Volkmar Enderlein

Volkmar Enderlein (1996)

Volkmar Enderlein (born July 21, 1936 in Oschersleben / Bode ) is a German art historian and archaeologist . His specialty is Islamic art .

Life

Volkmar Enderlein spent his childhood in Brieg ( Silesia ) and Plaue ( Ore Mountains ). He passed the Abitur in 1954 in Karl-Marx-Stadt .

Enderlein studied classical archeology , art history and ancient history at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena from 1954 to 1958 . His main academic teacher was Robert Heidenreich . In 1956 and 1957 he completed internships at the Islamic Museum . On the basis of the knowledge of the Pehlevi acquired during his studies and further investigations in the Münzkabinett ( Bodemuseum ), he wrote his thesis on the coins with Pehlevi legends from the coin collection of the Friedrich Schiller University .

In 1959 he started as a research assistant at the Islamic Museum , where he worked, among other things, on Sasanid seal stones . In 1965 he submitted a doctoral thesis on portrait busts on sealing stones. Research into the iconography of Sasanian art , which for political reasons only led to his doctorate at the University of Leipzig in 1995 .

From August 1, 1965, Enderlein was acting director of the Islamic Museum , became acting director in 1971 and finally director of the museum on September 1, 1978. The long journey of the internationally recognized scientist, who was not a member of the SED or one of the bloc parties , can only be explained by the political influence on the museum system. From 1992 he was deputy director of the Museum of Islamic Art formed by the association , which he directed from 1995 to 2001.

In his long activity as leader and director, Volkmar Enderlein not only significantly shaped the acquisition and exhibition activities, but also influenced the development of the museum by carefully managing the activities of all employees. The reopening of the exhibition rooms after the war , the installation of the Aleppo room (1960) and the prayer niche from Konya (1965) are among the early highlights of his career, which already reveal an important concern: the connection of scientifically sound work on the collection objects with the presentation of Islamic art that is understandable for a wide audience.

During the division of the collection, Enderlein maintained contact with the museum in Dahlem, partly in a conspiratorial manner, and a. together with colleagues for ensuring that copies of the documentation located on Museum Island were brought to the western part of the city. The merging of the collections (1992) and the redesign of the permanent exhibition (2001), which was largely influenced by him, underline the historical importance of this activity.

A special focus of his work was the preoccupation with oriental carpets . His numerous work in this field found recognition from international experts. Before kilims and Turkmen carpets received greater attention in Islamic art history , Enderlein dealt with them and was thus able to lay the foundation for acquisitions by the museum in this direction.

Islamic book art, the relationship between Europe and the Orient , early Islamic architecture and biographical research on Wilhelm von Bode and Friedrich Sarre were also important research and exhibition topics by Enderlein.

He is a member of the German Archaeological Institute .

Fonts (selection)

• Oriental kilims. Flatweaves from Anatolia, Iran and the Caucasus . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1986 / Hülsey, Wesel 1986. ISBN 3-923185-03-0
• Islamic Museum. Guidance . State Museums in Berlin, Berlin 1988.
• Editor with Werner Sundermann : Schahname. The Persian Book of Kings. Miniatures and texts from the Berlin manuscript from 1605 . Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1988. / Müller & Kiepenheuer: Hanau 1988. ISBN 3-7833-8815-5
• Islamic art . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1990. ISBN 3-364-00195-2
• The miniatures of the Berlin Bāisonqur manuscript. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1991 (picture booklets of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1)
• Wilhelm von Bode and the Berlin Carpet Collection. Exhibition of the Museum of Islamic Art on the occasion of Wilhelm von Bode's 150th birthday in the Pergamon Museum October 18, 1995. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-PK: Berlin 1995. (Picture booklets of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-PK, 84). Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1995 ISBN 3-7861-1908-2

Important exhibitions

1972	Oriental knitted carpets	May 14th – May 17th September 1972
1973	Turkmen carpets	September 5, 1973-6. January 1974
1974	The Islamic World in European Literature from the 16th to 18th Centuries	January – March 1974
1975	Islamic ceramics from museums in the GDR	December 1975 – February 1976
1979	75 years of the Islamic Museum 1904–1979	Fall 1979
1986	Oriental kilims	May 7th – May 20th July 1986
1987	The first Turkish embassy in Berlin in 1763	July 2nd – March 17th August 1987
1991	The miniatures of the Berlin Baisonqur manuscript	November 17, 1991-1992
1993	The classic Berlin carpets: fragments and losses	May 26–1. August 1993
1995	Wilhelm von Bode and the Berlin Carpet Collection	October 18, 1995-14. April 1996

literature

• State Museums in Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage: Museum for Islamic Art . von Zabern, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2681-5 , ISBN 3-8053-2734-X
• Jens Kröger, Desirée Heiden (Hrsg.): Islamic art in Berlin collections. 100 years of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin . Parthas, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-86601-435-X
• Gisela Helmecke , Jens Kröger: Science and restoration for the exhibition of the Islamic Museum 1959–1991 and the Museum of Islamic Art 1992–2001. Thanks to Volkmar Enderlein and Uta Tyroller. July 23, 2001. [Museum of Islamic Art, Ms.]

Web links

• Literature by and about Volkmar Enderlein in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Volkmar Enderlein  in the German Digital Library
• Search for Volkmar Enderlein in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
• Change of director at the Museum of Islamic Art