Theodor Wiegand

Who was Theodor Wiegand?

Theodor Wiegand was one of the most famous German archaeologists.

Wiegand was born in Bendorf, Rhenish Prussia. He studied at Munich, Berlin, and Freiburg. In 1894 he worked under Wilhelm Dörpfeld at the excavation of the Athenian Acropolis. From 1895 till 1899 he excavated the ancient Greek cities of Priene, from 1899 till 1911 Miletus, he took part at the excavations of the sanctuary of Didyma and of Samos. In Pergamon he discovered, in 1927, the arsenals of the castle at the acropolis and excavated the large sanctuary of Asklepios outside the city. He also finished the excavations at Baalbek in Lebanon and published the results.

From 1899 till 1911 he worked for the museums of Berlin as a Foreign Director in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and was the science attaché of the German Embassy there. From 1912 till 1930 he worked as the director of the department of Antiquities in the museums of Berlin, when they built the Pergamon Museum for Ancient Architecture. He died in Berlin.