Joseph Hoster

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Joseph Hoster (born June 27, 1910 in Cologne ; † June 3, 1969 there ) was a German Catholic priest and art historian . In the post-war period he was head of the Cologne Cathedral Treasury and the Diocesan Museum and was responsible for the restoration of the Epiphany shrine in the cathedral after the Second World War.

Life

Hoster was born in Cologne-Nippes in 1910 . In 1930 he first studied art history and philology in Cologne and Bonn, and from 1931 also theology . In July 1937 he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Karl Joseph Schulte in Cologne Cathedral. This was followed by activities as a chaplain in Düsseldorf , Cologne and Angermund before he was appointed to the second hospital chaplain in Cologne's Lindenburg in September 1942 . After the hospital was destroyed and evacuated, he accompanied his patients to Koenigswinter. At the same time (1942 to 1944) there are reports of another study of art history with Hans Kauffmann .

After the war, Hoster initially stayed in Königswinter and continued to work as a hospital chaplain and also as a religion teacher. In 1947, Cardinal Frings appointed him to the cathedral sacristan priest in Cologne, which made him custodian of  the cathedral treasury, director of the diocesan museum and assistant to the archbishop's office for building, art and monument preservation. In his role, Hoster played a key role in repairing the war damage to the cathedral until 1948, but in the following years his focus was the restoration of the heavily damaged Shrine of the Three Kings, far beyond its pre-war state, which continued for many years - until after his death. Hoster was able to acquire the necessary funds for the restoration and restoration without church or state funding and he donated part of his own authors' fees to the fund.

Hoster was the author of numerous articles and publisher of the Kölner Domblatt . He was significantly involved - as a consultant and employee - in several important exhibitions of sacred art in the post-war period, including Treasures from the Cathedral and Munster in the winter of 1954/55 and Becoming West in 1956 in the Villa Hügel in Essen , the exhibition in 1961 on the 200th anniversary of the death of Elector Clemens August in Brühl, the exhibition on Charlemagne in  1965 in Aachen and the exhibition in Cologne for the Epiphany in 1964. He was also involved in setting up the Vatican pavilion at Expo 58  .

In addition to his main activity, Hoster has been teaching at the adult education center in Cologne since 1948 and was a member of the board of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein , in 1949 he became cathedral vicar, in 1965 cathedral capitular as well as archbishop's council and member of the art commission. From 1966 to 1969 he was chairman of the Association for Christian Art in the Archdiocese of Cologne and the Diocese of Aachen .

At the end of his life he made sure that the diocesan museum was given rooms in the newly built Kurienhaus.

After almost a year of serious illness, Joseph Hoster died in 1969 at the age of 58 in his apartment in Cologne.

Awards

Publications (selection)

author
  • Choir towers in the Rhineland. In: Colonia Sacra. Studies and research on the history of the church in the Archdiocese of Cologne . Volume 1: Festgabe for Wilhelm Neuss on the completion of his 65th year of life , ed. by Eduard Hegel , Balduin Pick Verlag, Cologne 1947, pp. 100–162.
  • Stone jewelry at the Shrine of the Three Kings. In: And they followed the star. The Book of the Magi , ed. by Adam Wienand, Cologne 1964.
  • The Cologne Cathedral. Greven-Verlag, Cologne 1965
  • Signpost through Cologne Cathedral. Greven-Verlag, Cologne 1965
  • On the shape of the front of the Epiphany in: Miscellanea Pro Arte. Hermann Schnitzler on the completion of the 60th year of life on January 13, 1965. Writings of the Pro Arte Medii Aevi - Friends of the Museum Schnütgen eV; Düsseldorf 1965
  • The Viennese Ptolemaic Cameo - once at Cologne's Epiphany, In: Studies on Illumination and Goldsmith's Art of the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Karl Hermann Usener on his 60th birthday. 1967
editor
  • Eight hundred years of veneration of the Magi in Cologne, 1164-1964. Kölner Domblatt 26/27 (1964). JP Bachem Cologne 1964
  • with Peter Bloch: Miscellanea Pro Arte. Hermann Schnitzler on the completion of the 60th year of life on January 13, 1965. Writings of the Pro Arte Medii Aevi - Friends of the Museum Schnütgen eV; Düsseldorf 1965

literature

  • Hermann Pünder: In memoriam Joseph Hoster † , in: Kölner Domblatt 30, JP Bachem publishing house, Cologne 1969
  • Carl Gielen: Cathedral Chapter Prelate Joseph Hoster †

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Death certificate no. 996 from June 6, 1969, registry office Cologne old town. LAV NRW R civil status register, accessed on June 21, 2018 .
  2. ↑ kolumba.de Short bio on kolumba.de
personal data
SURNAME Hoster, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH 3rd June 1969
Place of death Cologne