Hans Vollmer
Hans Vollmer(16 November 1878 – 15 February 1969) was a Germanart historianandencyclopedist.
Life
[edit]His father was the architectJohannes Vollmer(1845-1920), his grandfather the Hamburg marine painter and graphic artistAdolph Friedrich Vollmer(1806–1875). He was the older brother of the painter and sculptorErwin Vollmer(1884–1973).
Vollmer studiedart history,history and philosophy in Berlin and Munich. In 1906 he was awarded adoctorateunderHeinrich Wölfflinin Berlin with a thesis onSchwäbische Monumentalbrunnen von der Gotik bis zum Klassizismus(Swabian monumental fountains from the Gothic to Classicism).
Since April 1, 1907 he was employed in the editorial office of theThieme-Becker Allgemeiner Künstlerlexikonat the publishing houseE. A. SeemanninLeipzig;in 1923 he took over the editorial management of the Encyclopedia. Since then he was the main contributor, supported by a small editorial staff, until the completion of the 37-volume work in 1950, after which he began working on the additions for the 20th century. TheGeneral Encyclopedia of Visual Artists of the XXth Centuryappeared in six volumes from 1953 to 1962. He dictated a total of 47,229 artist biographies to his secretary Claire Möbius, who also worked as a research assistant, on the basis of notes which he excerpted predominately in theDeutsche Büchereiin Leipzig; 15 to 20 typewritten pages were produced daily. In 1952 he was appointed professor. In recognition of his work Vollmer received thePatriotic Order of Meritin silver of the German Democratic Republic in 1957.[1]
On 1 January 1964 Vollmer retired after 57 years of work for theKünstlerlexikon.He died in Leipzig at age 90.
Publications
[edit]- A list of Hans Vollmer's writings is published in: Magdalena George (ed.):Festschrift Hans Vollmer.,Leipzig 1957, p. 279-283.
- Schwäbische Monumentalbrunnen.(Kunstgeschichtliche Studien,issue 1). Ebering, Berlin 1906.
- Kunstgeschichtliches Wörterbuch.(Teubners kleine Fachwörterbücher13). Teubner, Leipzig 1928.
Literature
[edit]- Magdalena George (ed.):Festschrift Hans Vollmer. Aus Anlass seiner fünfzigjährigen Tätigkeit als Mitarbeiter und Herausgeber des Thieme-Becker.VEB E. A. Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1957 (with a list of Hans Vollmer's publications;online
- Alfred Langer:Kunstliteratur und Reproduktion. 125 Jahre Seemann-Verlag im Dienste der Erforschung und Verbreitung der Kunst.E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1983, (with picture).
References
[edit]- ^see Publisher's afterword in the sixth volume of theAllgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler des XX. Jahrhunderts.p. 503, Leipzig, August 1962.
External links
[edit]- Literature by and about Hans Vollmerin theGerman National Librarycatalogue
