Otto Lehmann (museum director)

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Otto Lehmann, 1928. Portrait photo by Minya Diez-Dührkoop

Otto Karl Louis Lehmann (born November 1, 1865 in Komorze , Province of Posen , † June 27, 1951 ) was a German museum director .

Life

Otto Lehmann, son of a customs officer, came to the Prussian Altona in 1872 when his father was transferred . He attended the Altona Realgymnasium and then studied zoology with Ernst Haeckel at the University of Jena . During his studies in 1884 he became a member of the student union and later gymnastics club Salia Jena .

After receiving his doctorate in 1887, poor career prospects prompted Lehmann to complete an additional degree in geography , which after a short period of study enabled him to take the Prussian teaching examination . Lehmann passed the exam in 1889 and in 1891 initially took up a position at the Altona Realgymnasium on probation, but was promoted to senior teacher that same year . The promotion enabled him to marry Martha Elise Trebitz , which would result in five children.

As a senior teacher, Lehmann followed reform pedagogical ideas and practiced object lessons . In addition, he devoted himself to zoological studies in his spare time, through which he made the acquaintance of the Hamburg Senator Ernst Meyer , who also dealt there with zoology. Together they developed concepts for a museum in which the previous, outdated ideas of the structure and function of museum presentations should be given up in favor of clarity and communication of contexts. These considerations had a realistic prospect of realization; the financial means were available, as the construction of a new museum was one of the preferred plans of the former Altona mayor Franz Adickes .

Thanks to Senator Meyer's influence, the project of a new and innovative museum took shape. In 1896, an architectural competition based on Lehmann's concepts was announced, from which the design by Georg Süßenguth and Heinrich Reinhardt was selected for implementation in November of that year . On April 1, 1899, Lehmann resigned from school and was appointed director of the Altona Museum , which was in the making . After the building was completed in December 1900, the museum was equipped with realistic dioramas , scenarios and exhibitions based on Lehmann's designs in the following year and a half .

Otto Lehmann's museum concept proved to be a great success immediately after it opened in 1901 and was well received. In 1906 he received the title of professor. In the following decades, he tried constantly to the expansion and improvement of collections and their presentation in the sense of its holistic Museum ideal, until he in on Oct. 31, 1931 retirement came. In 1935 he was made an honorary senator of the University of Hamburg . His successor as director of the museum was his longtime assistant Hubert Stierling . Otto Lehmann was a founding and honorary member of the Altona Artists' Association .

Fonts

  • Museums for German Folklore . In: Folklore gifts. John Meier offered on his seventieth birthday , Berlin: de Gruyter 1934, pp. 121–129.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Schrader: History of the Turnerschaft Salia zu Jena. Part II: 1911-1930. P. 326.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lehmann, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lehmann, Otto Karl Louis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German museum director
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Komorze , Poznan Province
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1951