Peter Berghaus

Peter L. Berghaus (born November 20, 1919 in Hamburg ; † November 16, 2012 in Münster ) was a German numismatist . He was the founder of a numismatic school in succession to the so-called Hamburg School .

Life

After school at the Johanneum (Hamburg) and participation as a soldier in World War II , he studied history , folklore and art history in Hamburg. He received his doctorate with a thesis supervised by Walter Hävernick (1905–1983) on medieval currency borders in the Upper Weser region, the first dissertation of the Hamburg School of Numismatics . From 1950 he worked as a numismatist at the Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History in Münster . Here he built up the regional history department. He was a lecturer, since 1961 honorary professor for numismatics at the University of Münster . From 1977 until his retirement in 1984, Berghaus was director of the Westphalian State Museum.

In 1954 Berghaus was elected a full member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia , and in 2006 membership was converted into a corresponding one. In 1967 he initiated the "Society of German Medal Friends " with Georg Wimmelmann and Otto Marzinek . From 1973 to 1986 Berghaus was a member of the board of the International Numismatic Commission, most recently as Vice President. His participation in the inclusion of German coins in the Viking Age finds in Sweden since the 1950s (together with Vera Hatz and Gert Hatz ) is outstanding .

Since the summer of 1962, i.e. for over 50 years, he was a founding member of the Rotary Club of Münster-St. Mauritz on. From there he has been running charitable projects since 1970 that benefited people in India.

The appreciation of his colleagues and students is documented, among other things, by three commemorative publications dedicated to Berghaus (on his 50th, 60th and 70th birthday in 1969, 1979 and 1989).

Research priorities

Berghaus was the author of numerous articles on medieval numismatics with a focus on the Viking Age , Westphalia and, in older years, on the history of research in numismatics . Berghaus introduced the method of comparing stamps to medieval numismatics. For his research in the field of medieval numismatics, he was awarded the honorary prize of the Society for International Monetary History in 1974 , the medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1979 , the Archer M. Huntington Medal in 1984 and the Eligius Prize of the German Numismatic Society in 2004.

Fonts (selection)

• Currency borders of the Westphalian Upper Weser region in the late Middle Ages. Museum of Hamburg History, Department of the Coin Cabinet, Hamburg 1951
• Anglo-Frisian rune solidi in the light of the new discovery from Schweindorf (East Frisia). Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne et al. 1967.
• Westphalian coin history of the Middle Ages (= picture books of the Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster 1, ZDB -ID 236550-9 ). State Museum for Art and Cultural History, Münster 1974 (2nd improved and supplemented edition. Münster 1985).
• The coins of Dortmund (= Dortmunder Münzgeschichte 1). Stadtsparkasse, Dortmund 1978.
• The Querenburg coin treasure in the Bochum University (= small notebooks of the coin collection at the Ruhr University Bochum 12/13). Brockmeyer, Bochum 1990, ISBN 3-88339-821-7 .
• as editor: Numismatic Literature 1500–1864. The development of the methods of a science (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 64). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-447-03729-6 .
• Denarius - sterling - gold guilder. Selected publications on numismatics. Edited and introduced by Gert Hatz , Peter Ilisch and Bernd Kluge . Künker, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-9801644-3-8 (therein the bibliography Numismatic Publications by Peter Berghaus. Pp. 465–484).

literature

• Thomas Fischer , Peter Ilisch (Ed.): Lagom. Festschrift for Peter Berghaus for his 60th birthday on November 20, 1979. Numismatischer Verlag der Münzenhandlung Dombrowski, Münster 1981, ISBN 3-921507-03-0 .
• Thorsten Albrecht, Antje Sander-Berke (ed.): Festschrift for Peter Berghaus. For the 70th birthday. Scriptorium, Münster 1989.

Web links

• Literature by and about Peter Berghaus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ursula Kampmann : Peter Berghaus (1919–2012). In: Münzwoche (online magazine).
• Gerd Dethlefs, Wolfgang Steguweit : Obituary for Prof. Dr. Peter Berghaus (November 20, 1919– November 16, 2012). In: German Society for Medal Art (website), November 16, 2012.
• Hendrik Mäkeler: Peter Berghaus (1919–2012). In: Secrétariat du Conseil International de Numismatique (ed.): Compte rendu 59 (2012), pp. 78–82.
• Prof. Dr. Peter Berghaus. Biographical information. In: Historical Commission for Westphalia (website).
• Berghaus, Peter .  Publications in the bibliographic database of the Regesta Imperii .
• Digitized books by Peter Berghaus in the Digital Library Numis

supporting documents

1. ^ Ingrid S. Weber: Findings on the medal creation of the Swabian sculptor Fritz Nuss (1907–1999). In: Yearbook for Numismatics and Money History 60 (2010), pp. 207–242, here pp. 231–233.