Friedrich Gerke

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Friedrich Gerke (born November 15, 1900 in Uelzen , † August 23, 1966 in Mainz ) was a German art historian specializing in Christian archeology .

Life

Friedrich Gerke was the oldest of the five children of the accountant Johann Heinrich Gerke and his wife Friederike. He attended elementary school in Uelzen , then the preparatory institute for the teachers' seminar and obtained the qualification to teach at elementary schools with the first and second elementary school teacher exams. He also received musical training, both in composition and practically in piano and organ playing. Friedrich Gerke completed his high school diploma with a supplementary examination, which was followed by the Graecum and Hebraicum for admission to theology studies . Friedrich Gerke also devoted himself to poetry at an early age, which in later years led to the publication of several sonnets .

Berlin and Budapest

After brief positions at the universities in Hamburg and Marburg , he found his place of work in Berlin , where he enrolled - initially at the theological faculty - of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität . The already emeritus Adolf von Harnack assigned the topic with which Friedrich Gerke acquired the theological doctorate in 1931 (then: Lic. Theol. ( Licentiate )): “The position of the first Clemens letter within the development of the early Christian community constitution and the Canon Law ” . Other of his teachers were: Erwin Panofsky , Fritz Saxl (both in Hamburg), Rudolf Otto (in Marburg), Adolf Deissmann , Oskar Fischel , Adolph Goldschmidt , Edmund Hildebrandt , Hans Lietzmann , Georg Stuhlfauth , Ulrich Stutz , Oskar Wulff , Joseph Wilpert ( in Rome).

Gerhart Rodenwaldt gave him special support and brought Christian archeology to the fore in Friedrich Gerke's scientific work. With the topic "The Christian sarcophagi of the pre-Constantinian era", published in 1940, Friedrich Gerke was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD a second time.

Study stays with scholarships from the Archaeological Institute Berlin took him to Rome - here at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana - and to Athens.

As early as 1935 he was appointed associate professor and director of the Institute for Christian Archeology and Art History, as successor to Georg Stuhlfauth , in Berlin. Later he held the same professorship of the late Anton Hekler at the University of Budapest (1941/42).

Friedrich Gerke survived the further war years as a special leader , he was entrusted with cultural tasks in Greece and on the Black Sea. In the end he was briefly captured by the Soviets and released in Landsberg an der Warthe in 1945.

Mainz

The new beginning began in Mainz in 1946 , where Friedrich Gerke was appointed first director of the Art History Institute of the re-established Johannes Gutenberg University . The expansion of this institute was particularly close to his heart and was crowned with the opening of the new building in 1960. The portal was adorned with a phoenix relief by Emy Roeder , which is now in the Georg Forster building of the Institute for Art History and Musicology (IKM).

Inside the institute, the replicas of mosaics from Ravenna made in the Accademia delle belle arti in Ravenna , an outstanding research area of ​​Friedrich Gerke during his time in Mainz, stand out.

He became a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.

In cooperation with the Society for Fine Arts Mainz, which he founded, Friedrich Gerke organized numerous exhibitions of contemporary artists in his institute, in addition to which he published extensive catalogs with scientific content. His last work shortly before his death was the acquisition of the library of the art historian Carlo Cecchelli from Rome for the institute in Mainz.

Friedrich Gerke was married twice:

  • In 1930 he married Dela Ehlers, with whom he had two children: Hans Elert Gerke, chemist, b. 1934, and Christa von der Gablentz, b. 1938, d. 1996.
  • Since 1951 he was married to the actress Ruth Wannack, with whom he had a daughter: Gabriela Gerke-Engel, doctor, geb. 1952.

meaning

Friedrich Gerke made a significant contribution to bringing together the subject areas, which were separated by special research, and to building a supporting bridge between classical and Christian archeology on the one hand and art history on the other. His research ranged from canonical investigations to classical and early medieval topics to modern art history.

In addition, with book editions that are still coveted today (see Schriften, Allgemeine Kunstgeschichte), he reached a broader audience for these subject areas, which are not so naturally accessible.

Gerke's research was internationally networked, as evidenced by the long list of contributions by research colleagues (see literature, commemorative publication) and memberships in numerous scientific societies (such as the International Early Medieval Congress that Friedrich Gerke helped to establish ).

For Mainz, where he worked after the Second World War , the Art History Institute and the Society for Fine Arts were a cultural center, to which Friedrich Gerke made tireless contributions. Gerke's research activities went far beyond the original framework and into recent art history. With the installation of the replicas of Ravenna mosaics in the Mainz Art History Institute, he again remained true to his first professional approach.

Student (selection)

Fonts (selection)

General history of art

  • Greek sculpture in archaic and classical times , part of the picture: U. Hürlimann, Zurich 1938
  • Late antiquity and early Christianity (in the Art of the World series ), Holle Verlag , Baden-Baden 1967

Christian archeology

  • The sarcophagus of Junius Bassus . A masterpiece of early Christian sculpture . Verlag Gebr. Mann 1936
  • The Holy Face. Heads of early Christian plastic . Florian Kupferberg, Berlin 1940
  • Christ in late antique sculpture . Florian Kupferberg, Mainz 1948
  • The Agricius sarcophagus in Trier . Paulinus-Verlag, Trier 1949
  • The table altar of Bernard Gilduin in Saint Sernin in Toulouse . Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1958

Artist monographs

  • The frescoes by Franz Anton Maulbertsch in the parish church of Sümeg (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences and Literature. Humanities and social sciences class. Born 1950, Volume 21). Verlag der Wissenschaft und der Literatur in Mainz (commissioned by Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden).
  • Emy Roeder. A work biography . Wiesbaden 1963
  • Exhibition catalog: hand drawings, watercolors and prints by Alfred Kubin from the Franz-Josef Kohl-Weigand collection . Small writings of the Society for Fine Arts in Mainz, Volume 24, 1964
  • Exhibition catalog: Hans Purrmann . Paintings, watercolors, hand drawings and prints from the Franz-Josef Kohl-Weigand collection, Small Writings of the Society for Fine Arts in Mainz, Volume 30, 1966

Poems

  • Oriental sonnets , Florian Kupferberg Verlag, Mainz 1947
  • Sirmione . A wreath of sonnets, illustrated by Hubert Berke , Verlag Heinrich Kutsch, Aachen 1965

literature

  • Festschrift Friedrich Gerke (60th birthday), ed. by Josef Adolf Schmoll called Eisenwerth , Holle-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1962
  • Friedrich Gerke to the memory, small writings of the society for fine arts in Mainz, issue 33, Mainz 1966
  • Meyer's Encyclopedia, Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim, Vienna / Zurich 1974, Volume 10, p. 139
  • Friedrich Carl Schilling: The art historian Friedrich Gerke , in: The Heidewanderer. Local supplement of the Allgemeine Zeitung, Uelzen, 67th year (1991) No. 34
  • German Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 3, KG Saur, Munich 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Sauer : The seminars and preparatory institutions from the 18th century to the Weimar Republic.
  2. ↑ The Peloponnese - Landscape, History, Art Places, therein: Friedrich Gerke, The Medieval Art Places, Athens 1944.
  3. ↑ Art History Institute of the Johannes Gutenberg University. Art History Week and International Symposium on the occasion of the opening of the new house, 3. – 8. May 1960.
personal data
SURNAME Gerke, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Christian archaeologist and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Uelzen
DATE OF DEATH 23rd August 1966
Place of death Mainz