Heinz Kähler

Who was Heinz Kähler?

Heinz Kähler was an ancient art historian and archaeologist.

Heinz Kähler studied classical archaeology and art history at the university of Freiburg in Breisgau. He studied under Hans Dragendorff and completed his dissertation in 1929. Upon being granted a travel stipend from the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Kähler travelled during 1930-31 in France, Spain, Greece, Rome and Asia Minor. He returned to Germany, where he worked at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Afterward he was assistant to the Archaeological Seminar of Ernst Buschor at the University of Munich as well as in its museum of casts. His major study of the sculpture of the Great Pergamon Altar appeared in 1942. His professorial dissertation was completed there in 1943 while serving in the German army during World War II. After the war his study of Hadrian's villa at Tivoli appeared in 1950. He was appointed Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Saarbrücken. His work on the Arch of Constantine in Rome and the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia of Praeneste, 1958, both were completed at Saarbrücken. He co-founded with Jacques Moreau the Monumenta Artis Romanae series of publications, writing personally the volume on the statue of Augustus from Prima Porta. In 1960 he succeeded Andreas Rumpf at the University at Cologne in the Institut für Klassische Archäologie. He would teach there until 1973. At Cologne he authored his major work, Rom und sein Imperium, which was translated into English in 1963 and became widely used text for Roman art. A second volume in the Monumenta Artis Romanae book series on the Gemma Augustea appeared in 1968. Among his many students was the Roman art historian Gerhard Koeppel.