Michael Meinecke

Michael Meinecke (born November 6, 1941 in Vienna ; † January 10, 1995 in Berlin ) was a German art historian , archaeologist and Islamic scholar and between 1988 and 1995 director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin.

Live and act

Michael Meinecke grew up in Istanbul , where his father worked in the theater, and attended the German School there . He completed his studies of art history , classical archeology and Islamic studies in Vienna and Hamburg in 1968 with a dissertation on faience decorations on Seljuk sacred buildings in Asia Minor . He then worked at the Cairo Department of the German Archaeological Institute, where he dedicated himself to the preservation of architecturally and historically significant buildings in the old town, especially those from the Mamluk era. One of the results of this work was the extensive work The Mamluk Architecture in Egypt and Syria , with which he completed his habilitation in 1978 at the University of Hamburg .

During his teaching activities at the University of Hamburg from 1977 to 1980 he worked as a consultant for UNESCO . From 1979 he headed the newly established Damascus department of the German Archaeological Institute . Under his direction, numerous significant excavations took place in the next few years, including in Raqqa , where the palace area of Hārūn ar-Raschīd was excavated since 1982 .

In 1988, Meinecke succeeded Klaus Brisch as director of the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin-Dahlem . After the reunification of the Berlin museums and the amalgamation of the collections, Meinecke became director of the unified Museum of Islamic Art in 1992. In 1995 he suddenly collapsed on the stairs to his study and died. Volkmar Enderlein , the longtime director of the Islamic Collection in East Berlin, became his successor.

Fonts (selection)

See the list of publications in Damaszener Mitteilungen 11, 1999, pp. XVII – XXI.

• Faience decorations of Seljuk religious buildings in Asia Minor (= Istanbuler Mitteilungen. Supplement 13, ISSN  0418-9701 ). 2 volumes (Textbd. Tafelbd.). Wasmuth, Meinecke 1976, ISBN 3-8030-1715-7 (at the same time: Hamburg, University, dissertation, 1968).
• Mamluk architecture in Egypt and Syria. (648/1250 to 923/1517) (= treatises of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo. Islamic series. Volume 5). 2 parts. Augustin, Glückstadt 1992 (habilitation thesis 1978)
  • Part 1: Genesis, Development and Effects of the Mamluk Architecture. 1992, ISBN 3-87030-071-X .
  • Part 2: Chronological list of the Mamluk construction works. 1992, ISBN 3-87030-076-0 .

literature

• Volkmar Enderlein : On the death of Michael Meinecke. In: Yearbook Preussischer Kulturbesitz. 32, 1995, pp. 29-33.
• Claus P. Haase : Michael Meinecke. November 6, 1941-10. 1. 1995. In: Islam . Vol. 72, No. 1, 1995, pp. 1-6, doi : 10.1515 / islm.1995.72.1.1 .
• Thomas Leisten: Michael Meinecke. November 6, 1941– January 10, 1995. In: Artibus Asiae. Vol. 55, No. 3/4, 1995, ISSN  0004-3648 , p. 382, JSTOR 3249757 .
• Thomas Weber : In memoriam Michael Meinecke (1941–1995). In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. 39, 1995, pp. 11-12.

Web links

• Literature by and about Michael Meinecke in the catalog of the German National Library