Maximilian Ferdinand Weidenbach

Max Weidenbach (behind the flagpole, his brother Ernst to his right) with the participants of the Lepsius expedition on the top of the Cheops pyramid, watercolor by Johann Jakob Frey , 1842

Maximilian Ferdinand Weidenbach (born March 6, 1823 in Naumburg , † August 24, 1890 in Glen Osmond , Australia ) was a German draftsman, painter, scientific illustrator, participant in an expedition to Egypt, gold prospector, Prussian consul in South Australia and a pioneer in viticulture there .

Max Weidenbach was born as the fourth son of eight children of Friedrich August Weidenbach (1790-1860) and Christiane Friederike Vollmer (Vollner) (1795-1863). His father was a drawing teacher and painter, from whom he, like his younger brother Ernst (1818–1882), received his first drawing lessons. In 1839, at the age of 16, he moved to Berlin, where he learned to read and document hieroglyphs under the guidance of the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius , who was also from Naumburg . For Lepsius 'book The Egyptians ' death book based on the hieroglyphic papyrus in Turin (1842) he created the 79 plates.

Together with his brother Ernst he took part in the Prussian expedition to Egypt under the direction of Lepsius from 1842 to 1845 and later also illustrated the tables. In Berlin he worked with his brother in the Neues Museum until 1848 with the painting based on motifs from the Egypt expedition.

Some of his brothers had already emigrated to South Australia, he joined them and reached Adelaide on September 12, 1849. Here he was successful in exploring newly discovered gold fields . He received the position of the first Prussian consul for South Australia, which he held until 1855, and devoted himself to viticulture. In 1882, Max Weidenbach received the invitation to take part in an anniversary meeting of the participants in the Royal Prussian Expedition to Egypt in Germany; the drawings he brought with him from South Australia are considered lost.

Weidenbach died on August 24, 1890 in Glen Osmond and was buried in the Glen Osmond Cemetery there. Part of his Egyptological books with his diary from his travels and his collection of antiquities were donated to the South Australian Museum in 1944 . It was not until 2013 that his previously unpublished handwritten diary from the 1840s was rediscovered in Adelaide and made accessible to research.

literature

Christopher Roy Illert: Commemorative biography of Maximilian Ferdinand Weidenbach. Outstanding 19th century Egyptologist, artist, explorer and humanitarian. C. Illert [self-published], Henley Beach, South Australia 1981, ISBN 0-9597201-3-8 (84 pages).
Franz H. Thrupp: Maximilian Ferdinand Weidenbach - Member of the Royal Prussian Expedition to Egypt 1842-1845. In: Bulletin of the Australian Center for Egyptology , Vol. 14, 2003, pp. 111-115.
Morris L. Bierbrier: Who was who in Egyptology . 4th revised edition. Egypt Exploration Society. London 2012, ISBN 978-0-85698-207-1 , p. 568.
Sabrina Bernhardt, Sören Franke: The participants of the Lepsius expedition. In: Elke Freier, Franziska Naether, Siegfried Wagner (eds.): From Naumburg to the Blue Nile. The Lepsius expedition to Egypt and Nubia. Stadtmuseum Naumburg, Naumburg 2012, pp. 36–41 ( digitized version )
Marlene Thimann: Pharaonic antiquities, gold digging and Australian wine. The adventurous life of Maximilian Ferdinand Weidenbach from Naumburg. In: Saale-Unstrut-Jahrbuch , ISSN 1431-0791 , Vol. 18, 2013, pp. 89-102.

Web links

Entry on the website of the Ancient Egyptian Dictionary
Painter Weidenbach's Family website : Ernst & Maximilian Weidenbach
Max Weidenbach. In: Design & Art Australia Online . Status 2011.
Carl Richard Lepsius: Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia , contains the graphic work of Max Weidemann on the Egypt expedition

Individual evidence

↑ Édouard Naville : Lepsius, Karl Richard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 659-670 .; Karl Richard Lepsius: The Egyptians' death book after the hieroglyphic papyrus in Turin. Wigand, Leipzig 1842. (PDF; 4 MB).
↑ Mystery of Ancient Egypt Diary Uncovered. In: South Australian Museum website, October 10, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2014; Tim Lloyd: SA Museum finds German Egyptologist Maximillian Weidenbach's treasured diary. In: The Advertiser , Adelaide, October 15, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2014.

personal data
SURNAME	Weidenbach, Maximilian Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Weidenbach, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	scientific draftsman, participant in the Prussian expedition to Egypt, Prussian consul in South Australia
DATE OF BIRTH	March 6, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH	Naumburg
DATE OF DEATH	August 24, 1890
Place of death	Glen Osmond , Australia

[1] Édouard Naville : Lepsius, Karl Richard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 659-670 .; Karl Richard Lepsius: The Egyptians' death book after the hieroglyphic papyrus in Turin. Wigand, Leipzig 1842. (PDF; 4 MB).

[2] Mystery of Ancient Egypt Diary Uncovered. In: South Australian Museum website, October 10, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2014; Tim Lloyd: SA Museum finds German Egyptologist Maximillian Weidenbach's treasured diary. In: The Advertiser , Adelaide, October 15, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2014.