Theodor Bartus

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Theodor Bartus (born January 30, 1858 in Lassan ; † January 28, 1941 in Berlin ) was a German seaman , museum technician and curator .

two Buddhist monks on a 9th century fresco discovered during the Turfan expeditions

Life

Theodor Bartus, son of a master weaver, began his seafaring career on his uncle's sailing ship. In Australia he passed his helmsman's exam and became a captain . He had many years of experience in sailing and the necessary manual skills and lived for a time as a squatter in Australia.

During a visit to Germany his Australian bank went bankrupt , so that he suddenly became penniless. He had to look for a job and from 1888 worked as a museum technician at the Völkerkundemuseum in Berlin, where he was supposed to rig ships, among other things.

Between 1902 and 1914 he was a technical companion on all four Turfan expeditions under the direction of Albert Grünwedel and Albert von Le Coq . Bartus developed a method there to remove wall paintings and inscriptions largely undamaged from cave and rock walls as well as from ruins, which were then transported to Germany. Some of these objects are to be seen in the future under the dome of the rebuilt Berlin City Palace.

Expedition leader Albert von Le Coq in his expedition report On Hella's Footsteps in East Turkestan : “ The presence of this resourceful, extremely strong and courageous man contributed significantly to the success of not only the first but all 4 expeditions. The zeal and the self-sacrificing devotion with which Mr. Bartus devoted himself to his strenuous but, like the scholars involved, gripping work deserves special praise; in all the many months that we spent at work, we always worked from sunrise to sunset and without any public holidays. Holidays were just the days - and weeks - that we had to spend on horseback to cover the great distances between our various fields of work. "

Further expeditions took Theodor Bartus to Mesopotamia and India . Until the end of his life he was busy at the Ethnographic Museum with the installation and conservation of the finds he brought with him.

Theodor Bartus died in Berlin in 1941 just two days before his 83rd birthday and was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg . The grave has not been preserved.

literature

  • Bartus, Theodor . In: Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania? A dictionary of persons . Edition Temmen, Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-86108-282-9 , p. 32.
  • Michael Knüppel: Theodor Bartus (1858–1941) - Notes on the seventieth anniversary of his death. In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 4/2010, ISSN  0032-4167 , pp. 14-18.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Albert von Le Coq: On Hella's footsteps in East Turkestan. Reports and adventures of the II. And III. German Turfan Expedition . JC Hinrichs, Leipzig 1926. p. 28. ( Digitized in the Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books )
  2. ↑ Gerhard Lehrke: Humboldt-Forum: The castle is getting a really divine dome  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (plus picture gallery with historical photos) In: Berliner Kurier from March 13, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.berliner-kurier.de  
  3. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 299.
personal data
SURNAME Bartus, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German seaman and ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Lassan
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1941
Place of death Berlin