Rudolf Baier (museum director)

Rudolf Baier

Julius Rudolf Baier (born February 4, 1818 in Kampe ; † May 2, 1907 in Stralsund ) was a German scientist and museum founder and director.

Childhood and youth

Rudolf Baier was born in Kampe on Jasmund (island of Rügen ), where his father was a landlord. In 1819 his father bought the Natzevitz manor near Samtens on Rügen, where Rudolf Baier grew up. The younger brother Adolf Baier later took over the estate. The love for Elise von der Lancken later arose from the acquaintance with the children of Chamberlain von der Lancken, who lives in Plüggentin . In Natzevitz the children received home schooling.

His father collected "fossils" that can be found in large numbers on Rügen. Even as a child, Rudolf Baier was interested in legends and fairy tales and antiquities of the island. When the father became seriously ill and could no longer manage the estate, the family moved to Stralsund in 1827 , where they lived on Frankenstrasse . The father acquired citizenship in the city. From 1827 Rudolf Baier attended the Sundische Gymnasium , which was housed in the former Dominican monastery of St. Katharinen , and where Johann Ernst Nizze was the rector . On September 27, 1837 he received his secondary school leaving certificate . In a final lecture held in Latin , Baier spoke about Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and his relationship to Stralsund.

Education

After graduating from high school, Baier began studying theology , which initially led him to the University of Greifswald . Probably for financial reasons, Baier chose to study theology, since after the death of his father in 1835 he was responsible for helping the family and he hoped for a secure future from a pastor's position. However, he soon switched to philology , here too he could hope for a secure future as soon as he became a senior teacher.

Baier moved from Greifswald to the University of Leipzig in 1839 and from there to the University of Berlin in 1842 . Shortly before the end of his studies, however, he broke it off without an exam in 1843.

Work with Bettina von Arnim

His school friend from Stralsund's days, Ferdinand Schneider , with whom Baier lived temporarily, had introduced him to Bettina von Arnim in Berlin society . The acquaintance with Schneider brought Baier (quote) “some advantages: getting up early ... and the latest literature in the house. There are a lot of forbidden books in my drawer, some of which I have looked through: Heine , Herwegh's poems. ”Baier made extensive use of the Royal Library, where he devoted himself to contemporary literature, travel stories and ethnographic reports.

Baier worked for Bettina von Arnim from 1843 to 1846 on the new version of the work “ Des Knaben Wunderhorn ”, which her late husband Achim von Arnim had published from 1805 to 1808. The new version was supposed to free the work from alleged poetic falsifications in the sense of Romanticism . After Baier had completed two of the four planned volumes, Bettina von Arnim ended the collaboration.

Teacher, museum founder and librarian in Stralsund

In 1846 Baier returned to Stralsund. There he devoted himself to local history and philological studies. He settled in the house of the pastry chef Liss at Alter Markt 9 (at that time at Rathause 1) in his mother Juliane Baier's household, where his sisters also lived. He worked as a correspondent for local newspapers and as a teacher at private schools, and from April 1867 at the secondary schools run by the school owners Winz and Pauline Meyer. Here he taught history, art history and German literature. He found many historical and literary works that he was studying in the Stralsund council library .

The sale of an important private collection of prehistoric antiquities from Rügen abroad gave Baier the impetus to set up a museum in Stralsund. In December 1857 he won over seven interested citizens of Stralsund. In 1858 a museum association was founded and in 1859 the exhibition of the newly founded Provincial Museum for New Western Pomerania and Rügen opened in the town hall. Baier built the museum and remained its (unpaid) director until his death. In 1896 he was able to move the museum into new, larger rooms on Badenstrasse .

In 1867 he was also appointed city librarian. He also held this office until his death. In addition, he remained active as a private tutor, but lived mainly on the interest on his inherited small fortune.

Baier was a member of the "Literary-Sociable Association", the "Englischer Kränzchen" and the "Old German Kränzchen" in his hometown. For the magazine "Sundine" he regularly wrote theater reviews of the performances in the Stralsund theater . He was involved in the “Kaufmannsresource” founded in 1822 in the Löwenschen Palais . For a masked ball of the resource on February 9, 1858 he wrote the "Midnight Newspaper", with which he had great success. As a city librarian, he was a member of the General German School Association .

Collector of folk tales

Rudolf Baier was one of the collectors of Pomeranian legends, fairy tales and other folk poetry, such as riddles, proverbs and weather rules. Most of them come from the island of Rügen , and to a lesser extent also from the mainland of New Western Pomerania . As a result of his work, his estate includes 430 legends and almost 40 fairy tales.

Only a small part of his collection is published. In his folk traditions from the island of Rügen (Stralsund 1858), Baier published 22 sagas, as well as individual publications scattered in magazines.

Honors

In 1875, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Camminer Cathedral , the University of Greifswald awarded Rudolf Baier an honorary doctorate .

With his work, Rudolf Baier gained a great reputation in Stralsund and the Western Pomerania region . His hometown made him an honorary citizen of Stralsund .

Appearance

In the "Signalement" of his passport from 1839 Rudolf Baier is described as follows: height five feet and six inches (ie approx. 1.73 m), hair brown, forehead round, eyebrows brown, eyes gray, nose common, mouth common, beard black, chin round, face oval, complexion healthy, stature medium.

family

Rudolf Baier had four siblings, the younger brother (Adolf) and three sisters. The father died in 1835. He was never married himself.

literature

• Klaus-Dieter von Fircks: From the world of Rudolf Baier , article series in "Sundecho" Stralsund, 2007.
• Klaus-Dieter von Fircks: The collection of folk tales on Rügen by Rudolf Baier (1818-1907) . In: Baltic Studies . Volume 96 NF, 2010, ISSN  0067-3099 , pp. 81-92.
• Klaus-Dieter von Fircks: Baier, Rudolf (1818–1907). In: Dirk Alvermann , Nils Jörn (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Pommern . Volume 1 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania. Series V, Volume 48.1). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne Weimar Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-20936-0 , pp. 23-26.
• Klaus-Dieter von Fircks: Rudolf Baier. Life and work . (= Writings of the STRALSUND MUSEUM, Vol. 1), Stralsund 2018, ISSN  2568-6526 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Baier in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Rudolf Baier in the state bibliography MV