Heinz Kähler

Heinz Kähler ( born January 21, 1905 in Tetenbüll; † January 9, 1974 in Cologne ) was a German classical archaeologist.

The son of a pastor studied in Freiburg, Berlin and Kiel Classical Archaeology, Ancient History, Classics and History of Art. In 1929 he received his doctorate in Freiburg on the Roman capitals of the Rhine basin. This was followed by research trips through France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and western Asia Minor. The Travel sprang essays on monuments of Roman art, especially architecture. From 1934 to 1936 he worked as a freelance scientists in Berlin. From 1937 to 1941 he was with Ernst Buschor in Munich assistant. Despite obligation for military service was performed in 1942 his habilitation work with the great frieze of Pergamon. In 1943 he was Lecturer in Classical Archaeology. In 1951 he was appointed extraordinary professor in Munich. In 1953 he obtained the chair in Saarbrücken. As the successor of Andreas Rumpf joined Kähler 1960, the head of the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Cologne.

His work focused on the architecture and architectural sculpture of the archaic period of Greece to the Roman and Byzantine Late Antiquity. As an outstanding work, inter alia, the investigation on the Pergamon frieze, the Greek metopes and the triumphal arches (1939 ) apply. In later years, the focus was on late antiquity with the study of churches in Aquileia (1957 and 1962 ), Hagia Sophia ( 1967) and the Villa of Maxentius at Piazza Armerina (1973).

Writings (selection )

• The Early Church. Cult and ritual space. Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-548-36066-1.
• The Hagia Sophia. Berlin 1967.
• The frieze of the equestrian statue of Aemilivs Pavllvs in Delphi. Berlin 1965.
• The Five Pillars Monument to the Tetrarch in the Roman Forum. Cologne 1964.
• The Greek Metop image. Munich 1949.
• Arc de Triomphe ( Triumphal Arch ), in: RE A1 7, 1939, 373-493.