Ernst Hollstein (dendrochronologist)

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Ernst Hollstein (born October 10, 1918 in Limburg , † August 1, 1988 in Trier ) was a German pioneer of dendrochronology and senior museum councilor at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier .

Life

Hollstein was born as the son of the classical philologist Heinrich Hollstein and the painter Emma Henriette Jeanette Hollstein, née Iwersen-Schmidt. Hollstein's father worked as a high school teacher in Limburg, so the boy and his two siblings grew up in this town and graduated from high school there in 1937 .

Then he was first drafted into the Reich Labor Service and then into the Wehrmacht . There he came to the 80th Infantry Regiment of the 34th Infantry Division , which was largely stationed in Koblenz . The beginning of the war in 1939 blocked his way to a degree, instead he had to serve at various theaters of war and was wounded twice. In 1941 he was appointed company commander . After the end of the war, he was taken prisoner in 1945 and was released again in 1946.

He went to Trier , since his family lived there, and completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter there. As a result, he worked as a cabinet maker and builder and began training as a wood sculptor as a part-time job. This was followed by studies at the State Vocational Education Institute in Frankfurt am Main , which was dedicated to wood technology , architectural history and stochastics . After completing his studies, from 1953 he worked as a civil servant teacher at the vocational college in Trier and at the technical vocational school. The course also encouraged him to have a private interest in microscopic wood anatomy and in particular in dendrochronology. Therefore, from 1954, he began collecting and examining trunk and tree cross-sections in the Hunsrück - Eifel - Moselle region . At the beginning of the 1960s there were several sampling projects on the Moselle in Trier, including the Roman bridge . During this multi-year work, in which he was often supported by his wife and children during the sample recovery in the water, there was an intensive cooperation with the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. In this early phase, Hollstein often had to justify his scientific wood analyzes to skeptical historians , art historians and archaeologists and to reduce distrust. Furthermore, he began to build up a large archive with wood samples, whereby each year, in the best case, should be backed up by several documents.

The recognition of his work became clear in 1968 when he accepted a call to the Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory at the University of Cologne to found and build up a dendrochronological laboratory. In 1969 he was transferred from teaching at school to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum as a research assistant . A dendroarchaeological research center should also be established there. Here he built up a complete chronology until 1975, which lasted until 691 BC. Chr. Was enough. In 1980 his monograph Central European Oak Chronology was published , which summarized his research.

In 1983 Hollstein retired, but he continued to be associated with the state museum with his ongoing studies. The dendrochronologist died after a short, serious illness.

Awards

Because of his contributions to the dendrochronology of the Rhineland, Hollstein was awarded the Albert Steeger Prize in 1968 . He also received the State Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1986.

Fonts (selection)

  • The annual rings from Magdalenenberg . Dendrochronological dating of the royal grave in Hallstatt near Villingen in the Black Forest . City Museum, City Archives, Villingen 1974.
  • Central European oak chronology. Trier dendrochronological research on archeology and art history . (=  Trier excavations and research 11), von Zabern, Mainz 1980, ISBN 3805300964 .
  • Tree ring chronological dating of oak trees without the edge of the forest . in: Bonner Jahrbücher 165, 1965, pp. 12-27.
  • Dendrochronological examinations on the domes of Trier and Speyer . In: Kunstchronik 21, 1968, pp. 168–181.
  • The dependence of the dendrochronological dating success on the type of wood, wood quality and conservation . In: Mitteilungen der Bundesforschungsanstalt für Forst- und Holzwirtschaft , 1970, pp. 29–42.
  • Annual ring curves of the Hallstatt period . In: Trier magazine for the history and art of the Trier region and its neighboring areas 36, 1973, pp. 37–55.
  • Tree ring chronology of the "Cathedra lignea" of St. Peter in the Vatican . In: Trier magazine for the history and art of the Trier region and its neighboring areas 37, 1974, pp. 191–206.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Hollstein, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dendrochronologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Limburg
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1988
Place of death trier