Walter Nikolaus Schumacher

Grave in the main cemetery in Freiburg

Walter Nikolaus Schumacher (born November 5, 1913 in Cologne ; † August 14, 2004 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German Christian archaeologist and art historian .

Life

Walter Nikolaus Schumacher studied Christian archeology, classical archeology and art history at the Universities of Bonn , Freiburg and Munich . He received his doctorate in Christian archeology under Joseph Sauer in Freiburg in 1943 . In 1953 he married his fellow student, the art historian Renate Wolfgarten (1922–2014), with whom he later had four children. Together they went to Rome in 1953, where he first worked at the Campo Santo Teutonico at the Roman Institute of the Görres Society , then as a scientific adviser at the Rome Department of the German Archaeological Institute . In 1959 the family returned to Freiburg im Breisgau , where he became a research assistant at the Institute for Christian Archeology. In 1968 he completed his habilitation at the University of Freiburg and worked as a private lecturer.

From 1972 until his retirement in 1982 he was Professor of Christian Archeology at the University of Freiburg. In 1976 he was the editor and editor of the reprint by Joseph Wilpert : The Roman Mosaics of Church Buildings from IV. - XIII. Century from 1916.

In 1974 he was appointed Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher by Cardinal Grand Master Maximilien Cardinal de Fuerstenberg and invested on May 4, 1974 in Düsseldorf by Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy, and Hermann Josef Abs , Lieutenant in Germany. Most recently he was a Grand Officer of the Order. His wife Renate also joined the Papal Order in 1984. They were both members of the German Association of the Holy Land and were involved in numerous social projects in the Holy Land .

Publications (selection)

• The transept of the Constantinian St. Peter's Church in Rome . Dissertation Freiburg 1943 (unprinted).
• Shepherd and "Good Shepherd". Studies of the shepherd image in Roman art from the 2nd to the beginning of the 4th century with special consideration of the mosaics in the south hall of Aquileja . Herder, Freiburg 1977, ISBN 3-451-17920-2 (= habilitation thesis).

literature

• Vademecum of the historical sciences: 1994/1995 , Franz Steiner Verlag 1995, p. 103.
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar , Saur Verlag, Munich 2003, p. 309.
• Martin Dennert: Walter Nikolaus Schumacher . In: Stefan Heid, Martin Dennert (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon for Christian Archeology . Researchers and personalities from the 16th to the 21st century. Volume 1. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2620-0 , pp. 1150–1151.