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 the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

and studied law in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

; 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 scientific 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 landscap ...

, Ancient Church History and

Patrology Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...

at 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 ...

, 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 () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

. 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 (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

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 archaeologists 21st-century 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 {{Germany-archaeologist-stub