Gernot Jacob-Friesen

Gernot Jacob-Friesen, 1993

Gernot Jacob-Friesen (born May 15, 1926 in Hanover ; † October 27, 2019 in Karlsruhe ) was a German prehistorian .

family

Gernot Jacob-Friesen was the son of the prehistorian and museum director Karl Hermann Jacob-Friesen and Elfriede Jacob-Friesen, nee. Vehse. He was married to Maria Jacob-Friesen (née Schnath; 1933–1989); the couple has a son, the art historian Holger Jacob-Friesen (* 1967).

Career

Gernot Jacob-Friesen attended elementary school in Hanover from 1932 to 1936, then the Humanist Ratsgymnasium (in Hanover) until 1944 . From 1945 to 1947 he worked as an intern at the Lower Saxony State Museum and attended lectures and exercises at the Technical University of Hanover as a guest. In the summer semester of 1947 he began studying prehistory, early history , art history and geology at the University of Göttingen . In the winter semester of 1949/50 he moved to the University of Bonn , where he received his doctorate in 1951 with a thesis on "The Bronze Age Spearheads in Northwest Germany". During his student days he took part in numerous excavations, including a. on excavations for the Paleolithic in the Ahrensburg tunnel valley , on Stone Age and Bronze Age barrows near Uelzen, on the Saxon urn burial site Perlberg near Stade and on the Wurt Hessens near Wilhelmshaven . Under the direction of Albert Egges van Giffen , he was also active in the excavations at the Roman camp in Valkenburg (Katwijk) .

First years of employment

After completing his doctorate, he worked for six years (1951–57) as a freelance archaeologist in changing contracts for work. He led a wide variety of excavations (stone and metal ages, Roman camp, city core investigations) and worked three times at the State Museum for Prehistory and Early History in Schleswig. He used the time without a contract for extensive museum trips and the material recording for his habilitation thesis. The discovery of the first Hallstatt C-period wagon graves from Großeibstadt in Lower Franconia in 1954, the discoveries of which were later published by Georg Kossack, stands out among the excavation managers .

University professor in Cologne

On April 1, 1957, he began working at the Institute for Pre- and Protohistory at the University of Cologne , from May 1958 as an assistant to Hermann Schwabedissen . On December 11, 1963, Jacob-Friesen completed his habilitation with a thesis on the topology, chronology and cultural history of the Bronze Age lance tips in Northern Germany and Scandinavia (published in 1967). In 1968 he was appointed to a C3 professorship following a formal procedure in Cologne.

In 1963 he began the continuation of the three-volume series "Introduction to Lower Saxony's Prehistory", which his father had begun, by editing and publishing the second volume on the Bronze Age, which his father had created but was no longer completed. He then wrote the third volume on the Iron Age, which appeared in 1974. The work was not only intended for specialists and students, but also for interested laypeople.

Full professor in Göttingen

On November 16, 1981, Jacob-Friesen was appointed to the C4 professorship for Prehistory and Protohistory at the University of Göttingen , succeeding Herbert Jankuhn and Klaus Raddatz , where he taught until his retirement in 1993. In Göttingen, he expanded the lecture cycle of epoch overviews from the Bronze Age to the Viking Age, which was highly valued by his students, to include the Neolithic. As head of the seminar, he took over the editing of the monograph series “Göttinger Schriften zur Vor und Frühgeschichte” and was the editor of the journal “New excavations and research in Lower Saxony” for several volumes on behalf of the Archaeological Commission for Lower Saxony . In terms of content, he always tried to combine theory and practice in his lectures, which is why the seminar under the direction of his assistants always carried out teaching excavations, etc. a. on the important Iron Age site Nörten-Hardenberg "Steinbühl", the Rössen earthworks and the Neolithic collective graves near Großenrode and the Neolithic earthworks at Northeim Kiessee and Büren-Brenken.

Gernot Jacob-Friesen's research focus was the Bronze Age in Northern, Central and Western Europe, but his teaching and his writings were also devoted to questions of Iron Age and early history. This breadth is reflected in the numerous master's and doctoral theses awarded by him.

On his 65th birthday, a double volume of the “Kunde” (NF 41/42, 1990/91) was dedicated to him under the title “Theoria cum Praxi” as a commemorative publication, to which numerous colleagues and students contributed. A comprehensive list of publications can also be found there. While he led about five students to graduate in Cologne, he supervised about 25 students during his time in Göttingen, many of whom subsequently worked in Lower Saxony's regional archeology. He brought Andreas Heege (1984–1989) and Frank Siegmund (1990–1999) to the Göttingen seminar as his assistants .

In 1985, during his time in Göttingen, the traditional seminar, founded by his father in 1928, moved to the building on Nikolausberger Weg 15 due to the acute danger of collapse of the old Accouchierhaus (Göttingen, Kurz Geismarstrasse 1).

After his retirement, Jacob-Friesen continued to live in Göttingen. He died after a short illness on October 27, 2019 and was buried in the family grave at the Engesohde city cemetery in Hanover.

Honors

• Corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute since 1971.

Fonts (selection)

• Bronze Age lance tips from Northern Germany and Scandinavia (= publications of the prehistoric collections of the Landesmusuems zu Hannover, vol. 17). August Lax, Hildesheim 1967.
• Introduction to Lower Saxony's prehistory. Part 3: Iron Age (= publications of the prehistoric collections of the Landesmuseum zu Hannover, Vol. 15, Part 3) 4th, completely revised edition. Lax, Hildesheim 1974.
• A bronze sword from Bornholm as a gift from Friedrich Münter to Georgia Augusta . In: New excavations and research in Lower Saxony 19, 1991, pp. 121–147.

Web links

• Literature by and about Gernot Jacob-Friesen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Obituaries of Gernot Jacob-Friesen. In: trauer-angebote.de.