Image Archive and Research Platform for the Islamic, Ancient and Christian Orient
Wilhelm (from) Bode, director-general of the Royal Museums in Berlin since 1905, had started early to collect Islamic carpets in Italy. He has the great merit of having initiated an Islamic department at the Berlin Museums. He also inspired the young Friedrich Sarre for the Islamic art history and later won him as director of the newly founded department (1904).
Ernst Cohn-Wiener (until 1907 Cohn), born in Tilsit in 1882, was a versatile art historian who not only dealt with European, Jewish and Islamic art history, but also researched and published on Asian art in general. In particular, his 1930 published work on the architecture of Central Asia in Islamic times is known in professional circles (Turan: Islamic architecture in Central Asia, Berlin 1930), which still has lasting value because of the numerous good photographs from the 1920s.
Katharina Otto-Dorn (b. Käthe Dorn) stood in direct succession of the founding generation of Islamic Art History, scholars and researchers as Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945) and Josef Strzygowski (1862-1941), her supervisor in Vienna, where she was awarded with a doctorate (dissertation thesis on Sassanian Silverware in 1933).
The explorer, traveler, collector and later first director of the "Islamic Department" of the Royal Museums of Berlin (now Museum of Islamic Art of the Berlin State Museums) Friedrich Paul Sarre can be considered the actual founder of Islamic Art History, including architecture and archeology of the Islamic periods. Between 1895 and 1900 he undertook several major expeditions to Anatolia (Ottoman Empire), Persia (Iran) and Turkestan (Russian Empire). See the article "Philipp Walter Schulz and Friedrich Sarre: Two German Pioneers in the Development of Persian Art Studies on Academia.
German Art Historian and Architect, b. 1.1.1850 in Nischwitz near Wurzen (Saxonia), d. 25.3.1938 in Dresden. 1890 Habilitation at the TH Charlottenburg, from 1893 until 1920 Professor of History of Architecture at the TH Dresden. Gurlitt has been known for his works on baroque, rococo und classcism, his works on Islamic / Ottoman Architecture are widely unknown to the public, and are not mentioned in the DBE (Deutschen Bibliographischen Enzyklopädie) at all.
