Rotraut Wisskirchen (23 June 1936 – 1 August 2018) was a German

Biblical archaeologist ''Near Eastern Archaeology'' is an American journal covering art, archaeology, history, anthropology, literature, philology, and epigraphy of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds from the Palaeolithic through Ottoman periods. The journal is ...

.Verabschiedung von Frau Prof. Dr. Rotraut Wisskirchen am 17.01.2018
Wisskirchen was born on 23 June 1936 in

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

and studied law in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

; then she worked from 1965 to 1967 as a lawyer in the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. She was married to the lawyer Alfred Wisskirchen, with whom she had two daughters, also lawyers. In 1981 she began studying Christian

Archeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeolo ...

, Ancient Church History and

Patrology Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, graduating in 1989 with Josef Engemann. The topic of the dissertation was ''The mosaic program of S. Prassede in Rome. Iconography and iconology''. From 1989 to 2017 she was a regular lecturer at the Universities of Bonn,

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

. Through regular annual excursions to the archaeologically relevant sites, she made sure that students got to know the scenes of late antique history in southern Europe and the Middle East from their own point of view. In 2000, the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Bochum appointed her - as the second woman and first Protestant - honorary professor. In 2011, she was awarded the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

External links

Homepage an der Universität Bochum

Bericht zur Berufung zur Professorin

Bericht zur Antrittsvorlesung

References

1936 births 2018 deaths People from Hagen Archaeologists from North Rhine-Westphalia German women archaeologists 20th-century German archaeologists 21st-century German archaeologists German women lawyers 20th-century German lawyers German women academics Historians of the Catholic Church University of Bonn alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Academic staff of the University of Bonn Academic staff of Ruhr University Bochum Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Academic staff of the University of Cologne Academic staff of the University of Wuppertal Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German women lawyers {{Germany-archaeologist-stub