Karl August von Cohausen

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Karl August von Cohausen
Commemorative plaque for von Cohausen at the "grave house" of the Saalburg fort

Karl August von Cohausen (in other spelling also: Carl , in citations often shortened to August von Cohausen ; born  April 17, 1812 in Rome , †  December 2, 1894 in Wiesbaden ) was a German professional officer and Roman provincial archaeologist .

Life

Karl August von Cohausen was born on April 17, 1812 in Rome, where his father, Salentin von Cohausen , was the director of the Imperial French Post ( directeur des estafettes ). His childhood and youth were shaped by numerous changes of location. He spent this time in Heidelberg , Koblenz , Mannheim and Saarburg and finally graduated from high school in Trier in 1831 . Immediately afterwards, in August of the same year, he joined the 8th  Pioneer Division of the Prussian Army in Koblenz. In 1833 he was made an officer and then attended the United Artillery and Engineering School in Berlin . After that he was stationed in Luxembourg and Erfurt . In 1840 he quit military service to take on the position of second director in the Villeroy & Boch stoneware factory in Mettlach . In Mettlach he married his cousin Klothilde von Cohausen in 1841. During his time in Mettlach, he built the Catholic churches in Mettlach as well as in the neighboring town of Saarhölzbach (see: St. Lutwinus (Mettlach) , 1900–1901 replaced by a new neo-Romanesque building / St. Antonius (Saarhölzbach) ) and the Lutwinus Chapel in Weiten . By working in the ceramics factory, he also acquired the fundamental knowledge of ceramics that he would find useful in his later archaeological activities.

At first, however, the events of 1848 prompted him to resign from his position at Villeroy & Boch and to rejoin the army as first lieutenant. He was stationed first in Saarlouis , later in Cologne and in the Hunsrück . During his time in Hunsrück, in 1850/51, he devoted himself to researching prehistoric fortifications for the first time and through this came to the ancient studies, to which he was to remain closely connected from now on.

After Mainz drafted, was involved from Cohausen the expansion of the local fortifications before as a captain after Ehrenbreitstein was transferred, where he also devoted himself to strong construction activity and, among other things Talbefestigung , the Luisenturm , the Villa Buschmann and the Sisters of Mercy convent executed . In 1857 he took long educational trips to East Prussia and Italy , where he studied medieval fortress construction. In 1858 he became a member of the Federal Military Commission in Frankfurt am Main, but his historical and archaeological work came more and more to the fore. In 1862 he was by Napoleon III. invited to the French court to take part as a consultant in the then fundamental biographical work Histoire de Jules César ("History of Julius Caesar"). He was commissioned by the Prussian government to examine the site of the Hildesheim silver treasure and to assess the value of the find. The years 1866 to 1870 saw him as a military attaché to the Prussian legation in Paris . During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71 he worked as a field engineer in Minden and later again in Koblenz.

Cohausen Temple on Kapellenberg in Hofheim

In 1871 von Cohausen resigned from active military service as a colonel and was appointed royal curator for the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau , a position he held until his death. From 1874 he was also a member of the board of directors of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, and from 1885 of the board of directors of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg . Through his position as state curator, von Cohausen was able to devote himself entirely to antiquity research in the region rich in archaeological monuments. In addition to the research of the ramparts of the Taunus and the castles of the country, the provincial Roman archeology was the focus of his interest. He became known beyond regional borders through the excavation, conservation and reconstruction work that he carried out together with Louis Jacobi (1836–1910) at the Saalburg Fort. His systematic and fundamental investigations of the Roman Limes led in 1884 with the publication of the work “The Roman border wall in Germany. Military and technical description of the same ” for a first Limes compendium, which only a few years later was to form the basis for the research of the Reich Limes Commission . In 1892 von Cohausen was finally appointed a member of the commission as representative of Prussia. He was also a corresponding member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory .

Karl August von Cohausen died of a stroke at the age of 82 on the night of December 1st to 2nd, 1894 . He was buried in the Koblenz-Pfaffendorf cemetery.

On the Kapellenberg near Hofheim am Taunus , the Cohausen Temple commemorates Karl August von Cohausen. It was founded in 1910 by the "Taunusklub-Verschönerungsverein Hofheim i. Ts. “With donations based on a design by the Frankfurt architect Karl Kolb.

Fonts (selection)

  • 1852: Old fortifications on the Hunsrück ridge and their relationship to the fortress Rheinfels near St. Goar . In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland , XVIII. ( Full text in google book search)
  • 1858: Old entrenchments on the Hunsrück ridge and their connections to Koblenz . In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland , XXVI. ( Full text in google book search)
  • 1860: The Bergfriede, especially Rhenish castles . In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland , XXVIII. ( Full text in google book search)
  • 1866: Bronze Age culture . In: Anthropological Journal .
  • 1867: Caesar's campaigns against the Germanic tribes on the Rhine . In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland , XLIII. ( Full text in google book search)
  • 1867: Caesar's Rhine bridges. Studied philologically, militarily and technically . Teubner, Leipzig.
  • 1870: Barracks left. History of the resignation . In: Archive for engineer and artillery officers .
  • 1870: Silver discovery near Hildesheim . In: Anzeiger für customer of the German prehistory .
  • 1873: Graves in the chamber forest . In: Nassauische Annalen , XII.
  • 1874: Keys and locks with the Romans . In: Nassauische Annalen , XIII.
  • 1876: Roman quarries on Felsberg on Bergstrasse. Brill, Darmstadt.
  • 1877: origin of the village of Glashütten ; Hill graves between Nahe and Hunsrück u. a. In: Nassau Annals , XIV.
  • 1878: The Römercastell Saalburg . Together with Louis Jacobi . Frauenholzsche Buchhandlung, Homburg vor der Höhe.
  • 1879: On the history of the iron industry ; - The ramparts, military forces, entrenchments in the administrative district of Wiesbaden u. a. In: Nassau Annals , XV.
  • 1880: The fortifications between the Rhine, Main and Lahn from the Troglodytes to the Renaissance . Ackermann, Munich.
  • 1882: On the topography of old Wiesbaden a . a. In: Nassauische Annalen , XVII.
  • 1884: The Roman border wall in Germany. Military and technical description of the same . Kreidel, Wiesbaden.
  • 1884: Roman buildings near Homburg, Frankfurt and Bergen ; - On the history of firearms and a. In: Nassau Annals , XVIII.
  • 1888: The Hünerburg ; - Working on the Saalburg ; - Roman Main bridges a . a. In: Nassauische Annalen , XX. ( online )
  • 1890: Castles of Nassau . In: Nassauische Annalen , XXI.
  • 1892: The antiquities in the Rhineland . Bechtold, Wiesbaden.

posthumously

  • The fortifications of prehistoric times and the Middle Ages . Reprint, Flechsig, Würzburg 2003, ISBN 3-88189-478-0 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl August von Cohausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Cohausen, Karl August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohausen, Carl August von; Cohausen, August of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German professional officer and Roman provincial archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH December 2, 1894
Place of death Wiesbaden