Margarete Bieber (31 July 1879 – 25 February 1978) was a Jewish German-American
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
,
classical archaeologist
Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about i ...
and professor. She became the second woman university professor in Germany in 1919 when she took a position at the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
. She studied the
theatre of ancient Greece
Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
as well as the sculpture and
clothing in ancient Rome
Clothing in ancient Rome generally comprised a short-sleeved or sleeveless, knee-length tunic for men and boys, and a longer, usually sleeved tunic for women and girls. On formal occasions, adult male citizens could wear a woolen toga, draped ov ...
and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
.
Bieber left Germany after the Nazis seized power and she made her way to the United States where she taught at
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. She published hundreds of works during her career and authored definitive works in four areas of study: the Greek and Roman theater, Hellenistic sculpture, ancient dress, and Roman copies of Greek art.
[Medwid, M. (2000) The makers of classical archaeology, p. 37] She emphasised that Roman reproductions of Greek originals were essentially Roman works and carried the stamp of Roman civilization.
Biography
Early life and education
Margarete Bieber was born on 31 July 1879 in
Schönau,
Landkreis Schwetz (present day Przechowo,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
) to Jewish parents Valli Bukofzer, and Jacob Heinrich Bieber, a factory owner.
She attended a girls' school in
Schwetz (present day Åšwiecie) for six years before being sent to a finishing school in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
.
In 1899 she went to Berlin where she attended Gymnasialkurse, a private school founded by
Helene Lange
Helene Lange (9 April 1848 in Oldenburg – 13 May 1930 in Berlin) was a pedagogue and feminist. She is a symbolic figure of the international and German civil rights feminist movement. In the years from 1919 to 1921 she was a member of the Hamb ...
. In 1901 she passed the ''Maturitätsprüfung'' in
Thorn
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to:
Botany
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants
* ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species
Comics and literature
* Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...
and registered at the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
. As women were not allowed to enroll, she audited her classes, attending lectures by
Hermann Alexander Diels
Hermann Alexander Diels (; 18 May 1848 – 4 June 1922) was a German classical scholar, who was influential in the area of early Greek philosophy and is known for his standard work ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker''. Diels helped to import the ...
,
Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz
Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz (name at birth Kekulé, called Kekulé von Stradonitz only after 1889; 6 March 1839 – 23 March 1911) was a German archeologist. He has been called the founder of modern iconology (Langlotz). He served as director ...
and
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 – 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature ...
.
She graduated in the winter semester 1901/02 in Berlin. In 1904 she moved to Bonn, studying under
Paul Clemen
Paul Clemen (31 October 1866 – 8 July 1947) was a German art historian known in particular for his large inventory of monuments in the Rhineland area, many of which were destroyed or severely damaged in World War II.
Clemen was born in Leipz ...
,
Georg Loeschcke
Georg Loeschcke (28 June 1852 – 26 November 1915) was a German archaeologist born in Penig, Saxony.
He studied archaeology under Johannes Overbeck at Leipzig, afterwards continuing his education at the University of Bonn, where he was a stude ...
and
Franz Bücheler
Franz Bücheler (3 June 18373 May 1908) was a German classical scholar, was born in Rheinberg, and educated at Bonn, where he was a student of Friedrich Ritschl (1806–1876).
Biography
In 1856 Bücheler graduated from the University of Bonn wit ...
. She received her PhD from the
University of Bonn
The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...
in 1907, her dissertation concerning representations of
ancient Greek costume in art.
Research and professorship
In the following years, Bieber did extensive research throughout the Mediterranean. She was the first woman to receive a travel grant from the
German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''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 of Germany ...
(DAI) in 1909. From then until 1914, she did research in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, AthÃna ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and later
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. She became a member of the DAI in 1913. When the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out, Bieber returned to Germany and worked as a
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
worker. From Easter 1915, she taught seminars and ran the Archaeological Institute at the University of Berlin for her former instructor Georg Loeschcke, who was ill. After he died in November 1915, a successor was appointed and she was not allowed to continue teaching as women could not receive
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
at the time. Bieber continued to teach private courses out of her home, counting Dora and
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime.
Panofsky's work represents a hig ...
among her students.
After several unsuccessful attempts, her postdoctoral was finally approved in 1919 and she became an associate professor in classical archaeology at the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
. She was the second woman to become a University professor in Germany.
Beginning in 1928, she headed the Giessen Institute of Archaeology and in 1931, she was made a full professor. Her future looking secure, she adopted a six-year-old girl named Ingeborg in 1932. After the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
seized power in Germany, they removed Jewish people from academic positions and Bieber was removed from her professorship in July 1933. She, Ingeborg and her governess Katharina Freytag left Germany for England where Bieber became an honorary fellow at
Somerville College, Oxford
Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...
.
Emigration to America
Bieber left for the United States in 1934 at the invitation of
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
, where she was a lecturer.
She was recommended to
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where she became a visiting professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1936. She applied for American citizenship in 1939.
In 1939, she published ''The History of the Greek and Roman Theater''. It became a foundational text for students of the ancient theaters of
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, delving into the nuances of production and the practicalities of staging.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Bieber assisted German refugees. She retired from Columbia University in 1948, though she continued to lecture at the
Columbia University School of General Studies
The School of General Studies, Columbia University (GS) is a liberal arts college
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such c ...
and at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. The
Bollingen Foundation
The Bollingen Foundation was an educational foundation set up along the lines of a university press in 1945. It was named after Bollingen Tower, Carl Jung's country home in Bollingen, Switzerland. Funding was provided by Paul Mellon and his wife ...
helped to fund ''The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age'', published in 1955. She continued to publish works, describing sculpture in American museums and ancient clothing.
Bieber was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1971
and in 1974, the
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...
awarded her the
Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement
The Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement is awarded by the Archaeological Institute of America in "recognition of a scholar who has made distinguished contributions to archaeology through his or her fieldwork, publications ...
. She remained active in her later years, living with her adopted daughter, Ingeborg Sachs. Her final work, ''Ancient Copies'', was published in 1977 and detailed the transformation and reflection in Roman copies of Greek art. Bieber died on 25 February 1978 in
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census.
About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...
. She was 98.
Selected bibliography
A bibliography of Bieber's writings when she was 90 included some 327 items.
[''Addenda to the bibliography of the works of Margarete Bieber''. '']American Journal of Archaeology
The ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA), the peer-reviewed journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, has been published since 1897 (continuing the ''American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts'' founded by t ...
'' 79 (1975), pp. 147–148.
* ''Das Dresdener Schauspielrelief. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des tragischen Kostüms und der griechischen Kunst''. Dissertation, 1907
* ''Die Denkmäler zum Theaterwesen im Altertum''. Habil.-Schrift,
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
1919
*
*
*
* (1980 reprint: )
*
*
*
Further reading
*
* , "Margarete Bieber, 1879–1978. Klassische Archäologin." ''Gießener Gelehrte in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts''. Marburg 1982, 58–73.
*
Felschow, Eva-Maria. "Schwieriger Anfang, jähres Ende und ein Neubeginn in der Ferne. Das Schicksal der Margarete Bieber." ''Panorama 400 Jahre Universität Giessen''. Societäts-Verl., Frankfurt (2007) , pp. 278–283.
*
Harrison, E. B., "Margarete Bieber, 1879–1978." ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 82 (1978), pp. 573–575.
*Obermayer, Hans Peter: "Margarete Bieber im Exil." In: id.: ''Deutsche Altertumswissenschaftler im amerikanischen Exil. Eine Rekonstruktion.'' De Gruyter, Berlin, Boston 2014, pp. 35–107.
* Warren, Larissa Bonfante;
Winkes, Rolf. "Bibliography of the works of Margarete Bieber for her 90th birthday." New York. 1969.
* Winkes, Rolf. "Margarete Bieber zum 95. Geburtstag." ''Gießener Universitätsblätter'' 1 (1974), pp. 68–75.
* Reimann, Bruno W.: Emigration und Entlassung - Die Gießener Universität in den Jahren nach 1933. In: Schüler, Gideon (Hrsg.), Zwischen Unruhe und Ordnung. Ein deutsches Lesebuch für die Zeit von 1925 bis 1960. Gießen 1989
See also
*
Women in the art history field
Women were professionally active in the academic discipline of art history in the nineteenth century and participated in the important shift early in the century that began involving an "emphatically corporeal visual subject", with Vernon Lee as a ...
References
External links
Short biographyfrom Brown University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bieber, Margarete
1879 births
1978 deaths
People from Szczecinek County
People from West Prussia
German art historians
American art historians
Classical archaeologists
Columbia University faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Princeton University faculty
University of Giessen faculty
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
University of Bonn alumni
People from the Province of Prussia
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
American women historians
Jewish American historians
Women art historians
American women archaeologists
German women archaeologists
German women historians
Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford
20th-century German women
20th-century American women