Ernst Kirsten

Ernst Kirsten (born September 2, 1911 in Chemnitz , † February 11, 1987 in Bonn ) was a German ancient historian and historical geographer .

The son of a district court director graduated from high school in Plauen in 1930 and then studied classical philology, archeology and ancient history in Greifswald , Göttingen , Munich and Leipzig . He was born in 1934 with Helmut Berve in Leipzig with his dissertation on The Island of Crete in the 5th and 4th Centuries BC. . Chr doctorate. In 1933 he joined the SA and the National Socialist German Student Union (NSDStB) . Since May 1, 1937, he was a member of the NSDAP ( member no. 5 333 663), he advanced to the training manager of the local group Leipzig-Knauthain. His habilitation took place in 1940 with Fritz Schachermeyr in Heidelberg on The Doric Landquisition in Laconia and Messenia . In 1941 he was drafted into the military. In September 1941 he was seconded to the Luftwaffe to protect the art of the Wehrmacht in Greece to process archaeological aerial photographs. In September 1943 he was transferred back to the troops.

In 1946 Kirsten became a lecturer at the University of Göttingen. In 1949 Kirsten received a lectureship for "Historical Geography and Topography of the Mediterranean Cultural Area" at the University of Bonn . There he was an extraordinary professor from 1951, an extraordinary professor from 1962 and a full professor from 1965 of historical geography . In 1955 he was made a full member of the German Archaeological Institute . From 1970 to 1981 he taught Greek history, antiquity and epigraphy at the University of Vienna . His successor was Peter Siewert . In 1974 Kirsten became a real member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences .

Kirsten is considered a prominent representative of modern historical geography. He is the founder of the "Geographica Historica" ​​series and co-initiator of the Stuttgart Colloquia on the Historical Geography of the Old World . His best-known work is the "Greek Studies " (1st edition 1955), written with Wilhelm Kraiker , which emerged from the guide sheets of the German art protection for soldiers during the Second World War.

In 1989 the "Ernst Kirsten Society" was founded in Stuttgart with the aim of creating a permanent organizational basis for the discipline of historical geography of the Old World, which is not represented by a single university chair in Germany.

Fonts (selection)

• with Wilhelm Kraiker : Greek Studies : A Guide to Classical Sites. Heidelberg 1955; 4th completely revised and expanded edition, Heidelberg 1962.
• with Hans Erich Stier (ed.): Westermann's great atlas of world history. Prehistoric times, ancient times, middle ages, modern times. Braunschweig u. a. 1965.
• North African cityscapes: Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Libya and Tunisia. Ludwigsburg 1966.
• with Hans Erich Stier (Ed.): Peoples, States and Cultures. A series of maps on history. Braunschweig 1970.
• Landscape and history of the ancient world. Selected small writings (= Geographica Historica. Volume 3). Bonn 1984, ISBN 3-7749-1816-3 (pp. 279-290 list of publications).
• The island of Crete in four millennia. Collected Essays. Amsterdam 1990, ISBN 90-256-0943-0 .

literature

• Fritz Schachermeyr: Ernst Kirsten. Obituary. In: Austrian Academy of Sciences. Almanac for 1987. Vienna 1987 (with addition to the list of publications).
• Julia Freifrau Hiller von Gaertringen: German Archaeological Enterprises in Occupied Greece 1941–1944. In: Athenian communications. Volume 110, 1995, pp. 472-474.
• Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , p. 379.
• Eckart Olshausen : Kirsten, Ernst. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 656 f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ernst Kirsten in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Ernst Kirsten in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis