Ludwig Borchardt

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Ludwig Borchardt

Ludwig Borchardt (born October 5, 1863 in Berlin ; † August 12, 1938 in Paris ) was a German Egyptologist and architect .

Life

Ludwig Borchardt was born in 1863 as the second oldest of six children of the Jewish-Berlin family of the businessman Hermann Borchardt (1830–1890) and his wife Bertha, b. Levin (1835–1910) born. His brother was the writer Georg Borchardt, who had chosen the pseudonym Georg Hermann . Ludwig Borchardt completed an apprenticeship as a government builder and at the same time studied Egyptology with Adolf Erman in Berlin. In 1895 he went to Egypt at the instigation of Erman and on behalf of the Prussian Academy of Sciences , where he worked as a member of an international team in stabilization measures on the temple island of Philae , which was threatened by the first dam construction near Aswan . From 1896 to 1899 he was an official of the French-run Egyptian Antiquities Service, where, as an employee of the Egyptian Museum, he directed work on the general catalog of the antiquities kept there. In 1899 he was appointed as an extra-diplomatic scientific attaché at the German Consulate General in Cairo at the instigation of Erman . In 1903 Borchardt married Emilie (Mimi) Cohen (1877–1948) in Frankfurt am Main. In 1904 he had the German House built in Thebes , which was torn down by British army authorities in 1915 and rebuilt in 1925 according to his plans. In 1906 he founded the independent Imperial German Institute for Egyptian Antiquity in Cairo, of which he was appointed director in 1907. During the First World War , which Borchardt spent in Berlin, the institute fell into a British sequester. In 1923, with the help of a Swiss initiative, Borchardt managed to return the institute and returned to Cairo. In 1928 he retired and the institute, which had meanwhile been renamed "German Institute for Egyptian Antiquity in Cairo", was affiliated to the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). In 1929 Borchardt handed over the official business to his successor Hermann Junker (1877–1962) as the first director of the new Cairo department of the DAI. Borchardt was a member of numerous associations, including the Society of Friends (joined in 1909). His excavations in Egypt were largely financed by James Simon (1851-1932). In 1931 he founded his private “Institute for Egyptian Building Research and Antiquity” in Cairo, from which in 1948 the Swiss Institute for Egyptian Building Research and Classical Studies in Cairo emerged . In 1933, Borchardt resigned his honorary posts on site under pressure from the German community in Cairo, which had been brought into line, and was relieved of his membership in the Egyptological Technical Committee and in the Central Directorate (ZD) of the DAI in 1934 when Jewish members were excluded from the DAI. He died in Paris in 1938 while trying to save his property in Egypt from being attacked by the Nazis. He is buried in Cairo.

Pyramids of Sahure , Niuserre and Neferirkare explored by Borchardt (from left to right)

Focus of work

His main focus was on ancient Egyptian building research. From 1911 to 1914 he was head of the excavations of the German Orient Society in Amarna . In the excavation campaign of 1912/1913 his employees - Borchardt himself was in Cairo - came across the building complex of the sculptor Thutmosis and discovered the bust of Queen Nefertiti there on December 5, 1912 in the so-called sculpture workshop . It was lifted on December 6, 1912 in the presence of the excavation manager Borchardt, who then traveled to the excavation site, and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin . The art historian Henri Stierlin published a book in 2009 in which he took the view that Borchardt had forged the bust, which Dietrich Wildung , then director of the Egyptian Museum Berlin, rejected as incorrect. The accusation has meanwhile been refuted in the course of the systematic processing of the Cairo institute history by Susanne Voss, among other things by the fact that, according to the identification of the files, Borchardt only traveled to the excavation site after the bust was found. From 1898 to 1901 Borchardt also led the excavations at the solar sanctuary of Niuserre in Abu Gurob and from 1901 to 1908 he dug in the pyramid districts of Sahure , Niuserre and Neferirkare in Abusir . He played an important role in the creation of the general catalog of the Cairo Museum ( Catalog général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire ), which was started at the end of the 19th century on the initiative of the French-run antiquities service and was significantly designed and promoted with Borchardt's cooperation.

Publications (selection)

  • The Egyptian plant column. A chapter on the history of plant ornament. Wasmuth, Berlin 1897. (digitized version)
  • On the building history of the Temple of Amon at Karnak. (= Studies on the history and antiquity of Egypt. Volume 5, 1, ISSN  2365-1237 ) Hinrichs, Leipzig 1905.
  • The ancient Egyptian house in the 14th century BC Chr. In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , vol. 66, 1916, Sp. 509–558 ( digitized version of the Central and State Library Berlin ).
  • Sources and research on the timing of Egyptian history. 3 volumes, ZDB -ID 515285-9 .
    • Volume 1: The Annals and the Temporal Determination of the Ancient Kingdom of Egyptian History. Behrend, Berlin 1917.
    • Volume 2: The means of determining the time of points in Egyptian history and their application. Self-published, Cairo 1935.
    • Volume 3: Attempts to determine the times of the late, Greco-Roman, period of Egyptian history. Self-published, Cairo 1938.
  • Ernst von Bassermann-Jordan (ed.): The history of time measurement and clocks. Volume 1, Delivery B: Ancient Egyptian Timekeeping. Association of Scientific Publishers, Berlin 1920. (digitized version)
    • Reprint: Daniela Wuensch , Klaus P. Sommer (eds.): Ludwig Borchardt: The ancient Egyptian time measurement (With an introduction by Daniela Wuensch " What the ancient Egyptians knew about clocks and time measurement." ) Termessos, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3- 938016-14-5 .
  • Portraits of Queen Nefertiti from the 1912/13 excavations in Tell el-Amarna. (= Excavations of the German Orient Society in Tell el-Amarna. Volume 3; = Scientific publications of the German Orient Society. Volume 44). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1923.
  • The origin of the pyramid, demonstrated by the building history of the pyramid at Mejdum. Springer, Berlin 1928.
  • The origin of the carpet painting on ancient Egyptian ceilings and vaults. In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , vol. 79, 1929, pp. 111-115 ( digitized version of the Central and State Library Berlin ).
  • The creation of the general catalog and its development in the years 1897–1899. (= Catalog général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire. Volume 99). Hiersemann, Leipzig 1937.

literature

  • Adolf Erman : Ludwig Borchardt. Bibliography. Compiled for the 70th birthday of Ludwig Borchardt on October 5, 1933. Pries, Leipzig 1933.
  • Herbert Ricke :  Borchardt, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 455 ( digitized version ).
  • Encyclopaedia Judaica . Volume 4, pp. 1241-1242.
  • Borchardt, Ludwig. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Small Lexicon of Egyptology. 4th, revised edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 54.
  • Norbert Dürring: Nefertiti and other little things. Ludwig Borchardt and early Egyptology. In: Ancient World . Vol. 31, No. 4, 2000, ISSN  0003-570X , pp. 424-426.
  • Susanne Voss, Cornelius von Pilgrim: Ludwig Borchardt and the German interests in the Nile. In: Charlotte Trümpler (Ed.): Das Grosse Spiel. Archeology and Politics during the Colonial Period (1860–1940). Book accompanying the exhibition in the Ruhr Museum Essen. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8321-9063-7 , pp. 295-305.
  • Susanne Voss: The history of the Cairo department of the DAI in the field of tension between German political interests. Volume 1: 1881-1929. (= People - Cultures - Traditions. Studies from the research clusters of the German Archaeological Institute. 8.1). Rahden / Westf. 2013, ISBN 978-3-86757-388-7 .
  • Susanne Voss: The history of the Cairo department of the DAI in the field of tension between German political interests. Volume 2: 1929-1966. (= People - Cultures - Traditions. Studies from the research clusters of the German Archaeological Institute. 8.2). Rahden / Westf. 2017, ISBN 978-3-86757-396-2 .
  • Susanne Voss: Archeology and Politics on the Nile. Nefertiti and the Imperial German Institute for Egyptian Antiquity in Cairo - an analysis. In: Ancient World . 6/2012, pp. 17-21.
  • Susanne Voss: The demand for the return of the Nefertiti bust in 1925 from a German perspective. In: Friederike Seyfried (ed.): In the light of Amarna - 100 years of the discovery of Nefertiti . Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection - National Museums in Berlin, Petersberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86568-842-2 , pp. 460–468.
  • Susanne Voss: "Outside in the camp ...". Ludwig Borchardt's everyday excavation in Abusir. In: Vinzenz Brinkmann (ed.): Sahure. Death and life of a great pharaoh. An exhibition by the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, June 24 to November 28, 2010 . Calbe 2010, ISBN 978-3-7774-2861-1 , pp. 109-121.
  • Susanne Voss: Ludwig Borchardt's reports on forgeries in the Egyptian antique trade from 1899 to 1914: occurrence, methods, techniques, specializations and sales. In: Martin Fitzenreiter (ed.): Authenticity. Artifact and Promises in Archeology, Internet Posts on Egyptology and Sudan Archeology XV . London 2014, ISBN 978-1-906137-35-9 , pp. 51–60, (online)
  • Susanne Voss: Ludwig Borchardt's research on the origin of the pEber . (= Communications from the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. 65). 2009, pp. 371-374.
  • Susanne Voss, Thomas Gertzen: Germans at el Amarna, 1911–1914. In: KMT - A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. 24/1, 2013, pp. 36-48.
  • Susanne Voss: La représentation égyptologique allemande en Égypte et sa perception par les égyptologues français, du XIXe au milieu du XXe siècle. In: Daniel Baric (ed.): Revue Germanique Internationale, Archéologies méditerranéennes. 16/2012, ISBN 978-2-271-07607-6 , pp. 171-192.
  • Susanne Voss: La pétite famille - insights into Hedwig Fechheimer's Egyptological environment in a changeful time . Revised lecture on the occasion of the Hedwig Fechheimer memorial event on July 2, 2015 in the Egyptian Museum (PK) Berlin, (online)
  • Susanne Voss: Borchardt, Ludwig. In: Peter Kuhlmann, Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon, The New Pauly, Supplements Volume 6 . Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, pp. 133–135.

Movie

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Borchardt  - Collection of Images
Wikisource: Ludwig Borchardt  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ^ Henri Stierlin: Le Buste de Néfertiti. Une imposture de l'égyptologie? Infolio, Golion 2009, ISBN 978-2-88474-138-5 .
  2. ^ Susanne Voss: The history of the Cairo department of the DAI in the field of tension between German political interests. Volume 1: 1881-1929. (= People - Cultures - Traditions. Studies from the research clusters of the German Archaeological Institute. 8.1). Rahden / Westphalia 2013, ISBN 978-3-86757-388-7 .
  3. ^ Vinzenz Brinkmann (ed.): Sahure. Death and life of a great pharaoh. Liebieghaus, Frankfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-7774-2861-1 .
personal data
SURNAME Borchardt, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German building researcher and Egyptologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1938
Place of death Paris