Nikolaus Himmelmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nikolaus Himmelmann (also Nikolaus Himmelmann-Wildschütz , born January 31, 1929 in Münster , † December 19, 2013 in Bonn ) was a German classical archaeologist .

Life

Himmelmann first studied natural sciences, then archeology at the Universities of Marburg , Basel and Munich , where he received his doctorate in 1954 under Ernst Buschor . He then worked as a research assistant at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich . After a research trip as a scholarship holder of the German Archaeological Institute in 1955/56, he worked from 1956 as an assistant at the archaeological seminar at the University of Marburg, where he completed his habilitation in 1958. In 1962 he became Professor of Classical Archeology at Saarland University - at the age of 33, he was the youngest representative of the subject in Germany. In 1966 he moved to the University of Bonn , where he retired in 1994. From 1963 until his retirement he was a member of the central management of the German Archaeological Institute , from 1972 as the President's deputy in scientific matters. From 1972 to 1979 he was also a reviewer for the German Research Foundation for the subject of Classical Archeology.

Himmelmann was a member of several scientific academies:

As a representative of classical archeology, Himmelmann was co-editor of the Gnomon from 1966 to 1977 . For his services he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on October 25, 1993 . The Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki awarded him honorary doctorates in 1987 and 1996.

His son Nikolaus P. is a linguist, his son Philipp is an opera director.

Act

Himmelmann was not limited to a specific era, neither in his teaching nor in his research. His research encompassed the entire period of Greco-Roman antiquity, but also turned to ancient Egypt and the art of the Middle Ages and modern times. Ancient sculpture, small art and vase painting were the types of material he preferred to treat. Shaped by Ernst Buschor's style research and influenced by archaeological structural research, which Friedrich Matz had a prominent representative of the post-war period in Marburg , he found his own way in dealing with both.

As early as 1960 he set Buschor's concept of development, who - influenced by Stefan George and Oswald Spengler - understood style development as something super-personal, against his own ideas. Style was an expression of more complex, society and religion more comprehensive, but also through psychological determinants of certain phenomena.

Early on he found a topic that would determine his research again and again: the ancient image of the gods. He interprets the fact that sacrificing gods were a common topos from the late Archaic period onwards as an indication that the representation expresses the essence, the idea of ​​the deity in the Platonic sense as a view of essence - a thought that he followed in his further research with the The result was that it was not the gods that were anthropomorphic in Greek thought , but that humans were theomorphic .

His "Homeric" epoch begins in his time in Marburg when he comes to grips with Matz. A series of writings on the art of the geometric period emerged, among which the meander on geometric vessels occupies a special position. He recognized the geometric pattern of the meander in its various forms as an abstraction of the tendril, which opened up the interpretation of almost all geometric patterns as symbolic representations of plants. The symbolic and its hermeneutic development, which determine much of his research, came to light in his early writings.

This was followed by a turn to the art of Hellenism and the Roman Empire. Sarcophagus studies, the preoccupation with the ancient portrait and genre studies led to research that was devoted to ideal nudity or realism in Greek art.

Himmelmann interpreted the realism of Greek art, which appeared with portraits and depictions of Greek Banamanis on votive reliefs from the classical period, as modesty, as Sophrosyne, her client. This led Himmelmann to the realization that religiosity, contrary to the prevailing doctrine, which assumed that educated circles would become de-religious with the beginning of the Classical period, continued to be a driving force in the social life of the Greeks of the Classical and Hellenistic times. He located the roots of this realism in the art of ancient Egypt, and he emphasized that the realistic portrait had completely different functions in Greek art than we take for granted today. He also devotes his studies on ancient animal sacrifice to the religious in Greek art.

As holder of the Bonn chair, Himmelmann was also director of the Academic Art Museum . Here, like his predecessor Ernst Langlotz , he initially devoted himself to the reconstruction and acquisition of antique originals for the collection. Confronted with the excesses and downsides of the art trade in antiquities, he definitely turned against the practice of the time. He repeatedly put down his attitude in writing. In 1989 he succeeded in bringing the large bronzes from the Quirinal to Bonn for a highly regarded exhibition.

Himmelmann developed an extremely fruitful apprenticeship in Bonn, and numerous chairs were and are held by his students. At the same time he was a controversial researcher who, for example, took a clear position in the controversy about the group of statues from Sperlonga and the Laocoon in the Vatican and expressed his opinion emphatically.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The concept of development in modern archeology. In: Marburg Wickelmann Program. 1960, pp. 13-40.
  2. ↑ The assembly of the gods of the Sosias bowl. In: Marburg Wickelmann Program. 1960, pp. 41–48, plates 4–12; On the peculiarity of the Greek idol. Prestel, Munich 1959.
  3. ↑ Daily life of the gods. Schöningh, Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, Zurich 2003.
  4. ^ In: Marburg Wickelmann Program. 1962, pp. 10-43, plates 3-10.
  5. ↑ About some representational meanings of early Greek ornament. Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz 1968 (Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz, Abh. D. Humanities and Social Sciences Kl. 1968, No. 7).
  6. ↑ On fine arts in Homeric society. Wiesbaden 1969 (Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz, Abh. D. Geistesund. Sozialwiss. Kl. 1969, No. 7), see also: Winckelmann's Hermeneutik. Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz 1971 (Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz, Abh. D. Geistes- u. Sozialwiss. Kl. 1971, No. 12).
  7. ↑ Typological investigations on Roman sarcophagus reliefs from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Zabern, Mainz 1973.
  8. ↑ The Portrait of Pindar. A surprising portrait find in Aphrodisias, Asia Minor. In: Ancient World . Vol. 24, 1993, pp. 56-58; The private consecration of a portrait among the Greeks. On the origins of the occidental portrait . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 2001.
  9. ↑ On Shepherd Genre in Ancient Art. West German publishing house, Opladen 1980.
  10. ↑ Ancient gods in the Middle Ages. von Zabern, Mainz 1986; Ideal nudity in Greek art. de Gruyter, Berlin 1990.
  11. ↑ Alexandria and Realism in Greek Art. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1983; Realistic Themes in Greek Art of the Archaic and Classical Periods. Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute, 28th supplementary booklet. de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1994.
  12. ^ Animal sacrifice in Greek art. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1997.
  13. ↑ Utopian past. Mann, Berlin 1976; Antiquity between commerce and science. West German publishing house, Opladen 1994.
  14. ^ Ruler and athlete. The bronzes from the Quirinal . Olivetti, Milan 1989.
  15. ↑ Laocoon. In: Ancient Art . Vol. 34, 2, Basel 1991, pp. 98-100; Sperlonga. The Homeric groups and their image sources. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1996.

literature

  • Inge Auerbach: Catalogus professorum academiae Marburgensis. Second volume: 1910 to 1971 . Marburg 1979, p. 524
  • Hans-Ulrich Cain , Hanns Gabelmann , Dieter Salzmann (eds.): Festschrift for Nikolaus Himmelmann. Contributions to iconography and hermeneutics. ( Bonner Jahrbücher. Supplements 47) Zabern, Mainz 1989. ISBN 3-8053-1033-1

Necrologist

  • Helmut Kyrieleis : Everyday life of the Greek gods. Learning from the muses: on the death of the classical archaeologist Nikolaus Himmelmann. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of January 29, 2014, No. 24, p. N3.
  • Harald Mielsch : Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Himmelmann (January 30, 1929 - December 19, 2013). In: Kölner and Bonner Archaeologica. Volume 3, 2013, pp. 5-6; another. in: Bonner Jahrbücher . Volume 213, 2013, pp. 3-7.
  • In memoriam Nikolaus Himmelmann (January 30, 1929 - December 19, 2013). Speeches held at the academic commemoration on January 8, 2016 in the lecture hall of the Academic Art Museum (= ALMA MATER - Contributions to the History of the University of Bonn. Volume 109.) Bouvier, Bonn 2016, ISBN 978-3-416-03395-4 .
  • Stefan Lehmann : Receipt to the doctoral supervisor. Memories on the third anniversary of the death of the Bonn archaeologist Nikolaus Himmelmann. In: Bulletin Antieke Beschaving - Annual Papers on Mediterranean Archeology. Volume 91, 2016, pp. 247-258.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Himmelmann, Nikolaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Himmelmann-Wildschütz, Nikolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH 19th December 2013
Place of death Bonn