Gustav Hirschfeld (4 November 1847, Pyritz – 10 April 1895,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

) was a German classical archaeologist. He was the great-uncle of

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

Life

Born into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

merchant family,Jonathan M. Hess, ''Middlebrow Literature and the Making of German-Jewish Identity'', Stanford University Press (2010), p. 201 he studied in

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

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 ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and from 1870 stayed in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

as a stipendary of the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

. From 1875 to 1877 he led the German excavations at Olympia, for which he was appointed

extraordinary professor Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

(1878) then

ordinary professor Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

(1880) at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

Works

* ''Tituli statuarum sculptorumque graecorum'' (Berlin 1871) * ''Athena und Marsyas'' (Berlin 1872) * ''Paphlagonische Felsengräber'' (Berlin 1885) * ''Berichte über alte Geographie'' (1885) * ''Die Felsenreliefs in Kleinasien und das Volk der Hittiter'' (1887) * ''Griechische Inschriften des Britischen Museums'' (1893) *he contributed to the first two volumes of '' Ausgrabungen zu Olympia'' (Berlin 1877-78) *From 1884 he wrote on the geographical investigation of ancient culture in the ''Geographischen Jahrbuch'' * ''Aus dem Orient'' (posthumously published 1897)

Literature

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirschfeld 1847 births 1895 deaths People from Pyrzyce People from the Province of Pomerania 19th-century German Jews German classical scholars German archaeologists University of Tübingen alumni Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the University of Königsberg