Ignaz von Olfers

Franz Krüger : Ignaz von Olfers (1830)

Ignaz von Olfers (born August 30, 1793 in Münster , † April 23, 1871 in Berlin ) was a German scientist and diplomat. Most recently he was General Director of the Royal Museums in Berlin.

origin

He was the son of Hofrat Franz Theodor von Olfers and Marie Elisabeth von Lindenkampf (1763-1848). Benedikt von Olfers (1800–1876) and Johann Heinrich von Olfers (1791–1855) were his brothers.

Life

Ignaz von Olfers studied medicine, natural sciences and linguistics at the University of Göttingen from 1812 to 1815 . In 1816 he entered the Prussian civil service and accompanied the Prussian legation under Johann Friedrich August von Flemming to Rio de Janeiro as legionary secretary . After being appointed Legation Councilor , he worked in the Prussian embassies in Lisbon and Naples . After a lengthy stay in Brazil , based on scientific research, he became the Prussian envoy in Bern in 1831 . In 1836 he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

At the mediation of Wilhelm von Humboldt and his brother Alexander von Humboldt , Ignaz von Olfers was appointed General Director of the Royal Museums in Berlin in 1839 . He was one of the closest confidants of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. For him, alongside Alexander von Humboldt, he was the most important liaison to the natural sciences and the fine arts. Olfers planned and designed the renovation of the Museum Island (Berlin) with Friedrich August Stüler .

In 1854, Olfers became an honorary member of the Catholic Reading Association (now KStV Askania-Burgundia ) founded in 1853 , the first corporation in the cartel association . In 1856 he was made an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . Since 1826 he was a corresponding and since 1837 a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

As a result of a dispute with Gustav Friedrich Waagen , the then director of the Royal Picture Gallery, over the failed restoration of a picture by Andrea del Sarto , Olfers suffered a stroke . After five years in sick bed, Olfers died in Berlin in 1871 at the age of 77 and was buried in the local St. Hedwig cemetery on Liesenstrasse . The tomb has not been preserved.

• Drawings from the expedition with Friedrich Sellow
• 

  Characiformes

• 

  Crenicichla punctata

• 

  Geophagus brasiliensis

• 

  Hoplias malabaricus

family

He married Hedwig von Staegemann (1799–1891), the daughter of the poet lawyer and Prussian State Councilor Friedrich August von Staegemann (1763–1840) and Elisabeth Fischer, Graun (1761–1835) on December 3, 1823 in Berlin . The marriage has four children:

• Johanna (Nina) (1824–1901) ⚭ Hans David Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg (1805–1865)
• Marie (1826–1924), poet
• Hedwig (1829–1919) ⚭ Heinrich Abeken (1809–1872)
• Ernst Friedrich Franz Gustav Maria (1840–1915), medical councilor, gentleman on Metgethen

⚭ 1869 Baroness Angela Pia Franziska Behr (* March 21, 1850; † June 16, 1875)

⚭ 1877 Baroness Olga Maria Bertha Behr (born January 22, 1859), parents of Sibylle von Olfers

literature

• Literature by and about Ignaz von Olfers in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lionel von Donop :  Olfers, Ignaz von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 290 f.
• EWM von Olfers (ed.): Letters from Alexander von Humboldt to Ignaz von Olfen, General Director of the Royal Museums in Berlin. Nuremberg 1913
• Michael Anisch: Just no Titiane! Poker for the post of General Director of Art Museums. In: HiN - Humboldt on the Net. XII, 22 (2011). Pp. 5-9. https://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin22/anisch.htm
• Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses, 1907, p. 602

Web links

Wikisource: Ignaz von Olfers  - Sources and full texts

• Edited letters from and to Ignaz von Olfers in the web service correspSearch of the BBAW

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 55.