Adolph Goldschmidt (15 January 1863 – 5 January 1944) was a

Jewish German The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

. He taught at

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

from 1892 to 1903, and

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

from 1904 to 1912.

Biography

He was born on 15 January 1863 in the

Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 7th-largest in the European Union with a population of over 1.9 million. The Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a ...

. His family was Jewish and in the banking business. After a short business career he devoted himself (1885) to the study of the history of art at the universities of

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, and

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. He took his degree in 1889 with the dissertation, ''Lübecker Malerei und Plastik bis 1530'' (English: ''Lübeck painting and sculpture until 1530'')'','' the first detailed analysis of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

art of northeast Germany. After traveling through Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, England, France, and Italy, on the presentation of his work ''Der Albanipsalter in Hildesheim und Seine Beziehung zur Symbolischen Kirchenskulptur des 12. Jahrhunderts'' (English: ''The Albans Psalter in Hildesheim and Its Relationship to the Symbolic Church Sculpture of the 12th Century'') (1895), he became ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

'' at the

. Notable students of Goldschmidt include Klara Steinweg. His work, ''Studien zur Geschichte der Sächsischen Skulptur in der Uebergangszeit vom Romanischen zum Gotischen Stil'' (English: ''Studies on the history of Saxon sculpture in the transition period from the Romanesque to the Gothic style'') (Berlin, 1902) traces the gradual development of German

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

with reference to the period of its florescence in the thirteenth century. His work, ''Die Kirchenthür des Heil. Ambrosius in Mailand'' (English: ''The church door of salvation. Ambrose in Milan'') (1902) for the first time showed the door of the

Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, officially known as ''Basilica romana minore collegiata abbaziale prepositurale di Sant'Ambrogio'', is an ancient Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church located in the center of Milan, in the region of Lombardy, ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

to be a monument of

early Christian art Early Christian art and architecture (or Paleochristian art) is the art produced by Christians, or under Christian patronage, from the earliest period of Christianity to, depending on the definition, sometime between 260 and 525. In practice, ide ...

. He also contributed a number of important articles on North-German painting,

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

sculpture, and early medieval miniature manuscripts to the ''Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft,'' ''Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst,'' and ''Jahrbuch der Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen.'' Being of Jewish origin, he had to flee

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. He died in

Basel, Switzerland Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zurich and Geneva), with ...

on 5 January 1944, aged 80.

References

Adolph-Goldschmidt-Zentrum zur Erforschung der romanischen Skulptur
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldschmidt, Adolph 1863 births 1944 deaths Writers from Hamburg German art historians Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Switzerland German male non-fiction writers Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America