Max Wegner (archaeologist)

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Max Wegner (born August 8, 1902 in Wozinkel near Parchim ; † November 8, 1998 in Münster in Westphalia ) was a German classical archaeologist who worked as a full professor at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster after 1946 . His main research interests included portraits of ancient rulers, reliefs from the imperial era, architectural ornaments and sarcophagi , travel signs from the Mediterranean countries, ancient musical instruments, the modern reception of ancient art and Greek vase painting .

Life

Max Wegner, the son of a farmer in Mecklenburg, attended the Johanneum high school in Lübeck from 1914 . After graduating in 1921, he studied archeology and oriental studies at the universities of Freiburg , Leipzig , Munich and Berlin . In 1928 he was in Berlin with a thesis on the iconography of the Chinese Maitreya doctorate .

After completing his doctorate, Wegner turned to antiquity and specialized in classical archeology. In 1931/1932 he was able to travel to Italy, Greece and Turkey with the travel grant of the German Archaeological Institute . After his return he worked from 1933 as a consultant in the central directorate of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin and as assistant to the president of the central directorate Theodor Wiegand . On the recommendation of his superiors, he joined the NSDAP in November 1933 and the SA in December 1933 . He resigned from the SA in January 1935 and from the NSDAP in January 1940.

In 1938 Wegner completed his habilitation at the Berlin University with the study The portraits of rulers in Antonine times , which marked the beginning of his lifelong preoccupation with the ancient portraits of the emperors. In his capacity as advisor to the DAI central management, Wegner acted in 1939 as general secretary of the VI. International Congress for Archeology in Berlin.

In 1940 Wegner received a regular teaching position for Classical Archeology at the Berlin University. From the same year he served as a flak officer in Berlin during World War II . On December 1, 1942, he was appointed full professor of classical archeology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster . He was only able to answer this call after his return from captivity in December 1945.

In the summer semester of 1946 Wegner began his work as full professor and director of the Archaeological Institute and Museum in Münster. There he did his best to rebuild the completely destroyed collection. In 1964, for example, the support group of the University of Münster acquired the collection of the late archaeologist Otto Rubensohn . In 1965, the Archaeological Museum took over plaster casts of numerous sculptures of the Zeus Temple in Olympia from the Folkwang Museum in Essen . Wegner himself led student excursions to the Mediterranean countries from the 1950s to the 1980s under the most difficult conditions.

In the academic year 1958/1959 Wegner acted as dean of the philosophy faculty. In addition, he was a long member of the university's building and art commission. Even after his retirement in 1970, Wegner held courses, most recently in the winter semester 1993/1994. The Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster acquired his private collection of ancient art monuments in November 2018.

Wegner's achievements in research and teaching are reflected, among other things, in three festschrifts published in 1962, 1982 and 1992. From 1942 he was a full member of the German Archaeological Institute and after 1955 a full member (abroad) of the Austrian Archaeological Institute . In 1992 he also received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon .

His students include Hans-Volkmar Herrmann , Leo Trümpelmann , Georg Daltrop , Margot Schmidt , Dieter Ahrens , Dieter Metzler , Klaus Stähler , Josef Floren , Heinz B. Wiggers and Reinhard Stupperich .

Fonts (selection)

  • Iconography of the Chinese Maitreya . Berlin 1930 (dissertation)
  • The portraits of rulers in Antonine times . Berlin 1939 (habilitation thesis)
  • Goethe's view of ancient art . Berlin 1944. New edition Berlin 1949
  • The musical life of the Greeks . Berlin 1949. 2nd, revised edition, Berlin 1970. 3rd edition, Leipzig 1986
  • The musical instruments of the ancient Orient . Munster 1950
  • Antiquity . Freiburg 1951
  • Masterpieces of the Greeks . Basel 1955
  • Ornaments of imperial buildings in Rome. Festoons . Cologne / Graz 1957
  • Music history in pictures . Greece. ( Music of Antiquity , Volume 2, Delivery 4) Leipzig 1963
  • Sicily experienced by locals and foreigners. Character study of a world island . Berlin 1964
  • Jewelry bases of ancient Rome . Munster 1966
  • The Roman erotic sarcophagi. Department 3: The Musesarcophagi . Berlin 1966
  • Duris. An artist monographic attempt . Münster 1968
  • Brygos painter . Berlin 1973
  • Torso of a wounded youth in the Museo Arqueológico in Seville, inventory no. 1083 . Berlin 1975
  • Euthymides and Euphronios . Munster 1979
  • Times - ages - ages in an archaeological and cultural-historical overview . Munster 1991
  • Entablature friezes of Roman buildings . Munster 1992
  • Hermes. His essence in poetry and sculpture . Munster 1996
Editing
  • The Roman image of rulers . Berlin 1939ff.
  • Land of the Greeks. Travel descriptions from seven centuries; selected and provided with an afterword by Max Wegner . Berlin 1942. 2nd increased edition, Berlin 1943. 3rd edition, Berlin 1955

literature

  • Dieter Ahrens (editor): Festschrift Max Wegner for his sixtieth birthday . Münster 1962 (with list of publications)
  • Max Wegner on August 8th, 1982 . Münster 1982 (with additions to the list of publications)
  • Oliver Brehm, Sascha Klie (editor): Μουσικὸς ἀνήρ. Festschrift for Max Wegner on his 90th birthday . Bonn 1992 ( Antiquitas 3.32; with additions to the list of publications)
  • Oliver Brehm: Rich gifts from the muses. Max Wegner on his 100th birthday . In: Ancient World. Journal of Archeology and Cultural History . 33rd year (2002), p. 704
  • Heinz-Helge Nieswand, Dieter Salzmann: Small but nice - the Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster . In: Hellenika. Yearbook for Greek Culture and German-Greek Relations . New Series, Volume 3 (2008), pp. 106-114
  • Hubertus Manderscheid: victim - perpetrator - silent majority. Notes on German Classical Archeology during National Socialism . In: Hephaestus . Volume 27 (2010), pp. 41–65 (on Max Wegner especially pp. 53–57)
  • Jonathan Groß:  Wegner, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-428-11208-1 , p. 550 f. (not yet available online). doi : 10.5281 / zenodo.3960211

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