Walter Bader

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Walter Bader as a console figure on the Cologne town hall tower

Walter Bader (born September 15, 1901 in Rottenburg am Neckar , † March 9, 1986 in Xanten ) was a German archaeologist and monument protector . Most recently he was full professor at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn .

Life

Bader passed his Abitur in 1920 and then studied art history , medieval history and archeology in Tübingen, Munich and Bonn. In 1927 he did his doctorate in Bonn with Paul Clemen . In the field of archeology , Bader first worked in the Provincial Museum in Bonn (later the Rheinisches Landesmuseum ). As early as 1928 he came to Xanten on the Lower Rhine and partially led the excavations under the Xanten St. Viktor Cathedral . In 1933 he discovered the bones of two unknown, presumed martyrs and members of the Theban Legion from the 4th century . The excavation site was then expanded into a crypt and consecrated by Clemens August Graf von Galen in 1936. The archaeological investigations that Bader carried out in the cathedral were groundbreaking in their methodology for modern archaeological excavation technology , as the principle of stratified excavation was used here for the first time .

During the National Socialist era , Bader , who joined the SPD in 1932, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1935 and charged with high treason . However, the charge was dropped after eight months in detention.

In 1939 he married Hildegard Scholten, who was born in Xanten, and moved his permanent residence to Xanten, where he was commissioned from 1944 to protect the monuments and art treasures in view of the advancing Allied troops. With just one helper, Bader began clearing up the rubble from St. Viktor's Cathedral, which had been badly damaged by aerial bombs . The subsequent reconstruction of the cathedral is inconceivable without Walter Bader. At first it was planned not to rebuild the cathedral, but to replace it with a church. It was only Bader who was able to convince the mayor of Xanten and the provost of the cathedral to preserve the city's landmark. Within 19 years, during which Bader was appointed state conservator and supervised the construction of many other monuments, the reconstruction as Bader's life's work was completed in 1966.

Memorial plaque for Walter Bader as "Savior of the Xanten Cathedral" in the cloister there

After the war, Bader was hired again in the summer of 1947 as a director's assistant at the State Museum in Bonn under appeal as a civil servant and was also awarded an honorary professorship at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in the summer semester of 1947 , from which he, meanwhile, joined the Ministry of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia. Westphalia, while retaining the function of state curator for ecclesiastical and profane monument preservation, he was appointed full professor there in 1952. In 1969 Bader retired

Bader was a member of the Catholic student union AV Guestfalia Tübingen in the CV since 1920 .

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Bader, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archaeologist, monument protector and professor in Bonn
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Rottenburg am Neckar
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1986
Place of death Xanten