Hugo Birkner

Hugo Birkner (born February 18, 1888 in Hanau ; † August 14, 1957 there ) was a German entrepreneur and amateur archaeologist .

Life

Hugo Birkner was born as the son of a silver goods manufacturer . After attending the secondary school in Hanau, he began a commercial apprenticeship in the jewelry industry. On the side he attended the local drawing academy . From 1907 he was a commercial clerk and representative of a number of jewelers in Bremen , Berlin , Hanau, Menton , Aix-les-Bains , Newcastle upon Tyne , Lausanne and Wiesbaden . After the First World War , in which he participated as an officer , he became an authorized signatory of the Hanau jewelry factory Steinheuer & Co. , which he took over together with another partner in 1927. During the Second World War he was called up from 1941 to 1943. The war destroyed the foundations of the Hanau jewelry industry and its own operations.

Work for local archeology and the Hanauer Museum

Fort Salisberg in which Hugo Birkner took part in the excavation.

Even as a schoolboy he was interested in archeology , from 1906 he was active in the Hanau History Association. His focus was the local prehistory and early history . During a convalescent stay in Hanau in 1915, he met Georg Wolff , who encouraged him in his interests. In 1919, he then took on the excavation of the Roman fort bath of fort Salis mountain part, the associated fort was excavated with the participation of the 1931st Also in 1919 he began working on the catalog of the archaeological holdings of the Hanau History Association. In 1923 he became a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and in 1954 a full member .

As part of his work for the Hanau History Association , he took care of its collections, not just those of prehistory and early history, such as the numismatic and Hanau faience collections . In 1939, he largely organized the relocation of the museum, initially from the historic town hall in the old town of Hanau, now used as the “ German Goldsmith's House ”, to the city ​​palace , followed immediately and overlaid by the war-related evacuation measures for the museum property. When the interference of the National Socialist city ​​administration on the history association became unbearable - in particular Erich Schohe was placed in front of him as a full-time city museum director - he left the association.

In 1943 he was discharged from the Wehrmacht , at a time when the threat to Hanau from the aerial warfare was acute and the full-time city museum director was called up for military service. Hugo Birkner now organized the relocation of the museum's holdings from November 1943 to November 1944. Shortly after the end of the war, he tried to salvage building remains of art-historical value from the Hanau city center , which was almost completely destroyed by the air raid on Hanau on March 19, 1945, and soon the repatriation of the relocated museum assets. In total, he managed to save around 80% of the objects through the war. However, a significant part of the associated written documents had been lost. With his knowledge of the collection, Hugo Birkner carried out a new inventory . In doing so, he created the basis that a few years after his death, the Hanau Historical Museum , based on the holdings of the Hanau History Association, could be opened in Philippsruhe Castle .

In 1953, on the occasion of his 65th birthday, he was appointed museum director and received an honorary doctorate from the philosophy faculty of the University of Frankfurt .

A bust of Hugo Birkner, created by August Bischoff , is in the possession of the Hanau History Association.

Publications (selection)

• An Urnfield Age stone chamber grave from Bruchköbel near Hanau. In: Prehistoric Journal . Vol. 34/35, 1949/1950, pp. 266-272.
• Monuments of the Mithras cult from Rückingen Castle. In: Germania . Vol. 30, 1953, pp. 349-362.
• Report on the finds of cultural and historical soil antiquities in the district of the Hanau History Association for the years 1951–1953. In: New magazine for Hanau history. Vol. 2, No. 3, 1954, ZDB -ID 535233-2 , pp. 41-75.

literature

• Peter Jüngling : In memory of Hugo Birkner's hundredth birthday. In: New magazine for Hanau history. Vol. 9, No. 3, 1989, pp. 226-229.
• Karl Ludwig Krauskopf: 150 years of the Hanau History Association. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter. Vol. 33, 1994, ZDB -ID 957666-6 , pp. 326-332.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ferdinand Kutsch : Hanau. Museum of the Hanauer Geschichtsverein (= catalogs of West and South German antiquity collections. 5, ZDB -ID 991352-X ). Part 1–2. Baer & Co., Frankfurt am Main 1923–1926.