency money issues, which enabled him to expand his collection. From 1919 to 1921 he compiled the catalog of the coin collection in the Augustinermuseum Freiburg.
Keller opened his first shop for coins, medals and banknotes in Berlin in 1922 and published the then very popular magazine Das Notgeld . At the same time, he worked on other catalogs that served as a guide for collectors. When interest in collecting paper money declined with the global economic crisis , Arnold Keller set up a fur farm and published a recognized specialist book here as well.
During the Second World War , he was able to save his now very important collection from the Allied bombing raids on Berlin by relocating it to the countryside, while the entire banknote collection of the Reichsbank and thus important evidence of German history was destroyed.
After the war, Keller devoted himself more and more to the publication of further bank note catalogs, which are still among the fundamental works of German notaphilia and which made many other research possible in the first place. When he was old, he sold his important collection of 195,000 banknotes to the Deutsche Bundesbank , which was able to acquire an important collection for its money museum in Frankfurt am Main .
His catalog on the emergency money of German inflation from 1923 is still a quotation and was reprinted in two volumes in 2004 with a foreword by Hans-Ludwig Grabowski .
literature
- Albert Pick : Paper Money Lexicon. 3rd, revised edition. Gietl u. a., Regenstauf u. a. 1992, ISBN 3-924861-07-2 , p. 160.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Keller, Arnold |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Keller, Ernst Arnold Alexander |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German philologist, numismatist and specialist author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Freiburg in Breisgau |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1972 |
| Place of death | Berlin |