Museum of Prehistory and Early History (Cologne)
The Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Cologne was an urban institution founded in 1907 in the Bayenturm on the banks of the Rhine in the southern part of the city, whose collection offered a modest overview of regional history from the Neolithic to the early Middle Ages . The museum was destroyed during the Second World War in July 1943.
history
The city of Cologne acquired from the Prussian government the land on the banks of the Rhine in the southern part of the city, which had escaped demolition in 1881 and on which there was still a section of the medieval city wall and the new Prussian bastion in front of the Bayenturm . In the years 1895 to 1898, the severe fire damage that the tower had suffered since a fire in 1697 was repaired. The extensive restorations were carried out under the then city architect Josef Stübben .
Foundation of the Anthropological Society
In 1903, a number of Cologne gentlemen agreed to set up an anthropological society in their hometown, following the example of other cities . This association set itself the goal of being active in Cologne for the dissemination of anthropological science, i.e. the teaching of people.
Basically the concern of the society consisted in the following projects: to bring about an amalgamation of groups enthusiastic about anthropology, to hold internal and public lectures on the scientific topics of somatic anthropology, ethnology and prehistory and to raise sufficient funds for the creation of a prehistoric "library" through fundraising . As a result, the company managed to raise significant funds so that it could achieve its goal of founding a prehistoric museum.
Under the direction of the initiator of the small company, which made Altenrath in victory circle originating Carl Rademacher (1859-1935) was the prehistoric museum. The first exhibitions were probably equipped with finds that had been found and secured during the excavations in Cologne, which Rademacher himself had been leading since 1893 , especially during his excavations on the burial mound fields in Rath, Dellbrück and Dünnwald on the Cologne or Bergische Heide terrace on the right bank of the Rhine. Rademacher's last success in his career was the uncovering of the Bandkeramische settlement areas in the west of the city ( Müngersdorf , Vogelsang , Mengenich and two settlements in Lindenthal ). The finds recovered there greatly enriched the museum's exhibition.
- Finds from the time of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History
Early Iron Age. Urn from Altenrath in the Siegkreis (Wahner Heide) Fig. No. 4, Zipfelschale from Cologne-Fühlingen (No. 3)
Finds in the "Lindenthaler Dorf" of the band ceramic culture
Find from an urn grave in Cologne-Dellbrück
Bayenturm museum building
The high esteem of the society headed by Carl Rademacher and the importance attached to prehistoric science prompted the political leadership of the city under Mayor Wilhelm von Becker to offer the Anthropological Society to take over its private collection. The Bayenturm was to serve as a museum building and to be provided with the necessary equipment. In addition, a special commission was to be elected to manage the new museum and, from April 1, 1907, the museum was to have its own budget allocated to it. The ceremonial handover of the museum to the city took place on July 30th, 1907 and was connected with a scientific conference in the festival hall in Gürzenich , to which numerous well-known scholars from home and abroad were invited in addition to the city's dignitaries .
Museum management
On 29/30. In July 1907 the now municipal museum was opened under the direction of Rademacher in the Bayenturm. The reputation of the new museum grew, and the previously successful work of the research and prospecting carried out by it continued and was also widely recognized by the professional world. The Philosophical Faculty of Cologne University awarded Rademacher an honorary doctorate in 1927 . From 1931 to 1936 Werner Buttler was the director of the museum, who discovered and excavated the Bandkeramiker village in Lindenthal. After an interim period, Walter von Stokar became director of the museum in 1939 .
End of the museum
The exhibition rooms were burned down by a bomb hit in an air raid on June 29, 1943 and a large part of the holdings that had grown up to that point were destroyed. Rescued remains of the collection were mostly housed in the Severinstorburg , where they remained until the establishment of an institution created as a follow-up facility in October 1946. The amalgamation of the Roman and Germanic departments of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the remains of the collection of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History formed the basis of today's Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne.
literature
- Carl Rademacher: "Guide to the municipal prehistoric museum in the Bayenturm in Cologne. Opened on July 29, 1907." By Rector C. Rademacher, Cöln, undated (1910)
- Günther Binding : Cologne and Lower Rhine views in the Finckenbaum sketchbook 1660-1665 . Greven Cologne 1980. ISBN 3-7743-0183-2 , pp.?.
- Hans Joachim Bodenbach: Prof. Dr. habil. Walter Stokar von Neuforn (1901-1959), 1st part: Pharmacist and archaeologist, 2nd part: List of publications . In: Geschichte der Pharmazie 55 (supplement to Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung 143rd volume, no. 61/52 of December 18, 2003), Stuttgart 2003, p.
- Michael Schwab: Walter von Stokar - Neuforn (1901-1959), biography of a prehistorian . Master's thesis University of Bonn 2007, p. ( online ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Günther Binding, p. 87
- ^ Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , p. 433.
- ^ "Guide to the municipal prehistoric museum in the Bayenturm in Cologne. Opened on July 29, 1907." By Rector C. Rademacher, Cöln, undated (1910), pp. 3–5. One copy can be found in the library of the Roman-Germanic Museum of the City of Cologne, Sign .: C 207. Cf. Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, Dept. 47 - 52, 284 "City Museum for Pre- and Early History Bayenthurm, Cologne a. Rh. "
- ^ Walter Meyer-Arend: Prehistory in Cologne in Hugo Borger (Hrsg.): Römer Illustrierte , Cologne 1974, p.
- ^ Karl Baedeker: Cologne and the Rhineland between Cologne and Mainz , p. 182 f.
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 25.3 " N , 6 ° 58 ′ 1.1" E