Wilken von Alten

Wilken von Alten (born May 14, 1885 in Hanover , † August 19, 1944 in Bremen ) was a German art historian and curator of the Bremen art gallery .

Life

Wilken von Alten came from the Lower Saxon noble family Alten . He graduated from high school in Hanover. He studied art history and classical archeology at the University of Berlin, the University of Grenoble and the University of Munich . In 1912 he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD .

In 1913 he became a research assistant at the Bremen art gallery. He was a soldier in World War I and was held in English captivity until 1919. 1919 returned to the Kunsthalle and in 1933 became curator . He was in charge of the Kunsthalle's Kupferstichkabinett and organized and added to the holdings. He published several treatises on copperplate engravings, especially on hand drawings such as those by Rembrandt van Rijn . Already 55 years old, he was active as an army soldier in the Second World War in 1940/41 . Then he secured the holdings of the Kunsthalle. In 1944 he was killed in a bomb attack on Bremen. In 1945 the art historian Günter Busch succeeded him as curator.

Fonts

• History of the early Christian capital. An attempt : Delphin-Verlag, Munich 1913 (= dissertation)
• Rembrandt with 120 Rembrandt drawings. Rembrandt Publishing House. Berlin 1947.

literature

• Günter Busch : Alten, Wilken Karl Wilhelm Alexander Waldemar Oskar v. In: Historical Society Bremen, State Archive Bremen (Hrsg.): Bremische Biographie 1912-1962. Hauschild, Bremen 1969, pp. 14–15.
• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X , p.?.