Teoberto Maler

Teobert painter ( born January 12, 1842 in Rome, † November 22, 1917 in Mérida, Mexico ) was a German - Austrian architect, civil engineer, photographer, discoverer and researcher of Mayan ruins.

Painter was born in Rome, the son of a German diplomat. He studied architecture and civil engineering. He lived and worked from 1862 in Vienna with the architect Heinrich Ferstel, the builder of the Votive Church. Shortly thereafter, he acquired Austrian citizenship in 1864 and went with the Austrian kk Pioneer Corps to Mexico. There he took part in the fighting for the throne Archduke Maximilian to the execution of Maximilian on 19 June 1867.

His love for Mexico persuaded him to stay in the country. He studied the languages ​​of the Totonac and Zapotec and documented his travels with photos and reports. When traveling in Central America, he found by asking the locals many ruins of buildings of the Maya, which he documented in words and pictures.

Painter dedicated his life and not inconsiderable private assets entirely to the study of the Maya. His reports and photographs in particular are now invaluable, since many of which he discovered sites and works of art have now been destroyed.

Partial estates of Teobert painters are in the Ibero -American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin, in Lippe Detmold Museum and the Peabody Institute at Harvard University in the United States. In addition to many anthropological writings that deal with the prehistoric Mexican culture, is found in his estate a large number of architectural drawings.