Edmund Buchner

Edmund Buchner (born October 22, 1923 in Ittling near Straubing ; † August 27, 2011 in Munich ) was a German ancient historian and president of the German Archaeological Institute .

Life

Buchner was a soldier in World War II . After being a prisoner of war in the USA, he studied in Erlangen from 1946 and received his doctorate there in 1953 with a thesis on the panegyric of Isocrates and then became assistant to Helmut Berve, who was newly appointed to Erlangen . When Berve became director of the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy in Munich in 1960 , Buchner followed him as a research assistant and secretary of the commission. From 1969 to 1979 he was Professor and 1st Director of the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy, which in the meantime belonged to the German Archaeological Institute, and from 1980 to 1988 President of the German Archaeological Institute.

Buchner was best known for his research on the Augusti Solarium , the facility with an obelisk as a giant gnomon , which the Roman Emperor Augustus had built on the Field of Mars in Rome. He was primarily known for his thesis that the Augusti solarium was a giant sundial . However, this assumption is now highly controversial.

Honors

1984: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
1989: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Fonts

The Panegyric of Isocrates. A historical-philological investigation . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1958.
The sundial of Augustus . Zabern, Mainz 1982, ISBN 3-8053-0430-7 .
News about the sundial of Augustus . In: Nürnberger Blätter zur Archäologie 10 (1993/94), pp. 77-84.
A channel for obelisks. News from the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome . In: Antike Welt 27 (1996), pp. 161-168.

Web links

Literature by and about Edmund Buchner in the catalog of the German National Library
Obituary of the German Archaeological Institute ( Memento from September 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

↑ Michael Schütz ( On the sundial of Augustus on the Marsfeld . In: Gymnasium 97, 1990, pp. 432–457) refutes essential aspects of Buchner's reconstruction. Peter Heslin ( Augustus, Domitian and the So-called Horologium Augusti . In: The Journal of Roman Studies 97, 2007, pp. 1-20) demonstrated misinterpretations of ancient sources by Buchner .

personal data
SURNAME	Buchner, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German ancient historian
DATE OF BIRTH	October 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ittling (Straubing)
DATE OF DEATH	August 27, 2011
Place of death	Munich

[1] Michael Schütz ( On the sundial of Augustus on the Marsfeld . In: Gymnasium 97, 1990, pp. 432–457) refutes essential aspects of Buchner's reconstruction. Peter Heslin ( Augustus, Domitian and the So-called Horologium Augusti . In: The Journal of Roman Studies 97, 2007, pp. 1-20) demonstrated misinterpretations of ancient sources by Buchner .