About the Collection

As early as 1826, the "Academic Art Museum" was founded on the Bonn model, which was then renamed the "Art, Coin and Antiquities Cabinet" in 1835. The holdings of the early collection, however, are almost unknown, as all archival documents were destroyed during World War II. In addition to the coin collection dating back to the 18th century, the cabinet combined a collection of plaster casts and - still preserved today - the "Lippert'sche Daktyliothek". Since its establishment, the collection has been steadily expanded: In addition to purchases of originals and casts from Paris, the collection has also grown thanks to a number of donations. In 1835, for example, the Archaeological Institute received casts from the Erbach Collection.

Since the end of the 19th century, the collection can be recorded more precisely. Bruno Sauer, who habilitated in Giessen in 1892 and may be regarded as the actual founder of the local Classical Archaeology, took intensive care of the collection in 1897. Since 1898 the collection bore the name "Archaeological Institute". In addition to a planned expansion of the cast collection, which had been housed on almost 300 m² since the move to the so-called "Neue Kollegiengebäude" in 1879, Sauer also systematically built up the collection of originals.

For a long time after World War I, the collection was only sporadically extended by individual sherds that the chairholders brought back from their travels. Under Margarete Bieber, the plaster cast collection in particular was expanded and used intensively for teaching and research purposes. It was not until 1939 that Willy Zschieztschmann was able to add several Attic red-figure vases and an important Faliscan amphora to the collection.

It is above all thanks to Zschietzschmann that the collection of originals survived the severe destruction of Giessen during the war almost undamaged. The coin collection was also preserved in its entirety. Only the cast collection was almost completely destroyed on 6 December 1944.

In the turmoil of the post-war years - the Institute itself was only reopened in 1964 as a "Professorship for Classical Archaeology" - the collection was gradually dispersed. It was not until the 1970s that the antiquities were collected again by Hans-Günther Buchholz and his assistant at the time, W. Hornbostel, and recorded in an inventory by F. W. von Hase. Buchholz then published many of the antiquities for the first time and expanded the collection again in accordance with his research interests: numerous Cypriot antiquities have since enriched the collection, along with Late Classical vessels and prehistoric objects. The sherd collection has also grown considerably.

Since digital technologies have played a central role in the transfer of knowledge in museums for several years, Classical Archaeology, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz, has been increasingly using digital techniques in exhibitions since 2018.

This innovative and future-oriented approach to the public presentation of the university's collection benefits museum visitors on the one hand, who now also have remote access to a growing number of digitised objects of the Collection of Classical Antiquities, and students in the Department of Classical Archaeology on the other:

Guided by the curator Dr. Michaela Stark, students acquire not only solid knowledge about the presentation of exhibits in a museum context in seminars and exercises, but also in-depth skills in the use of digital tools in the context of designing interactive visitor experiences. Practical learning and the application of digital methods thus equip students with core competencies that are essential for later career entry.