Johannes Sievers (art historian)

Johannes (Johann) Georg Ludwig Sievers (born June 27, 1880 in Berlin ; † July 20, 1969 there ) was a German art historian , cultural officer and Schinkel researcher.

Life

Johannes Sievers was the son of the court decoration painter Carl Georg Wilhelm Sievers (1834-1891). He was a student at the Friedrich-Gymnasium in Berlin until his Abitur in 1901, after which he studied art history and classical archeology in Munich and Berlin , which he completed in 1906 with a doctorate at the University of Halle under Adolph Goldschmidt . Study trips took him to Europe , the United States of America , Japan , China and India .

He became a research assistant and assistant director of the Royal Museums in Berlin and in 1912 advisor for art affairs in the Prussian Ministry of Culture . In 1917 he was appointed professor and since 1918 has been the specialist manager for arts and crafts exhibitions , German theater , music and concert issues , film and photography and sports issues abroad.

After the First World War , Sievers got a job in 1919 as a legation counselor and head of the art department of the Foreign Office . From 1925 to 1933 he was a lecturer in the Legation Council, responsible for the redesign of Köpenick Palace near Berlin, the expansion and establishment of the Central Directorate of the Archaeological Institute of the German Empire in Berlin, the Roman-Germanic Commission in Frankfurt am Main and the Humboldthaus in Berlin ( House for foreign students). He was friends with Max Slevogt and Käthe Kollwitz , whose oeuvre catalog he edited.

In 1931 Sievers became a member of the German State Party . After the seizure of power of the Nazis and the related reprisals Sievers was due to the promotion of so-called degenerate art released in 1933 and in the interim retirement offset 1937 he was forced to retire.

Sievers, one of the most important Schinkel researchers, wrote a total of four volumes in the series Karl Friedrich Schinkel's life's work initiated by Paul Ortwin Rave . Sievers provided the “sample for the Schinkel factory” in 1936 in a publication on the Palais des Prinzen August, intended only for internal use.

Johannes Sievers was a descendant of Schinkel's preferred court carpenter Karl Wanschaff , who at the time realized a large number of furniture designs by the famous universal genius in his Berlin workshop, as well as the court carpenter Georg Sievers , who u. a. participated in the wall and ceiling paintings of the New Museum in Berlin built by August Stüler .

Georg Sievers, royal Prussian court carpenter, grandfather of Johannes Sievers, drawing by Carl Heinrich Steffens from 1827

Sample publication for Schinkel's life's work from 1936: Johannes Sievers: The Palais of Prince August of Prussia.

Sievers was buried in the old cemetery Wannsee (Friedenstrasse, Berlin-Zehlendorf). His grave was dedicated to the city of Berlin as an honor grave until 2014 .

His son was the photographer Wolfgang Sievers (1913–2007).

Publications (selection)

• Pieter Aertsen . Studies on Dutch art history of the 16th century , Leipzig 1908 (dissertation)
• Modern art in the Royal Cabinet of Prints and Drawings , 1910
• Pictures from India , 1911
• Joachim Beuckelaer , 1911
• The etchings, woodcuts and lithographs by Käthe Kollwitz . Part 1: Käthe Kollwitz's etchings and stone prints from 1890 to 1912. A descriptive directory . Dresden 1913
• Palace of Prince Karl of Prussia - built by Schinkel , Berlin 1928
• Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The palace of Prince August of Prussia , Berlin 1936
• Buildings for Prince Karl of Prussia , 1942
• The furniture , 1950
• Buildings for the Princes August, Friedrich and Albrecht of Prussia , 1954
• Buildings for Prince Wilhelm, later King of Prussia , 1955
• From my life , 1966 (autobiography, published in typescript)

literature

• Harry Nehls: In memoriam Professor Dr. Johannes Sievers (1880–1969) . In: Mitteilungen des Verein für die Geschichte Berlins 84–87, 1988–1991, pp. 331–347 ( digitized version ).
• Peter Hutter: In memory of Johannes Sievers . In: Berliner Museumsjournal (1992), Issue 3, p. 82 (on the exhibition of the same name in Glienicke Palace, Berlin, August / September 1992)
• Booklet accompanying the memorial exhibition 'Johannes Sievers - Life and Work in Berlin 1880–1969'. Organized by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens Berlin in Schloß Glienicke, Berlin 1992.
• Peter Betthausen u. a. (Ed.): Metzler-Kunsthistoriker-Lexikon . Two hundred portraits of German-speaking authors from four centuries . Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01535-1
• Ulrike Wendland: Biographical handbook of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism. Part 2: L – Z. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 641-643.
• Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Volume 4: p . Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service, edited by: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-71843-3 , pp. 266f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 570.
2. ^ Helmut Börsch-Supan : Experience of the present and historical research . In: Karl Friedrich Schinkel. History and poetry. The study book . Berlin 2012, p. 330.

Web links

• Works by and about Johannes Sievers  in the German Digital Library