Ernst Heinrich Toelken

Ernst Heinrich Toelken ( rare in the spelling Tölken; born November 1, 1786 in Bremen, † March 16, 1869 in Berlin) was a German classical archaeologist, philosopher, art historian, university professor and director of the Berlin Antiquarium.

Youth, study and work for Hanse towns

Toelken was the son of Bremen merchant Heinrich Toelken. His formal education took place both in home training by the father and after his death by his uncle as well as by public schools and by private tuition. Greek he taught himself. In 1804 he began to study theology at the University of Göttingen, but focused even during the first semester more and more on the science of history and took added Classical philology and philosophy. Academic teachers were in the theology of Johann Gottfried Eichhorn and Gottlieb Jakob Planck, in the history of Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren and especially Johann Friedrich Herbart in philosophy and pedagogy. Toelken joined Herbart neuhumanistisch oriented private firm Educational Society, belonged to this circle, inter alia, Ernst Karl Friedrich Wunderlich, Georg Ludolf Dissen, Friedrich Thiersch and Friedrich Kohlrausch. After seven semesters in Göttingen Toelken went to the University of Berlin, where Friedrich Schleiermacher and Johann Gottlieb Fichte his most important teachers were. With the permission of the mother he went on extensive wanderings in Germany to see works of art in different places. However, the attempt at the art academy in Dresden to study, he finished after half a year. In 1808 he went with his fellow students Göttingen Otto Magnus von Stackelberg on a nearly two-year trip to Italy, which included a 16- month stay in Rome. In Rome, the paths of Toelken and Stackelberg parted.

1810 Toelken returned back to his hometown of Bremen, which he had not visited seven years. Originally he was to take over as a preacher, the church of St. Martin, but he was used in the diplomatic service of his city and was secretary should clarify part of a delegation to France, the problems of the integration of the North German coastal strip to France. By the summer of 1811 he was a member of the so-called Organising Committee in Hamburg.

Beginning of an academic career

In the summer of 1811 Toelken was again a student in Göttingen, where he is now particularly devoted to archeology. His graduation with a dissertation on Comparatio politiarum Platonis in libris de republica et de legibus delineatarum, a study on the continuing influence of the political conceptions of Plato in his work The State. Meanwhile Toelken had decided to pursue an academic career. Principal investigator was Heeren in his exams, even Christian Gottlob Heyne was in testing in old and new history to the examiners. That same semester was Toelken after the issue of Venia Legendi with development of gradual training of the gods idols of Greek art his first lecture. For the next semester he was allowed to teach only on the condition that he commenced his habilitation within a specified period, which Toelken did and mid-March 1812, the treatise De Phidiae Jove Oympio observationes submitted. The Heyne dedicated to writing dealt with the sculptor Phidias. In the summer semester 1812 he was a lecturer already three courses and became a member of the Society of philo logica Gottingensis. Because of its good connections to the Berlin art scene Toelken was instrumental in charge in the same year for the award of a contract for the creation of an image work for the recently deceased law professor Christian August Gottlieb Goede to Johann Gottfried Schadow with.

A 1814 is more appropriate application for appointment as associate professor answered turned down by the university. Toelken drew lessons from the cancellation and moved to November 1814 as a lecturer at the Berlin University. For the financial livelihood caused a simultaneous employment as a school teacher at Friedrichswerder and later on Köllnischen school. Toelken was not the only Göttingen scholar who took this step because the university was unwilling at that time a taper in the faculty over and that occurred only a few years later about the vocation Karl Otfried Müller on the vacant professorship of Heyne. For example, with Karl Lachmann, there were more young scientists who left the university.

As a sample script for his habilitation in Berlin in 1814 was About the bas-relief and the limits of plastic and Malerey, the font is considered Toelkens important work. 1815 opened a new field for him when he inventoried after the deportation to France by Napoleon's troops in 1815 returned to part antiques. From 1816 to 1818 he was one of the men who should bear the scattered at many locations art objects together in preparation for a large, national and public museum. Toelken was responsible in particular for the cut stones and coins.

Professor in Berlin

In April 1816 he was associate professor in Berlin. He not only gave lectures on archeology, but also to philosophy. According to Fichte's death a long time was its chair vacant and also the philosophical readings Toelkens were led into the field to reject several candidates such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Krause Hebart by the relevant ministry. In 1823 he became a full professor of Art History and Archaeology, 1827 Secretary of the Academy of Arts and a regular member of the Academic Senate of the University of Berlin. As secretary of the Academy, he was 1828/29, the short-lived magazine Berliner Art Journal out. 1825/26 and 1833/31, he was dean of his faculty. 1832 moved Toelken in the museum service, but at the same time retained his professorship. At first he was employed as assistant under direct oral Jacob Andreas Konrad Levezow on Antiquarium, after his death in 1835 he was appointed director of the 1836 collection. With the acquisition of the directorship Toelken was also a member of the artistic Commission. For 28 years, he determined the fate of the Antiquarium, no other head of one of Berlin Collection of Antiquities could reach such a long tenure. As an archaeologist, he shared Eduard Gerhard's view of archeology as a historical science, as a " monumental philology ". Key performance as a museum archaeologist was editing the gem collection. His successor was Carl Friedrichs.

Toelken was fully formed and took an active part in public life. He wrote pamphlets on many different topics to Egyptological so, mythological, art historical and aesthetic problems in the field of painting, poetry and theater. In his versatility was also a problem in a time in which many disciplines of science verselbstständigten and the growth of knowledge and research output was immense. Could not keep up long term Toelken in many areas whether its variety of interests. He was a member of several domestic and foreign scientific societies and academies.