Stephan Waetzoldt (art historian)

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Hermann Stephan Waetzoldt (born January 18, 1920 in Halle ; † May 25, 2008 in Berlin ) was a German art historian . He was from 1961 to 1983 director of the Art Library Berlin , Director General of the Berlin State Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and Honorary Professor of Art History at the Free University of Berlin .

Life

Stephan Waetzoldt was the son of the art historian Wilhelm Waetzoldt , who was also Director General of the State Museums in Berlin, and the grandson of the philologist Stephan Waetzoldt , reformer of the girls' school system.

Waetzoldt attended the French grammar school in Berlin and passed the Abitur in Halle. In the course of the Second World War he served as a soldier and was taken prisoner by the British in 1940. After his release, Waetzoldt began studying art history, classical archeology and modern history at the Universities of Marburg and Hamburg. 1951 followed the doctorate with Wolfgang Schöne on the painter Philipp Otto Runge . From 1951 to 1953 he was a scholarship holder at the Central Institute for Art History in Munich. From 1954 to 1956 Waetzoldt worked as an assistant at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome .

In 1961, Waetzoldt was appointed director of the art library in Berlin (until 1973). In 1965 he was appointed General Director of the Berlin State Museums, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Under his leadership, the New National Gallery and various other new museum buildings, u. a. the Ethnographic Museum in Berlin-Dahlem was built. Since 1966 he was a member of the Monday Club . From 1966 to 1978 Waetzoldt was chairman of the German Association for Art History and was involved in numerous mandates, including a. as a representative of the Federal Government and the Berlin Senate for the Council of Europe exhibition Tendencies of the Twenties . At his suggestion, the Rathgen Research Laboratory was founded in 1975 and the Institute for Museum Studies in 1979/80 . Waetzoldt was awarded the Luther Medal in gold and the Great Federal Cross of Merit with a star for his services .

Waetzoldt retired in January 1983. He lived with his wife Ingeborg, geb. Lübcke, in Kleinmachnow near Berlin. The couple had three daughters and two grandchildren.

Publications (selection)

  • The 17th century copies after mosaics and wall paintings in Rome (1964)
  • Trends of the Twenties (1977)
  • Masterpieces of German Painting of the 19th Century (1981)
  • German Art from the East: Acquisitions by the Federal Republic of Germany (1989)
  • Plans and competitions for buildings on Berlin's Museum Island 1873–1896 (1993)

literature

  • Wolfgang Kahlcke (Red.): Insights-Insights-Prospects. From the work of the State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin. Stephan Waetzoldt on his 60th birthday (= Yearbook of the State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage Special Volume; 1). Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-7861-1368-8 .
  • Joachim Brandt: The libraries of the State Museums in Berlin - Prussian cultural property . Berlin 2000, p. 46ff. ( Full text ).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Waetzoldt, Stephan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Waetzoldt, Hermann Stephan (full name); Waetzoldt, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 2008
Place of death Berlin