Helmut Ottenjann

Helmut Ottenjann (born May 15, 1931 , † October 4, 2010 in Cloppenburg ) was a German folklorist and prehistoric archaeologist .

Life

Helmut Ottenjann was director of the Lower Saxony open-air museum Museumsdorf Cloppenburg for 35 years . He succeeded his father and founder of the open-air museum, the teacher Heinrich Ottenjann , as director and held the office from 1961 until his retirement in 1996.

After graduating from high school, Helmut Ottenjann studied the cultural studies subjects of archeology, history, folklore and art history at the Clemens-August-Gymnasium in Cloppenburg. In 1957 he received his doctorate at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel with a dissertation on "The Nordic full-grip swords during the heyday of the older Bronze Age". As a research assistant at museums in Schleswig, Stockholm and Nuremberg, he gained his first museum experience. Finally, after the death of his father Heinrich in 1961, he became the museum director at the museum village.

Helmut Ottenjann made the Lower Saxony Open Air Museum a nationally and internationally recognized institution. He not only focused on targeted museum collection activities, but also on the scientific classification and research of the exhibits. How did our ancestors live, how did they dress, what means of transport did they use? These were questions that Ottenjann asked.

In addition to the scientific interest in the history of the region, which was reflected in numerous publications, specialist books and exhibitions, Ottenjann persistently pursued the expansion of the museum village. The number of historical buildings increased from 20 to 52 buildings. The number of other museum exhibits grew to a similar extent.

From 1971 to 2001 Ottenjann was honorary managing director of the Heimatbund for the Oldenburger Münsterland. He was one of the initiators of the "Musealog" qualification measure for academics in the field of museums and the preservation of historical monuments. After his retirement in 1998 he initiated the Kulturschatz Farm Foundation, of which he became the first honorary managing director. Ottenjann continued to research furniture and rural writing culture; he wrote more than 75 scientific articles.

A lecture that Ottenjann gave in June 2000 to the general meeting of the “ Society for Agricultural History ” with the title “Recording, opening up and maintaining agricultural cultures in Germany” caused a stir . Our responsibility to history ”held. In it, Ottenjann called for energetic measures to be taken to secure and preserve Germany's agricultural heritage, which is already in decline. The "Agricultural Heritage Database" was created as the basis for this, which is intended to include all organizations or persons in Germany that deal with agricultural heritage. These are museums, museum villages, archives, libraries, research institutions, local and historical associations, landscape conservation associations, administrators of historical sites, rural settlements and cultural landscapes, monument conservationists or private collectors.

Ottenjann was a member of the Catholic student associations AV Rheno-Guestfalia Kiel and KDStV Hercynia Freiburg im Breisgau .

Honors

• Winner of the Lower Saxony Prize for Culture of the Lower Saxony State Government 1982
• Honorary professor at the University of Vechta / Osnabrück, 1987
• Honorary member of the Lower Saxony Heimatbund, 1998
• Honorary member of the Oldenburger Münsterland Heimatbund, 2001
• Ring of Honor of the Oldenburger Münsterland Heimatbund and the Oldenburger Münsterland Association, 2001
• Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit, 2003
• 1st Agricultural Heritage Prize, 2008
• "Oldenburg Prize" of the Oldenburg landscape, 2009

Publications

• Where did the builders of the great stone graves at Hase und Hunte come from? In: Home calendar for the Oldenburger Münsterland . Vol. 4. 1955, pp. 45-50 ( online )
• New grave finds confirm the existence of a Hase-Hunte cultural province in prehistoric times . In: Home calendar for the Oldenburger Münsterland . Vol. 6. 1957, pp. 45-49 ( online )
• The Nordic full-grip swords of the older and middle Bronze Age (= Roman-Germanic research. Vol. 30, ISSN  0176-5337 ). de Gruyter, Berlin 1969.
• with Elfriede Heinemeyer: Old farmer's furniture from northwestern Lower Saxony (= Northwest Lower Saxony regional research. Vol. 1). Schuster, Leer 1974, ISBN 3-7963-0075-8 (later as: Alte Bauernmöbel. Folk furniture from northwestern Lower Saxony. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Ibid 1978).
• Old farmhouses between Weser and Ems. Photos: Helmut Tecklenburg. Schuster in commission et al., Leer 1979, ISBN 3-7963-0184-3 (3rd edition. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1989, ISBN 3-8067-2003-7 ).
• with Friedrich-Wilhelm Jaspers: Popular furniture from the Ammerland. Stollen chests, chest chests, trunk chests (= materials on folk culture in northwestern Lower Saxony. H. 4–5). 2 volumes (picture part. Text part.). Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 1982–1983, ISBN 3-923675-00-3 .
• House and yard archives of the rural population of Lower Saxony. In: handwriting - writing works. Changing script and writing culture in regional examples from the 18th to the 20th century (= materials on folk culture in north-western Lower Saxony. H. 16). Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 1991, ISBN 3-923675-24-0 , pp. 157-173.
• as editor with Karl-Heinz Ziessow: The potato. History and future of a cultivated plant (= work and life in the country. Vol. 1). Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 1992, ISBN 3-923675-30-5 .
• as editor with Hans Galen: Westphalia in Lower Saxony. Cultural links: Münster, Osnabrück, Emsland, Oldenburger Münsterland. Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 1993, ISBN 3-923675-37-2 .
• as editor: Landarbeit und Kinderwelt. Agriculture in educational literature, 18th to 20th century (= work and life in the country. Vol. 2). Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 1994, ISBN 3-923675-45-3 .
• as editor: Kulturschatzinsel Bauernhof. Unique cultural heritage in the Weser-Ems area. A memorandum. Haferkamp, ​​Oldenburg 1996.
• The silhouetteur Caspar Dilly from Löningen. Family pictures of the rural population in western Lower Saxony 1805–1841 (= The Blue Series. H. 3). Heimatbund Oldenburger Münsterland, Cloppenburg 1998, ISBN 3-9804494-9-1 .
• Regional furniture culture in the parish of Löningen. Conceived - made - used by Löningern. Heimatverein Löningen, Löningen 2003, ISBN 3-932959-29-9 .
• Identity culture of the "peasant people". Development and end in the Weser-Ems region. (Aspects of a synoptic factual culture analysis for the Weser-Ems region). In: Karl-Heinz Ziessow, Christoph Reinders-Düselder, Heinrich Schmidt (eds.): Early modern times. Festschrift for Ernst Hinrichs (= studies on regional history. 17). Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-89534-507-5 , p. 93 ff. (Separate print: Ostendorf, Cloppenburg 2004).
• Furniture culture of the parish of Ankum in the 18th and 19th centuries. In: Heimat-Hefte for village and parish Ankum. Vol. 8, 2005, ZDB -ID 1483231-8 , pp. 37-59.
• Building judges' books of the Osnabrück parish farms of the 18th and 19th centuries as documents of municipal self-government. The farmer as financier of the community treasury. In: Osnabrücker Mitteilungen. Vol. 111, 2006, ISSN  0474-8158 , pp. 131-170.
• Wedding cupboards of the Oldenburg Ammerland. Furniture culture, marriage law and marriage circles 1600–1800 (= sources and studies on the regional history of Lower Saxony. Vol. 10). Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 2006, ISBN 3-938061-07-3 .
• Printed and handcrafted “regulations” since the early modern period. Documents of Alemannic, East Frisian and German-American school education in the city and in the country. In: Heidrun Alzheimer, Fred G. Rausch, Klaus Rieder, Claudia Selheim (eds.): Images - things - mentalities. Fields of work in historical cultural studies. Wolfgang Brückner on his 80th birthday. Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2323-0 , pp. 451-466.

Web links

• Literature by and about Helmut Ottenjann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lower Saxony open-air museum Museumsdorf Cloppenburg
• Heimatbund for the Oldenburger Münsterland

Individual evidence

1. ↑ printed in: Journal for Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology . Vol. 49, No. 1, 2001, pp. 1-12.
2. ^ Society for Agricultural History: Database Agricultural and Cultural Heritage