Ludwig Ross
Ludwig Ross ( born July 22, 1806 Bornhöved; † August 6, 1859 in Halle an der Saale ) was a German classical archaeologist.
Life
The family of Ludwig Ross was from northern Scotland. Ludwig's father, Colin Ross was married to Juliane Auguste Remin and managed the farm paddock in Old Ruhwinkel at Bornhöved. The marriage produced many children were born, including the painter Karl Ross.
Ludwig Ross, Charles 's older brother, studied at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel Classical Philology. After he had been there his doctorate with a thesis on Aristophanes, he undertook since 1832 traveling extensively through Greece, Western Asia Minor and Cyprus. He soon won the favor of the kings of the House of Wittelsbach, the Greece from 1832 to 1862 ruled. Ross was a royal commissioner ( Ephorus ) for the supervision of the ancient monuments and in 1837 the first professor of archeology at the newly founded University of Athens. 1837 appointed him the Bavarian Academy of Sciences corresponding member. 1843 had to release pressure from the locals, many foreigners from the upper civil service King Otto I.. This also applied to Ross. He returned to Germany and received with the help of his friend Alexander von Humboldt in 1845 the offer of a professorship of Classical Archaeology at the University of Halle. In 1850 he published a book about his travels through West Asia Minor, where he campaigned for it to settle at the local coastline German colonists.
Ross was like his brothers Karl and Gustav a Holstein patriot who fought for the independence of the duchy by the Danish king. He fell ill already with 40 years of hard on a spinal cord disease, and the failure of the Schleswig-Holstein War of Independence from 1848 to 1851 seems to have robbed him of his courage. He took in 1859 after a long illness life. His contributions to archeology are considerable: He led the first systematic excavations on the Acropolis of Athens and opened the new science new opportunities by had faced by the classical idealization and almost unlimited admiration with which earlier scholars to the ancient times, sparked and so a more sober, not just art historical approach allowed to antiquity: Unlike its predecessor, Ross was interested primarily for historical insights, less for the idealization of certain eras. Nevertheless, his name is today only a term professionals.
On 5 June 2008 ( Lübeck messages) and on 7 June 2008 ( Segeberger newspaper ) published on the basis of a press conference Fielmann great articles about Ludwig Ross as 100 original letters were found by him and were acquired with the support of Fielmann AG. These letters were handed over by the Mayor of Bornhöved to the Schleswig -Holstein State Library and are available to the interested specialist public.