Friedrich Krauss (building researcher)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friedrich Ludwig Krauss (born September 29, 1900 in Riga ; † June 25, 1977 in Munich ) was a German building researcher who made a particular contribution to research into ancient Paestum and ancient theater architecture.

Friedrich Krauss' family on his father's side was an old patrician family from Augsburg . His parents were civil engineer Friedrich Krauss and Elisabeth Trappen, Krauss himself was the youngest of four children. His sister Erna Eckstein is the mother of the filmmaker and author Kiu Eckstein .

Krauss attended school in Riga from 1907 until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, but then switched to the Schiller Realgymnasium in Stettin, where he graduated from high school in 1918. He then went to the Imperial Navy as a sailor and began studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich in the winter semester of 1918/19 after the war , but then switched to the Technical University of Danzig , where he studied shipbuilding and passed the diploma examination in 1925. He began to work as an engineer in aircraft construction in Munich and then in Augsburg, later as a shipbuilding engineer in Gdansk . But as early as 1927 his interests shifted to the architecture of antiquity and he became an assistant to Friedrich Krischen at the Technical University of Danzig for three years . During this time the first study trips to Italy and Asia Minor took place . The first building survey was the recording of the Prora on the Tiber Island in Rome in 1929, he also corrected Robert Koldewey and demonstrated a kinkless front geison at the Temple of Athena in Paestum . Krischen then entrusted him with editing the Theater von Milet, which he himself had only recently taken over from Hubert Knackfuß . Krauss examined the remains of the stage houses in Miletus in 1930 and also supported Armin von Gerkan in his work on the city wall. In autumn of that year, investigations into the Temenos for the ruler cult in Pergamon followed .

For 1930/31 Krauss was awarded the travel grant of the German Archaeological Institute , but until 1933 he traveled to Italy, Asia Minor and Greece on behalf of the DAI. In Istanbul, for example, he recorded the obelisk on the hippodrome and helped examine the land wall . In Paestum he measured the three Greek temples. In 1934 Krauss moved to the TH Munich, where he became Hubert Knackfuss's last assistant. In addition, that year he took on a teaching position at the university on the subject of basic concepts and the theory of forms in architecture , which ensured him a modest but secure livelihood until the end of the Second World War , even after his time as an assistant . Between 1935 and 1937 Krauss worked on his dissertation on the Italian temple in Paestum, which he had already recorded in 1933. The doctorate took place under Reinhard Herbig . In 1937 he stayed in Paestum for further investigations, from 1938 he worked on the Italian excavations of the early Greek sanctuary at the mouth of the Sela in Paestum, and was able to continue this work during the war years. His book Paestum - The Greek Temples (1941; 5th edition 1984) made Krauss known beyond the professional world, it is still regarded as an unsurpassed standard work. In 1941 he supervised the war-related dismantling of the large frieze of the Pergamon Altar in the Pergamon Museum on behalf of the Berlin Collection of Antiquities . The following year he was commissioned to survey the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens . The habilitation took place in 1944, in October of that year he was drafted into the Navy . Multiple attempted universities during the time of National Socialism to invoke Krauss, but this system NS was denied as well as a permanent job because of his opposition to.

After the reopening of the TH Munich, Krauss was appointed to the chair of building history and is generally considered to be the actual successor to Hubert Knackfuss, who had to give up his chair in 1934 under pressure from the National Socialists, which, contrary to university practice, did not fill again according to the proposals of the faculty but with the system-based Alexander von Senger . As a university lecturer, Krauss devoted himself primarily to ancient and medieval architecture. In addition, he devoted himself to questions of the rebuilding of destroyed cities during the war. So he took the side of the proponents of the preservation party for the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, which had suffered severe damage in the war. As a teacher, he suggested several dissertations on Munich's architectural history, and as head of the architecture collection at the TH Munich, he devoted himself intensively to restoring and expanding the collection, which he had been in charge of on a voluntary basis since 1935 and which had been relocated from destruction in 1944. In 1951 he continued his research in Paestum at the so-called basilica and published extensively on the ancient city over the next few years. After his retirement in 1965 he devoted himself again increasingly to ancient theater architecture.

Krauss did not see himself as an excavator, he was more interested in the architectural appearance of the monuments. Here he succeeded Hubert Knackfuss, but with his sense of form, his ability to observe and his thorough technical training, he was able to make a significant contribution to the further development and improvement of archaeological building research. His demands on the accuracy of the measurements were often considered too far-reaching by colleagues. Krauss did not regard these recordings as an end in themselves, but as a prerequisite for recording and evaluating the buildings. A complete and exact description of the buildings was just as important to him. This gave Krauss an excellent reputation for questions relating to the assessment and interpretation of buildings. He was considered a liberal man who was sometimes perceived as not only formidable but also intimidating. On the other hand, he was valued for his witty humor and helpfulness. Krauss was seen as a forward-looking and thoroughly planning person whose work was shaped by reason, a sense of proportion and persuasiveness. He was a member of the German Archaeological Institute .

Fonts (selection)

  • The Corinthian-Doric Temple at the Forum of Paestum , de Gruyter, Berlin 1939 (Monuments of Ancient Architecture, Volume 7) (Reprint: ISBN 3-11-004991-0 )
  • Paestum. The Greek Temple , Mann, Berlin 1941; 3rd, exp. Edition Berlin 1976; 5th edition Berlin 1984

literature

personal data
SURNAME Krauss, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krauss, Friedrich Ludwig (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German building researcher
DATE OF BIRTH 29th September 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1977
Place of death Munich