Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder

Ludwig Lindenschmit

Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder . and Ludwig Linde Schmidt (* 4. September 1809 in Mainz ; † 14. February 1893 ) was a German prehistorians , pioneer of prehistory , history painter , lithographer and art teacher . He is a member of the artist family Lindenschmit, which branched out over four generations from Mainz to Aschaffenburg , Frankfurt am Main and Munich .

Life

Ludwig Lindenschmit was the son of Nassau engraver , draftsman , engraver and Münzgraveurs Johann Lindenschmit (1771-1845), who in Mainz Roman among others and recorded medieval buildings and sculptures, and brother of the Mainz painter and drawing teacher Wilhelm Lindenschmit , inter alia, the frescoes painted in Hohenschwangau . Since 1843, the Catholic Lindenschmit in Munich was married to Luise (his sister-in-law's sister) and had a total of four sons (one died early) and two daughters (one died early) with her.

First he attended high school in Mainz and then received artistic training in Vienna . Together with his brother Wilhelm he went to Vienna in the spring of 1824 and to Munich in 1825. There, like his brother, he studied painting at the academy until 1831 , mainly with the academy director Peter von Cornelius (1783–1867), and at the university. During his studies in 1824 he became a member of a Munich fraternity , probably Renonce or connoisseur of the Germania fraternity . From 1831 to 1875 he taught as a drawing teacher at the grammar school and at the trade school in his hometown Mainz and turned in particular to depictions of natural history objects. His romantic preference was for themes from the world of legends and German history.

Ludwig Lindenschmit created the design for the Mainz Gutenberg monument on Gutenbergplatz

With his brother Wilhelm Lindenschmit, he has been doing the historical frescoes in Hohenschwangau Castle since 1835 . In 1836, 1842 and 1846 he sent the exhibitions of the Rheinischer Kunstverein in Mainz, among other things with his paintings Gutenberg , Storming German Landsknechte and Knights with his servants .

Ludwig Lindenschmit designed the Gutenberg monument in Mainz on Gutenbergplatz . The model was made by the important Danish sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770–1844), Charles Crozatier in Paris then cast the bronze in 1836. The monument was unveiled on August 14, 1837. A replica can be found today in Putbus on Rügen .

During his professional activity as a painter and drawing teacher, Ludwig Lindenschmit was increasingly concerned with local antiquity. He was a member of the Mainz Masonic lodge “The Friends of Unity”.

Time as a prehistorian and museum founder

On December 11, 1841, Ludwig Lindenschmit was a co-founder of the Mainz Antiquities Association , which was finally constituted on January 31, 1844 at its first general assembly as the "Association for Research into Rhenish History and Antiquities in Mainz" and whose collections were housed in the Electoral Palace in Mainz . Ludwig Lindenschmit was the first " conservator " to be responsible for archaeological antiquities on the board and was chairman from 1863 until his death. In his honor, the association awards the "Ludwig Lindenschmit Plaque".

Ludwig Lindenschmit was the initiator of the establishment of today's Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM) in Mainz as the “Central Museum for Pre- and Early History for Germanic and Ancient History” (August 16-19, 1852 in Dresden ) Roman antiquities ”and together with Hans Freiherr von und zu Aufseß of the“ Germanic Museum ”in Nuremberg .

The Roman-Germanic Central Museum (RGZM) housed in the Electoral Palace in Mainz .

Both foundations were decided unanimously. In the following years Aufseß was of the opinion that only one national institution, namely that of “his museum”, the “Germanisches Museum”, was required to research and work on the entire field of German history and antiquity. This proposal was preferred due to the difficult overall situation of the Mainz museum in the first years of its existence (financial and structural difficulties). For example, the support promised by the association as a whole failed to materialize, as did the response from large circles of the public, in contrast to the Nuremberg Germanic Museum. And so Aufseß urged the board of the Mainz Museum to join the Germanic Museum. Finally, in 1855, when the Mainz Museum was struggling with great difficulties (it was about to collapse), Aufseß offered the then curator Ludwig Lindenschmit the position of director of the art and antiquity collections at the Nuremberg Museum, with a fixed annual salary of 1000  fl . But Ludwig Lindenschmit declined from just after a short reflection.

In the period that followed, there were repeated initiatives on the part of the “Nürnberger” to work together, but these also failed. Thus Aufseß always viewed Ludwig Lindenschmit's activities in Mainz as a competitor. From 1853 until his death in 1893, Lindenschmit remained a member of the administrative committee and, from 1854, of the scholars' committee for Roman-German antiquity at the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg .

It was not until 1871 that the museum had regular funding from the newly founded German Empire. Therefore, Ludwig Lindenschmit was able to give up his work as a drawing teacher in 1872 and devote himself entirely to the management of the Mainz Museum. In his final years he was supported by his son Ludwig Lindenschmit the Younger , who also took over the management of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum from 1893 to 1912 after his father's death.

Ludwig Lindenschmit was always of the opinion that historical interpretations of ancient finds are only possible if extensive, comparative studies are carried out. On Lindenschmit's initiative, an important, supraregional study collection was created with the Mainz Antiquities Association . About 12,000 casts (collection of copies) go back to him, which were systematically built up and also sold to the public. This collection of copies, such as buckles, fibulas , swords, urns and spears, should include all significant finds from Germany and all of Europe and thus enable comparative work. Around 1900 this collection comprised around 13,200 replicas. But originals and illustrations of prehistoric and early historical monuments in Germany and its neighboring countries were also collected in order to research them and to make the results accessible in scientific and popular writings. The museum saw itself less as a public exhibition and more as a research facility for prehistory and early history, which is still expressed today by the name of the “ Roman-Germanic Central Museum - Research Institute for Prehistory” (RGZM). The study collection was housed in the Electoral Palace. Ludwig Lindenschmit then headed the RGZM until his death in 1893.

To date, the museum has developed into a world-renowned research institute with integrated laboratories and workshops, an extensive library and an image archive. The numerous fields of research also extend to other cultures of the Old World. Numerous series of publications testify to the research activities.

Ludwig Lindenschmit was one of the fiercest opponents of the three-period system of the Danish prehistorian Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865, head of the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen since 1816 ), which was hotly debated around 1870 , especially against an Iron Age , which then found general recognition around 1890 after fierce disputes. Lindenschmit rightly represented the central importance of the Mediterranean region for the development of prehistoric metallurgy .

In 1861 Ludwig Lindenschmit was from Napoleon III. consulted on the establishment of the “ Musée des Antiquités Nationales ” in Saint-Germain-en-Laye . He gave the Caesar-loving French Emperor important excavations from the city of Cologne for this museum, including two important funerary monuments: the Cippus of C. Deccius from Ticinum , soldier of the 20th legion and veterinarian, and the monument to the horn player of the 1st legion, C. Vetienus from Rome. Both tombstones were first depicted on the edge strips of Egmont's city map from 1642, a modernized new edition of the famous Mercator engraving from 1571. Initially, both tombstones were set into the wall of a new fortress on Cologne's Bayenturm. Later, at the end of the 19th century, they were rediscovered in the aforementioned museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

In the years 1845/46, Ludwig Lindenschmit, commissioned by the Mainz antiquity association, dug up an important Franconian row grave field south of the Rhine-Hessian village of Selzen (today Mainz-Bingen district) in the Gewann Heuer on the slope above a mill, which he then together with his brother Wilhelm Lindenschmit published . The local teacher Krafft reported six opened and destroyed graves to the Mainz Antiquities Association. Lindenschmit was able to uncover six or seven graves in 1845 and 18 in the following year. The well-preserved burials were furnished with rich gifts (weapons and jewelry, around four pairs of bow brooches, three bronze basins and 13 glasses). In the excavation publication by the Lindenschmit brothers that followed quickly

"... a clairvoyant grasp of archaeological knowledge, especially with regard to the chronology of early medieval grave finds, is combined with historical research, national enthusiasm and undisguised lust for argument ..."

- according to the prehistorian Hermann Ament (2001)

The excavation publication, which was exemplary for the time, is excellently illustrated with watercolors by his brother Wilhelm Lindenschmit, which document the archaeological findings of the burials. In this way, the individual graves could be clearly systematized in their context and related to comparative finds known at the time. Based on two coin finds of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (527-565) as obolus in two graves, Lindenschmit was able to date the burials to the early Middle Ages. By dating the coins , it was also possible for him to make a historical interpretation in the time of the Germanic tribes (Franks). At the time of publication, fellow researchers fought fierce arguments about the interpretation of such burial grounds. In contrast to the “Germanomaniac”, the “Celtomaniac” assigned the graves to the Celts.

"The beginning of his archaeological activity was marked by the passionate arguments with the 'patriotic Celtists', who considered the Celts to be the indigenous people of Central Europe, while in the opinion of Lindenschmit and his brother Wilhelm it was undoubtedly the 'Germans'"

In 1868, Ludwig Lindenschmit examined and published finds by the Hinkelstein group , which had already been discovered in a burial field in 1866 when clearing a field to plant a vineyard in Monsheim in the Gewann Hinkelstein (Alzey-Worms district, Rhineland-Palatinate), and on examinations by the Worms doctor and home researcher Karl Koehl go back. The name of this Neolithic culture is based on an approximately two meter high menhir , which is now in the courtyard of Monsheim and is called "Hinkelstein" in the Rhineland-Hesse vernacular. In 1898 Koehl proposed the expression menhir type. Today the term Hinkelstein group is generally used, the main distribution of which includes Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse.

Ludwig Lindenschmit also published in an important article full of sarcasm and irony in 1876 the Thaynger forgeries, which his son Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder, is known not only in the field of science. J. had revealed as such: they were two drawings of a bear and a sitting fox, given as prehistoric, allegedly found in the Kesslerloch near Thayngen in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen near the German border. He compared the two simple engravings of a bear and a fox with children's drawings and found striking similarities in children's books. In contrast to most of his contemporaries, Lindenschmit the Elder also considered all other works of art from the Kesslerloch to be forgeries. They were found in 1874 shortly after the discovery of the cave in the previous year by the young Basel teacher Konrad Merk, who himself had discovered the important cave hidden by bushes not far from the railway line leading through the Fulach Valley to Schaffhausen. In the two following years, Merk carried out excavations there with the help of a colleague and two students, in the course of which, in addition to fossils, around 12,000 stone tools, core stones and chips, several hundred bone tools and animal bones were found.

Today, the works of art that have not been forged are definitely dated to the Magdalenian . However, Ludwig Lindenschmit did not believe in the already widely recognized Ice Age cabaret, which was known from important French caves. And so, as already mentioned, he published his son's surprising discovery. For him, all works of art from the Ice Age were mean forgeries; a dispute broke out, passionately waged on all sides. German research followed Ludwig Lindenschmit initially. To put it in an exaggerated way: For Lindenschmit everything that was not Roman-Germanic was nothing. Konrad Merk later justified himself by saying that he had not discovered the two fakes of the bear and the fox in the course of his excavations, but that they only emerged more than a year later. Subsequently, suspicions increased against one of Merk's former workers, the day laborer Martin Stamm, who had claimed to have discovered her during a search in the excavation rubble. A judicial investigation began, in the course of which Stamm confessed that he had had the two incised drawings made on bones from the Keßlerloch by his cousin, a secondary school student in Schaffhausen, around Easter 1875. Thus the forgery of these two works of art was certain.

In his late work, Ludwig Lindenschmit finally devotes himself, as at the beginning of his research career, to the archeology of the Merovingian period . In the only published volume of the “Handbuch der deutschen Alterthumskunde”, Lindenschmit describes the “antiquities of the Merovingian era” and thus excellently sums up the current state of science. In addition, it is his scientific life's work with which he also laid the basis for archaeological research throughout Central Europe during the Merovingian period. Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder can “be considered the founder of Merovingian archeology in Germany”, according to the prehistoric Hermann Ament (2001). His real life task, however, according to Ament, consisted in the management of the newly founded Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz.

Ludwig Lindenschmit was the editor of important standard works of his time, from about 1858 the five-volume edition “Antiquities of our Heidnischen Vorzeit” (1864–1911), in which he presented certain groups of antiquities. From May 1866 he edited together with the Freiburg anatomist Alexander Ecker the newly published archive for anthropology as a journal for natural history and prehistory of man, which was launched on June 7, 1865 in Frankfurt am Main by scientists from various disciplines; a publication medium that soon gained great scientific importance. Just four years later it became the organ of the newly founded German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, founded in Mainz on April 1, 1870, after the decision of the anthropological section at the 43rd meeting of German naturalists and doctors in Innsbruck in September 1869 was taken, at the instigation of the Geneva naturalist Carl Vogt , to found an independent association. In addition to Lindenschmit, well-known scientists of the time such as Alexander Ecker, Hermann Schaaffhausen and Rudolf Virchow were among its founding members. The archive for anthropology a . a. Edited by Johannes Ranke and Georg Thilenius by the Braunschweiger Verlag F. Vieweg & Sohn .

Ludwig Lindenschmit donated 80 single sheets and fragments from medieval manuscripts to the city of Mainz. His painting "Knight with his Knechten" is now in the Landesmuseum Mainz (size, 54.5 × 66 cm). In 1862 Lindenschmit received an honorary doctorate (Dr. hc) from the University of Basel . He was also an honorary member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory . In 1885 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina .

Lindenschmit was buried in the main cemetery in Mainz . In his honor, a street was named in the Upper Town of Mainz between Am Dalheimer Kloster and Am Linsenberg .

A good portrait photo of Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder can be found in Adam and Kurz 1980, p. 40 (plate 18), a drawn color portrait by Ernst Probst 1996, color plate 6 on p. 28.

Publications (selection)

• with Alexander Ecker founder of the Archive for Anthropology - organ of the German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. ed. by Johannes Ranke and Georg Thilenius; from volume 24: NF; from volume 25: Archives for anthropology, ethnology and colonial cultural change. Vieweg Verlag Braunschweig.
• with Wilhelm Lindenschmit: The Germanic death camp near Selzen in the province of Rheinhessen . Verlag Victor von Zabern, Mainz 1848 ( digital copy; reprint, with a foreword by Kurt Böhner, Mainz 1969; see review by Hermann Ament in: Germania. Volume 49, 1971, pp. 274–279)
• A German barrow from the last period of paganism (images of Mainz antiquities, with explanations published by the Association for Research into Rhenish History and Antiquities, Issue 4), Verlag Victor von Zabern, Mainz 1852.
• The patriotic antiquities of the princely Hohenzoller collections at Sigmaringen. Philipp von Zabern Verlag, Mainz 1860.
• (Ed.): The antiquities of our pagan prehistoric times, compiled from the originals in public and private collections and published by the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz by Ludwig Lindenschmit. 4 volumes, Victor von Zabern Verlag, Mainz 1858–1889.
• Costumes and armament of the Roman army during the imperial period, with special consideration of the Rhenish monuments and finds. Printed and published by Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1882.
• Handbook of German Antiquity - Survey of the monuments and grave finds of prehistoric and prehistoric times in three parts. Part 1: The Antiquities of the Merovingian Period. 3 deliveries, Verlag Vieweg und Sohn Braunschweig, 1880–1889.

literature

• Festschrift Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum. Mainz 1887.
• Johannes Ranke : Dr. Ludwig Lindenschmit (necrology). In: Archives for Anthropology. XXII. Volume, Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1894, pp. I – V
• Festschrift to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz. Mainz 1902.
• Karl Schumacher :  Lindenschmit, Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 721-728.
• Herrmann AL Degener (Ed.): Who is it? Our contemporaries. 5th edition, published by HA Ludwig Degener, Leipzig 1911, p. 866.
• Lindenschmit, Ludwig . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 23 : Leitenstorfer – Mander . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1929, p. 242 .
• Festschrift to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz. Commission publisher L. Wilckens, Mainz 1927.
• Städtische Gemäldegalerie - special exhibition for the Gutenberg Festival Week 1948, June 20 - July 5, original miniatures of the Middle Ages from the bequest of Prof. L. Lindenschmit, Haus am Dom, Mainz, Städtische Gemäldegalerie 1948
• Kurt Böhner : The Roman-Germanic Central Museum. A patriotic and learned foundation of the 19th century. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz . Volume 25, 1978 (1982), pp. 1-48 ( digitized version ).
• Kurt Böhner:  Lindenschmit, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , pp. 597-599 ( digitized version ).
• Karl Dietrich Adam, Renate Kurz: Ice Age Art in Southern Germany. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-8062-0241-9 , p.
• The artist family Lindenschmit from Mainz - oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and documents by Johann Lindenschmit (1771–1845), Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Elder. Ä. (1806–1848), Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder. Ä. (1809-1893), Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Elder J. (1829–1895), Hermann Lindenschmit (1857–1939), exhibition catalog Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum Mainz (court pavilion), May 14 to June 19, 1983. Mainz 1983.
• Jørn Street-Jensen: Christian Jürgensen Thomsen and Ludwig Lindenschmit. A scholarly correspondence from the early days of antiquity (1854–1864). Contributions to the history of research. Publishing house of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, commissioned by Rudolf Habelt, Bonn & Mainz 1985.
• Lindenschmit, Ludwig. In: Lexicon old cultures. ed. u. edit by Hellmut Brunner, Klaus Fessel, Friedrich Hiller and Meyers Lexikonredaktion, Meyers Lexikonverlag Mannheim [ua] 1993, 2nd volume: Fis - Mz , ISBN 3-411-07302-0 , p. 566.
• Gottfried Borrmann: Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder (1809-1893). In: Mainz magazine. Volume 89, 1994, pp. 181-185.
• Tanja Panke: Antiquity between progress and persistence. Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder Ä. (1809-1893) in his time. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum. Volume 45, 1998, pp. 711-773.
• Lindenschmit the Elder, Ludwig. In: Brockhaus. The encyclopedia in 24 volumes. 20th edition, FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig and Mannheim 1998, Volume 13: LAGI - MAD. ISBN 3-7653-3113-9 , p. 432.
• Hermann Ament: Lindenschmit, Ludwig (the elder). In: Heinrich Beck (ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd edition, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2001, Volume 18: Landscape Law - Loxstedt. ISBN 3-11-016950-9 , pp. 462-463.
• Annette Frey (Ed.): Ludwig Lindenschmit d. Ä. Book accompanying the exhibition on the occasion of his 200th birthday in the Roman-Germanic Central Museum (= mosaic stones. Volume 5). Publishing house of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-88467-138-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ↑ Entry in the matriculation database .
2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 458-462.
3. ↑ Kurt Böhner:  Lindenschmit, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 598 ( digitized version ).