Exhibition on Heinrich Schliemann in the 200th anniversary year
Created: 01/05/2022Updated: 01/05/2022, 4:35 PM
Owl-faced vessels found by Schliemann in Troy.
© Joerg Carstensen / dpa
Heinrich Schliemann can be found somewhere between Homer and Indiana Jones.
Even 200 years after his birth, the famous archaeologist remains controversial.
An exhibition wants to take a closer look at it.
Berlin - famous archaeologist, discoverer of historical sites, unscrupulous art thief - the assessments of Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) have been far apart for centuries.
The name of Schliemann, born on January 6, 1822 in Neubukow near Rostock, triggers chains of associations that range from Greek mythology with Homer's legends to Spielberg's film character Indiana Jones.
In the anniversary year for the 200th birthday, the exhibition “Schliemann's Worlds” is intended to shed light on the complex work.
The Museum for Prehistory and Protohistory of the National Museums in Berlin plans to present around 700 objects in the James-Simon-Galerie and in the Neues Museum from May 13th to November 6th, as the museum announced on Wednesday in Berlin.
Schliemann's checkered life did not lead him directly to Troy.
The childhood with eight siblings in Mecklenburg is rather dreary, followed by a business apprenticeship.
The early yearning, according to his own admission, goes back to the father's tales of the adventures of Odysseus or reading the sagas.
As a young man, Schliemann moved to Hamburg, struggling with illness and a lack of money.
An emigration to Venezuela failed in 1841 with shipwreck off Texel.
After stopping at various trading houses, there was also financial success in Russia and the USA - first colonial goods, later war material made Schliemann a rich man.
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The material security gives him the freedom to devote himself to his archaeological yearnings.
As a multimillionaire, he learned Latin and ancient Greek and began studying in Paris.
The childhood dreams of Homer's Troy condense into a "desire to prove that the" Iliad "is based on facts".
With his - partly illegal - excavations from 1870 on the Hisarlik Tepe hill, Schliemann not only founded a new part of archeology.
The sometimes amateurish approach, such as wrong digging in wrong places, also destroys parts of the historical site.
At Schliemann, genius and ignorance go hand in hand.
While some contemporaries doubt the scientific nature of his work, others celebrate him with gala lectures.
One of the discoveries is the treasure of many thousands of objects named after the mythical King Priam.
Schliemann left the treasure to the museums in Berlin.
From there they ended up as spoils of war in the Soviet Union.
Until his death in 1890 during a trip to Italy, Schliemann directed numerous excavations in the Mediterranean region in addition to ongoing work in Troy.
He is buried in Athens.
The focus of the exhibition is on the archaeologist's excavation finds.
According to the information, the presentation also wants to critically examine the archaeological methods of Schliemann's time based on current research results.
A subdivided exhibition should correspond to the complexity.
From a biographical point of view, the James-Simon-Galerie deals with the first half of Schliemann's life with insights into the world of the 19th century.
In the Neues Museum, spectacular finds from the royal tombs in Mycenae and the Trojan Collection of Schliemann will reflect the archaeological work.
dpa