Gerhard Zinserling

Gerhard Zinserling (born June 11, 1926 in Erfurt ; † November 11, 1993 in Jena ) was a German classical archaeologist .

Gerhard Zinserling dropped out of secondary school in 1944 with a certificate of maturity in order to subsequently take part in the Second World War. He was taken prisoner of war, but was released in 1945 and attended the preparatory college in Jena that same year and now actually passed the school leaving examination. In 1946 he began studying classical archeology, art history and prehistory at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . In 1949 he passed the final scientific examination and became a scientific assistant at the Archaeological Institute in Jena. The course ended in December 1950 with a doctorate under Ludger Alscher and Friedrich Zucker . The subject of the dissertation was the style development of urban Roman portrait art from the end of the second century AD to the beginning of late antiquity . He was then commissioned to hold a lectureship. In March 1956 the habilitation followed in the same place with the contribution The style development of urban Roman portrait art from the end of the second century AD to the beginning of late antiquity with Robert Heidenreich and Horst Kusch . It was about the continuation of the doctoral studies. In September 1956 he became a full lecturer, since June 1960 professor with teaching assignment and since February 1963 professor with full teaching assignment. In September 1969, Zinserling became a professor with a chair for classical archeology in Jena, where he taught until his retirement in 1991.

In addition to the art of Roman portraits, his main research interests were the Greek art of the Classical Age and Greek temple construction. Zinserling is particularly well known for his handbook Abriss der Greek and Roman Kunst , which saw five editions in the GDR .

In 1987 Gerhard Zinserling was awarded the Winckelmann Medal from the city of Stendal .

Zinserling's first marriage was to the art historian Liselotte Honigmann-Zinserling , and his second marriage to the classical archaeologist Verena Paul-Zinserling .

Fonts (selection)

• Temple of Zeus at Olympia and Parthenon at Athens - cult temple ?, in: Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tom. XIII, Budapest 1965, pp. 41-80
• Demolition of Greek and Roman Art , Reclam, Leipzig 1970 (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek, vol. 435)
• Interior problems of Greek temple architecture, in: Jürgen Dummer (ed.), Greek temples. Essence and Effect, Stendal 1977 (contributions from the Winckelmann Society 8), pp. 25–42
• The Acropolis Building Program of Pericles . Political requirements and ideological context, in: Ernst Kluwe (ed.), Culture and progress in the heyday of the Greek polis , Berlin 1985 (writings on the history and culture of antiquity 24), pp. 206–246
• Greek high class. Norm, high point and turning point - the inherence of classicism , in: Friedrich Möbius / Helga Sciurie (eds.), Style and Epoch. Periodization issues, Dresden 1989 (Fundus-Bücherei 118/119), pp. 217–230

literature

• Lothar Mertens : Lexicon of the GDR historians. Biographies and bibliographies on the historians from the German Democratic Republic. Saur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-598-11673-X , pp. 663-664.

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerhard Zinserling in the catalog of the German National Library