Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder

Ludwig Lindenschmit (the Elder) (September 4, 1809 - February 14, 1893) was a German history painter, prehistorian and art instructor who was a native of Mainz. He studied art in Vienna and Munich, and beginning in 1831 was a high school art teacher in Mainz. He was a younger brother to history painter Wilhelm Lindenschmit (1806-1848), and father to prehistorian Ludwig Lindenschmit (the Younger) (1850-1922).

Lindenschmit was an art teacher in Mainz from 1831 until the 1870s, and as his career progressed he became increasingly interested in research of prehistoric Germanic antiquities. In 1851 he became head of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum (RGZM) in Mainz, where he performed pioneer studies of antiquities of Central Europe. In 1848 he published "Das Germanische Totenlager von Selzen", which was an important treatise about Germanic sepulchral mounds. Lindenschmit was also a vocal critic of the "three-age system" developed by archaeologist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788-1865}.

With anatomist Alexander Ecker (1816-1887) he founded the "Archiv für Anthropologie", and as a painter he assisted his brother Wilhelm with the historic frescoes at Hohenschwangau Castle in the district Ostallgäu.

Selected publications

* "Das Germanische Totenlager von Selzen" (1848)
* "Die Altertümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit" (1858-90)
* "Die Altertümer der merovingischen Zeit" (1880-89)
* "Tracht und Bewaffnung des römischen Heeres während der Kaiserzeit" (1882)

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=m0IrAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA289&lpg=PA289&dq=%22Ludwig+Lindenschmit%22+1809&source=web&ots=hN7TpjGJaz&sig=-7L2ifU0yM0GQvvOjRk0ssCDzac The New International Encyclopaedia]
* "This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia."