Gottfried von Lücken

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Grave of the archaeologist Gottfried von Lücken in the forest cemetery in Munich

Gottfried Heinrich von Lücken (born July 27, 1883 in Wredenhagen , † October 11, 1976 in Munich ) was a German classical archaeologist .

Life

Gottfried von Lücken comes from a family of landowners based in southern Mecklenburg , his father was a domain tenant in Wredenhagen near Röbel . He passed his A-levels at a Reform Realgymnasium in Berlin-Schöneberg and began studying economics in 1904, following family tradition . First he studied at the University of Freiburg , later at the University of Munich and the University of Berlin . In 1906, however, following his own inclinations, he changed the subject and began studying archeology and art history at the University of Halle , which he later continued in Berlin and at the University of Strasbourg . His academic teachers included Carl Robert , Adolph Goldschmidt , Heinrich Wölfflin , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff , Eduard Meyer , Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz , Franz Winter and Georg Dehio . At Dehio, von Lücken started his dissertation “The beginnings of the Burgundian school. A contribution to the revival of antiquity in the architecture of the 12th century ”. In 1912 he received the prize from the Strasbourg Lamey Foundation for a comparative study of late Archaic vase painting and sculpture. That was the decisive factor in devoting himself entirely to archeology without losing his art historical interest in later life. At the same time, von Lücken's interest in the history of style crystallized.

In the following period extensive study trips led from Gützen to Italy, Greece, France, England and Istanbul . At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered and was injured in the last year of the war. The injury resulted in permanent physical disability. In 1919 von Lücken continued his archaeological studies in Berlin and initially devoted himself primarily to early red-figure Attic vase painting. For this work he received a grant from the Eduard Gerhard Foundation in 1921 . In addition, he developed a new process for the largely distortion-free reproduction of Greek vase pictures, for which he received both German and international patents. In May 1921 he completed his habilitation at the University of Hamburg . After completing his habilitation, he worked briefly as a private lecturer at the University of Hamburg and was also employed at the Museum of Art and Industry . But already in October 1921, after Rudolf Pagenstecher's early death, von Lücken was appointed as his successor at the University of Rostock .

Von Lücken was to spend his entire further academic career at Rostock University, initially as an associate professor, since April 1930 as a full professor, and since 1932 as director of the Archaeological Institute and the Academic Coin Cabinet. As a representative of Mecklenburg, he became a member of the central management of the German Archaeological Institute in 1930 . He was a member of the committee for almost 30 years. At first he only taught classical archeology in Rostock, shortly afterwards also prehistory and later also art history. As one of the first German archaeologists, he visited the Soviet Union in 1924 . Von Lücken was a teacher and sponsor of Rostock archaeologists and art historians for several generations. During the time of National Socialism he did not behave opportunistically like many of his colleagues and also protected endangered students and colleagues. From 1941 to 1942 he served as an interpreter in the prisoner-of-war camp for Belgian officers in Prenzlau , and in March 1943 he was released as a captain from the Wehrmacht.

In 1945 he was confirmed as a professor with a chair in Rostock, and he also held lectures on art history and archeology at the Rostock adult education center. In 1954 he retired, but continued to teach and was provisional director of the Archaeological Institute from 1954 to 1965, and from 1965 to 1968 provisional director of the archeology department at the Institute for Classical Studies at the University of Rostock. In 1963 the University of Rostock awarded him an honorary doctorate, and in 1971 he celebrated his 50th anniversary in Rostock. In 1972 he moved to Munich, handicapped by a progressive visual impairment, and died there in 1976.

One of Lücken's foundations was his knowledge of the European and North American collections, which he had visited and inspected on many trips. He made contributions to the discussion in many areas of classical archeology. His interpretations of the Pergamon Altar did not succeed, but his studies of the Parthenon sculptures had a lasting influence. Throughout his life he occupied himself with Greek vase painting and in 1972 published the vases of the Schwerin Museum as part of the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum . When a sarcophagus that came to Rostock as a result of the Second World War , von Lücken began to deal with Roman sarcophagi. From Rostock he influenced several generations of young archaeologists in the GDR. On his 80th birthday he was awarded an honorary doctorate , on his 85th birthday a festschrift was dedicated to him.

Fonts (selection)

  • Greek vase pictures. A new method of reproduction , Berlin 1921
  • Greek vase pictures in Vienna , Vienna 1922
  • Greek Vase Painting , The Hague 1923
  • The development of the Parthenon sculptures . Filser, Augsburg 1930
  • Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum . GDR 1: Schwerin 1 . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1972.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gaps, Gottfried von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaps, Gottfried Heinrich von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Wredenhagen
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1976
Place of death Munich