Full Name: Hoeltje, Georg Heinrich
Gender: male
Date Born: 16 March 1906
Date Died: 07 June 1996
Place Born: Duisburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Place Died: Hamburg, Germany
Home Country/ies: Germany
Institution(s): Technische Hochschule Hannover
Overview
Hoeltje was born to Edmund Hoeltje, a professor and director of a mechanical engineering institute. His family moved from Hannover to Hagen and later Essen both where he attended schools. After graduation, Hoeltje studied art history at a variety of universities as was the tradition in Germany. He began at Rostock in 1924 under Max Hauttmann for one semester, then the Technische Hochschule in Hannover between 1924 and 1925, briefly at the University of Munich in 1925, and finally under Paul Frankl at the University of Halle (Saale) in 1926. His doctorate was granted at the Friedrichs-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in 1929 under Frankl, his dissertation titled Zeitliche und begriffliche Abgrenzung der Spätgotik innerhalb der Architektur von Deutschland, Frankreich und England (Temporal and conceptual outline of the late Gothic period within the architecture of Germany, France and England). He married a painter, Lilo Flues. He published mostly popular books at this time on art from commissioned series such as Deutsche Lande, Deutsche Kunst.
Between 1932 and 1939, he taught as a privatdozent at the Hochschule in Hannover . In 1932, his habilitation was accepted and published through the Hochschule, “Pläne zur Erweiterung der Stadt Hannover in der Zeit von den Befreiungskriegen bis zur Einführung der Eisenbah.“ (Hannover’s renewal plan from the wars of liberation to the introduction of the railroad). The Nazi assumption of power in Germany in 1933 made teaching modern art, which Hoeltje endorsed, difficult. His father, Edmund, was now the head of the city council of Görlitz, Germany, appointed by Nazi party members. In 1939, Georg Hoeltje became an associate professor at the Universität Bonn. Opposition from the Nazi government to his teaching and his likely persecution led to his emigration to Sao Paolo, Brazil in 1939. He remained there throughout World Wat II, finally returning to Germany in 1954.
He secured a lectureship at the Hochschule again and a full professorship the following year, the school anxious to fill positions with non-Nazi sympathizers. Among his later works were Bauherr und Baustil Bischof Bernward von Hildesheim und Abt Suger von St. Denis (The Master of Building and Style, Bischof Bernward von Hildesheim and Abbott Suger vof St. Denis). He lectured briefly in 1957 at the Werkakademie in Kassel. After retirement, Hoeltje continued to give lectures at the Hochschule.
Selected Bibliography
- [dissertation:]Zeitliche und begriffliche Abgrenzung der Spätgotik innerhalb der Architektur von Deutschland, Frankreich und England Weimar: Druck von Straubing & Müller, 1930;
- Hannover. (Deutsche Lande, Deutsche Kunst series) Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1931;
- Schöne Plastik aus drei Epochen. Hannover: Kunstverein Hannover, 1931;
- Pläne zur Erweiterung der Stadt Hannover von der Zeit der Befreiungskriege bis zur Einführung der Eisenbahn. Hannover, 1932;
- Bauherr und Baustil Bischof Bernward von Hildesheim und Abt Suger von St. Denis. Hannover 1956;
- Laves. Baumeister seiner Zeit. Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag Schmidt-Küster, 1964;
- Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves. Hannover: Steinbock-Verlag, 1964;
- Bauliche Aussage: gestern und heute.(Vortragsreihe der Niedersächsischen Landesregierung zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung in Niedersachsen, 49). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1973.
Sources
- Kokkelink, Günther. ”Der Lehrer und Forscher: Eine Würdigung.” Festschrift für Georg Hoeltje. Hannover: Institut für Bau- und Kunstgeschichte Hannover, 1988, pp. 11-16;
- Wendland, Ulrike. Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil: Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertrieben Wissenschaftler
Contributors: Cassandra Klos, Lee Sorensen, and Zahra Hassan