Friedrich Gustav Habel

Friedrich Gustav Habel

Friedrich Gustav Habel (born February 22, 1792 at Oranienstein Castle in Diez , † July 2, 1867 in Miltenberg ) was a German private scholar of the u. a. worked as an archivist , castle researcher and (as an autodidact ) as a provincial Roman archaeologist .

Live and act

Habel attended high school in Idstein from 1806 to 1810 . He then began to study law at the University of Giessen ; but he soon moved to the University of Heidelberg , where he was one of the founders of the Corps Nassovia Heidelberg . He had to drop out of law school prematurely because he had inflicted a life-threatening injury on his opponent in a fencing duel. He moved to his father, the Nassau court chamber councilor Christian Friedrich Habel (1747–1814), in Schierstein and inherited his extensive fortune in 1814, which made him economically independent. This independence enabled him to devote himself entirely to classical studies. He learned from the Mainz judge, political scientist and curator of the Mainz library, Franz Joseph Bodmann, and then undertook his own Roman provincial and castle studies research.

In 1823 he began excavating the Roman city of Nida . From 1829 to 1837 he was employed (without economic necessity) as an archivist in the state library in Wiesbaden . In 1838/39 he led the excavations in the Wiesbaden fort , in 1842 he dug in the Hofheim fort , and in 1845 at the Feldberg fort . Until he left in 1851, like his father, he was an active member of the Association for Nassau Antiquities and Historical Research , of which he was a board member from 1821 to 1851. The cause of the resignation was the dispute with Friedrich Traugott Friedemann about the importance of recent history in the association's work. Despite leaving, he was made an honorary member of the association in 1861. The association magazine Nassauische Annalen was founded in 1827 on Habel's initiative .

In addition to his work as a historian, Habel was politically active. From 1835 to 1838 he was a member of the Nassau Chamber of Deputies . He was also a regional member of the Chamber of Estates formed after the March Revolution in 1848 . The conservative cultural historian Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl judged in his contemporary chronicle:

“A member of the right who could easily become an opposition man because the government made too many concessions in favor of newfangled theories (for example on the income tax and tithe questions) is Habel, a man of the old grist and honesty great friend of a strict and economical state budget, to whom the tinkling of coins in the state bag is more important than tinkling words in the state hall. "

- Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl: Nassau Chronicle of the year 1848 , Wiesbaden April 13, 1849; Reprinted 1979 p. 57

The year 1852 saw him as a co-founder of the Roman-Germanic Museum in Mainz, as well as a co-initiator of the general association of German history and antiquity associations. The entire association called a first, ultimately stuck "Limes Commission" into being, to which Karl August von Cohausen also belonged and whose chairman Habel was. From 1853 to 1862 Habel undertook the first scheduled excavations in the Saalburg Fort . He was one of the first archaeologists to use collodion negative photography to document the research results. Together with von Cohausen, Habel developed ideas for the reconstruction of the Saalburg.

In the course of his life, Habel acquired several castles, which he saved from demolition by buying them. Among them were Burg Eppstein , Gutenfels Castle , Burg Maus , Castle Reichenberg and since 1858 the Mildenburg . He chose the latter as his residence, extensively restored it and built up an important ancient collection within its walls. After his death, the castle and collection passed to his nephew Wilhelm Conrady . In Frankfurt-Heddernheim the "Habelstraße" was named after Friedrich Gustav Habel.

Fonts (selection)

• The Roman ruins at Heddernheim . In: Annals of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and History  Research 1 (1827), pp. 45–77. On-line
• The Mithras Temple in the Roman ruins at Heddernheim . In: Annals of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical  Research 1 (1830), pp. 161–196. On-line
• Antiquities from the area around Schierstein . In: Annals of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and History  Research 2 (1834), pp. 168–198.
• About the field symbols of the Roman army, in particular the cohort symbols of the XXII. Legion . In: Annals of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and History  Research 2 (1837), pp. 98–269.
• The Römer-Castell near Wiesbaden . In: Annals of the association for Nassau antiquity and historical research  3 (1842), pp. 131–158. On-line

literature

• Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann : The archaeological research of the Roman period in Hessen . In: Dietwulf Baatz , Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann: The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 1982 edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 23. 26.
• Rudolf Vierengel: Friedrich Gustav Habel . In: Ders .: Miltenberg and his castle. Collected essays . Förderkreis Historisches Miltenberg eV, Miltenberg 1979, pp. 59–83.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corps Lists 1910, 117 , 4.
2. ↑ Schüler, Winfried: preserving, experiencing, understanding 200 years of the association for Nassau antiquity and historical research . Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-9815190-1-3 , p. 39 .
3. ^ Renkhoff, Otto : Nassauische Biographie . Historical Commission for Nassau , Wiesbaden 1992, ISBN 3-922244-90-4 , p. 263 .
4. ↑ Protocol: 1st negotiation of stands Assembly of the Duchy Nassau; Wiesbaden on May 22, 1848
5. ↑ Barbara Dölemeyer: Popularization of Roman times . In: Nassau Annals . tape 123 . Verlag des Verein für Nassau antiquity and historical research, 2012, ISSN  0077-2887 .