Ulrich Fischer (prehistoric)

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Ulrich Fischer (born July 3, 1915 in Koenigsberg ; † December 1, 2005 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German prehistorian and from 1954 to 1980 director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Frankfurt am Main. In 1953 he coined the term " Gatersleben Group ".

Life

Ulrich Fischer was the son of a prospective seminar teacher and a music teacher from Königsberg in East Prussia, who had moved to Dillenburg in Nassau shortly before the start of the First World War . When the war started, the mother moved back to her parents' house in Königsberg, where Ulrich Fischer was born on July 3, 1915. The father, who was called up for military service, fell shortly after he was born. The remarriage of his mother to a government councilor from Hanover in 1921 enabled Fischer to go to high school , which he began in Königsberg and Gumbinnen and continued in Wiesbaden in 1928 after the family had finally moved to Hessen-Nassau .

During his school career, Fischer began to deal more intensively with geology and prehistory . After graduating from high school , however, he first began studying law in Frankfurt am Main in 1932 . In 1933, however, he moved to Heidelberg, where he again focused his studies on history , prehistory and geology. He also attended courses in philosophy , German studies , biology and Slavic languages . From 1934 he finally specialized in prehistory after moving again to his hometown Königsberg. After a brief military service in 1934/35, he continued his studies again in Königsberg and then in Berlin and Halle (Saale) . These last two stations enabled him to participate in excavations in the Ilsenhöhle near Ranis and in three large stone graves near Leetze in the Altmark . In 1940 the dissertation on the megalithic grave building on the middle Elbe took place in Halle .

The Second World War initially marked a turning point in Fischer's academic career. In 1940 he was called up for military service as a "military geologist" and was taken prisoner by the Americans, from which he was released in autumn 1945. After his return to Wiesbaden, he was initially obliged to take part in the reconstruction as a bricklayer's assistant. In 1947 Fischer succeeded in returning to his academic career by spending a guest semester in Marburg . In the same year he was able to follow up on his pre-war work in Halle and dealt with the Neolithic grave structures in the Elb-Saale area. Here he also met his future wife, the art historian Charlotte Steinert. In 1953 he accepted an offer from Werner Krämer to process the ceramic finds from the Roman settlement of Cambodunum in Kempten .

In the same year an article appeared in which Fischer dealt with a early Neolithic culture that had previously been given different names. For this he chose the term "Gatersleben Group", which was permanently established in prehistoric research and was only modified to the extent that today most people speak of a Gatersleben culture .

In 1954, Fischer was appointed director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Frankfurt and opened the first post-war exhibition here in the same year. Thanks to financial support from the city of Frankfurt and the German Research Foundation , he was able to undertake intensive archaeological excavations in Frankfurt's old town between 1953 and 1976 in numerous excavation campaigns. Another focus of research was excavations in the Roman Vicus Nida in Frankfurt-Heddernheim , which Fischer carried out between 1957 and 1965. Fischer excavations at the 300 or so ceramics , Bronze Age and Iron Age barrows in the Frankfurt city forest between 1960 and 1975. Outside Frankfurt, he led an excavation at the Heidetränk-Oppidum in Taunus in 1974 .

Fischer was the founder and editor of the publications of the Frankfurt Museum of Prehistory and Early History . He retired in 1980 and lived in Frankfurt until his death in 2005. He bequeathed his legacy to the Roman-Germanic Commission .

Fonts

  • Large stone grave investigations in the Altmark. Preliminary information on the results of the excavations in Wötz, Salzwedel district. - In: 53rd annual report of the Altmark Association for Patriotic History in Salzwedel, Salzwedel 1939, pp. 3–8 (with 8 photos on separate boards)
  • Guide sheet for the prehistoric department of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum (provisional list) (1953)
  • Introduction to the exhibition of the Museum of Local Prehistory and Early History in Frankfurt am Main (1954; 4th, presumably ed. 1963; 6th, verb. Ed. 1975)
  • Excavations in the old town of Frankfurt am Main. Leaflet on the preservation of ground monuments (1955; 2nd, probably edition 1976)
  • The Stone Age graves in the Saale region. Studies on Neolithic and Early Bronze Age grave and burial forms in Saxony-Thuringia (Prehistoric Research Volume 15) (1956)
  • Camboduna research 1953-II. Pottery from the wooden houses between the 1st and 2nd cross street. (1957)
  • Roman stones from Heddernheim in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the City of Frankfurt am Main (1959; 2nd edition 1971)
  • Excavations and finds. Leaflet of the Frankfurter Bodendenkmalpflege (1964, 2nd edition 1972, 3rd edition 1977)
  • Excavations in the Roman stone fort of Heddernheim 1957–1959. With contributions by K. Deppert, Ch. Fischer u. I. Huld-Zetsche (1973)
  • A burial mound from the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Frankfurt city forest. With a Frankfurt museum report 1961–1978 (1979)
  • Excavations in the Roman vicus of Nida-Heddernheim 1961–1962 (1998)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Fischer: The orientation of the dead in the Neolithic cultures of the Saale region. In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 37, 1953, pp. 49-66.
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 2005
Place of death Frankfurt am Main