Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann

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Benedikt Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann (born September 22, 1886 in Wolfenbüttel , † February 28, 1971 in Tutzing ) was a German art historian .

Life

Zimmermann, son of the archivist Paul Zimmermann and his wife Maria, b. Pfaff, was a nephew of the art historian Wilhelm von Bode through his paternal grandmother . He attended the "Große Schule" high school in Wolfenbüttel and from 1906 studied art history in Freiburg (summer semester 1906), Vienna (winter semester 1907/08 - summer semester 1908), Berlin (winter semester 1908/09) and Halle (winter semester 1907/08 - summer semester 1908) , Summer semester 1909 – winter semester 1909/10). In 1910 he received his doctorate in Halle under Adolph Goldschmidt with a thesis in the field of book illumination . He then worked from 1910 to 1915 in Vienna as an employee of the German Association for Art History on the basic work Corpus monumentorum artis Germaniae 'Monuments of German Art' . His five-volume series of pre-Carolingian miniatures , which he developed there, was published in 1916. In 1915 he became an assistant at the Austrian State Gallery in Vienna. In January 1919 he became assistant director at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin under Otto von Falke . In August 1920 he was initially provisional, and on October 1, 1920, he became the first director of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg . During his tenure, the new building for the baroque and rococo art department as well as an expansion of the painting and sculpture collection took place. He organized the first Dürer anniversary exhibition, an exhibition of pre-Dürer Nuremberg paintings in 1930, in Nuremberg and in 1933 a Veit-Stoss exhibition.

On October 1, 1936, Zimmermann became director of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. In March 1938 he was suspended from service with full pay, but was able to return to museum service from June 1940.

During the Second World War, from 1940 to 1943 he worked in Dijon and Bordeaux for German art protection. After the war he took care of the repatriation of the evacuated Berlin museum treasures in West Berlin and remained director of the Gemäldegalerie. From 1948 until his retirement on February 11, 1957 he was general director of the former state museums in Berlin (West) . In 1953 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class and in 1956 the Great Federal Cross of Merit.

Publications (selection)

  • The Fulda illumination in the Carolingian and Ottonian times. In: Art History Yearbook of the KK Central Commission for Art and Historical Monuments in Vienna. 4, 1910, pp. 1-104 (dissertation, digitized version ).
  • Watteau. The master's works in 182 illustrations (= classics of art in total editions 21). German publishing company, Stuttgart 1912.
  • Pre-Carolingian miniatures (= monuments of German art. III. Section: Painting. 1). Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 1916 (4 folders large folio with 341 collotype plates and 1 volume of text large octave with 25 illustrations).
  • The old Viennese moral image. Schroll, Vienna 1923.
  • Applied arts of the early Middle Ages based on the declining material Alois Riegls (= Alois Riegl : The late Roman art industry. Part 2). Vienna 1923.

literature

  • Wolfgang Milde : carpenter, Benedikt Ernst Heinrich. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 672 .
  • Petra Winter : From the plaintiff to the defendant? The director of the Gemäldegalerie Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann. In: Jörn Grabowski, Petra Winter (Ed.): Between Politics and Art. The National Museums in Berlin during the Nazi era. Böhlau, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21047-2 , pp. 271–285.
  • Petra Winter: "... definitely the right man at this point". Theses on Heinrich Zimmermann's role as director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie during the Nazi era. In: Luitgard Sofie Löw, Matthias Nuding (ed.): Between cultural history and politics. The Germanic National Museum in the Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-936688-89-4 , pp. 91-101.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petra Winter: From the plaintiff to the defendant? The director of the Gemäldegalerie Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann. In: Jörn Grabowski, Petra Winter (Ed.): Between Politics and Art. The National Museums in Berlin during the Nazi era . Böhlau, Cologne 2013, pp. 275–285; Petra Winter: "... definitely the right man at this point". Theses on Heinrich Zimmermann's role as director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie during the Nazi era . In: Luitgard Sofie Löw, Matthias Nuding (ed.): Between cultural history and politics. The Germanic National Museum in the Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism . Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 2014, pp. 94–101; Petra Winter: In: Tanja Baensch, Kristina Kratz-Kessemeier, Dorothee Wimmer (eds.): Museums in National Socialism: Actors - Places - Politics. Böhlau, Köln / Weimar 2016, ISBN 3-412-22408-1 , pp. 54–55.
personal data
SURNAME Zimmermann, Ernst Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimmermann, E. Heinrich; Zimmermann, Heinrich; Benedikt Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolfenbüttel
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1971
Place of death Tutzing