Ludwig Bickell

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Ludwig Bickell 1873
Ludwig Bickell as a student
Ludwig Bickell as a young student
Ludwig Bickell's house in Marburg Kugelgasse 1 before 1902
Glass plate negative by Ludwig Bickell approx. 18 × 24 cm²
Grave of Ludwig Bickell in the main cemetery in Marburg (2017)

Ludwig Theodor Alexander Bickell (born September 13, 1838 in Marburg ; † October 20, 1901 there ) was a German lawyer, photographer and monument curator who photographed numerous buildings and cultural monuments in Hesse and created folklore collections in the last third of the 19th century . In 1892 he was appointed district curator in the Kassel administrative region and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Marburg .

Life

Ludwig Bickell was born in Marburg in 1838 as the son of the Hessian district administrator Karl Wilhelm Bickell (1796–1864) and Wilhelmine Gertrude Giller († 1868). He attended the grammar school of the city of Marburg and left it with the Abitur in 1860 to study camera sciences in Marburg and Leipzig . In 1860 he was a co-founder of the Arminia Marburg fraternity in Marburg . After the legal state examination in 1864 he started as a trainee lawyer in the administrative service at the Upper Hesse-Kurhessian government in Marburg. This was dissolved after the annexation of Kurhessen in 1866 by the Kingdom of Prussia . In order to stay with his sick mother in Marburg after the death of his father, he interrupted his civil service career, which he could not continue in Marburg. After her death in 1868 he and his cousin Gustav Bickell of the same age went on a study trip of several months through the Rhineland , Belgium , France , London and Oxford . He never completed a project that was carried out during this time to write a comprehensive work on the construction and history of the organ . All of his attempts to gain a foothold as an “organ builder” or freelance photographer also failed. His economic situation remained precarious for more than two decades. A single organ designed by him was also built: in the choir of the parish church of Großseelheim . The neo-Gothic instrument was eliminated in 1970.

The great European museums and their art treasures in London, Paris, Nuremberg etc. stimulated him to document art and cultural monuments of his Hessian homeland and to collect “Hessian antiquities”. He had a carriage converted into a mobile darkroom in order to transport the heavy photographic equipment and to be able to prepare the glass plates on site and develop them immediately. In the last third of the 19th century, hundreds of photographs of Hessian buildings made of half-timbered and stone, of churches, streets, villages and towns were taken. Over 2500 high-quality negative plates are still preserved in the Photo Marburg archive .

In 1875 the Hessian History Association took over Bickell's collection and appointed him its curator. This collection of Hessian antiquities was made available by the state in the former Landgrave Castle in Marburg, thus laying the foundation for the later University Museum in Marburg . After ten years of activity, the picture reproduction "Das alten Marburg" appeared in 1878. It was also he who drew attention to the architectural importance of the Romanesque House in Gelnhausen. As part of the Kassel art exhibition in the Orangery in 1884, Bickell showed the most important pieces in his collection.

In 1892 he was finally awarded an honorary doctorate by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Marburg. In the same year, through the reorganization of the state monument administration, the position of a civil servant district curator of the monuments in the administrative district of Kassel was created and Ludwig Bickell received this position. What is striking is his concept of monument, which is far ahead of the contemporary conception, under which he classified not only representative buildings of the rulers and churches, but also “everyday monuments” such as houses, farms or barns. Ensembles ( complete systems ) and environmental protection for cultural monuments were also terms with which he was already working.

Ludwig Bickell had inherited his father's asthmatic ailment , which severely affected him throughout his life. Since his six siblings all died young, his parents did everything to protect him. He developed an idiosyncratic character early on. He died unmarried in 1901 at the age of 63 in Marburg. His successor as the district curator was Alhard von Drach .

Appreciation

Bickell's house at Kugelgasse 1 is located in Marburg's old town between Kalbstor and Kugelkirche . A plaque commemorates him next to the house entrance. The Ludwig-Bickell-Staircase in Marburg, named in his honor, leads from Ritterstraße to Marburg Castle .

On November 27, 2013, Bickell's architectural photographs were recognized by the Advisory Council at the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art as unique and of national importance due to their historical, photographic and artistic value and were unanimously recommended for entry in the "Directory of nationally valuable cultural assets". On the same day, the exhibition Ludwig Bickell: Early Photography for Monument Preservation opened in the Marburg Landgrave Palace .

estate

The estate of Ludwig Bickell and his family is kept in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg (holdings 340 Bickell and M 51a Bickell). He has a maturity m from 1769 to 1901 and a total size of about 3 and 241 map sheets.

Publications (selection)

  • The old Marburg: four reproductions of older engravings of the General Assembly of the General Association of German History and Antiquity Associations in Marburg, 1878 .
  • In memory of the Elisabeth Church in Marburg and the sixth secular celebration of its inauguration. Elwert, Marburg 1883 ( digitized version ).
  • ed. by C. Alhard von Drach: Older silver works in the royal collections at Cassel: with documentary information and an appendix: The Hessen-Casselsche silver treasure at the beginning of the seventeenth century and its later fate. After the recordings by Ludwig Bickell. Elwert, Marburg 1888.
  • The ironworks of the Haina monastery and the form cutter Philipp Soldan von Frankenberg who worked for them. Elwert, Marburg 1889.
  • Wooden disc reliquary from the Elisabethkirche in Marburg In: Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst 3, 1890, pp. 81–84 ( digitized version ).
  • Medieval book cover in the state library in Kassel In: Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst 3, 1890, pp. 117–120 ( digitized version ).
  • Book covers of the XV. to XVIII. Century from Hessian libraries . Leipzig 1892.
  • The architectural and art monuments in the administrative district of Cassel, Bd. 1. District of Gelnhausen . Elwert, Marburg 1901 ( text volume digitized text volume , picture atlas digitalisat picture atlas ).
  • with Johann Baptist Obernetter : Hessian timber buildings. Fifty selected panels. Elwert, Marburg 1906.

literature

  • Karl Alhard von Drach: Report of the curator of the monuments in the administrative district of Cassel on his activities from April 11, 1902 to March 31, 1904 to the district commission for the investigation and protection of the monuments in the administrative district of Cassel. Along with introductory news about the events in the years 1892 to 1901. Kassel 1904.
  • Hermann Bauer: From the life work of Ludwig Bickell * 13. Sept. 1838 - Oct. 20, 1901. In: Hessenland 49, 1938, pp. 219-222.
  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 58–60.
  • Elfriede and Gerhard Ehl: Marburg 100 years ago: Historical documents from the early days of photography by Ludwig Bickell. Magistrate Press Office, Marburg 1982.
  • Gerd Meyer: organ researcher, collector, preservationist, photographer. Ludwig Bikell, the first Hessian district curator in memory. In: Denkmalpflege in Hessen 1989, 2, pp. 2–9.
  • Elmar Brohl , Gerhard Menk : Ludwig Bickell (1838-1901). A monument conservationist from the very beginning (= workbooks of the State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse 7). Theiss, Stuttgart 2005.
    • therein pp. 265–274 Michael Neumann: Der Bezirkskonservator.
  • Gerhard Menk: An "antique gentleman". Life and work of the Hessian monument conservator and technical pioneer Ludwig Bickell (1838-1901) (= contributions to the history of Marburg and Hesse 1). Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies, Marburg 2005

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Bickell  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAMR), Best. 915 No. 5690, p. 372 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Meyer, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Description of the building and location and restoration proposal , Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , April 28, 1883, p. 153, accessed on December 17, 2012
  4. ↑ Gerhard Menk: An "antique gentleman". P. 23 f.
  5. ^ The carriage as a mobile darkroom in FAZ from December 13, 2013, p. 60.
  6. ↑ Overview of the HStAM inventory 340 Bickell  In: Archivinformationssystem Hessen (Arcinsys Hessen), status: 2005.
  7. ↑ Overview of the HStAM inventory M 51a: Bickell, Ludwig (1838-1901)  In: Archivinformationssystem Hessen (Arcinsys Hessen), status: 23 May 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Bickell, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bickell, Ludwig Theodor Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, photographer and monument conservator
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Marburg
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1901
Place of death Marburg