Ernst Heinrich Toelken

Ernst Heinrich Toelken (1 November 1786, Bremen – 16 March 1869) was a German archaeologist.

Life

Early life

He was born to the Bremen businessman Heinrich Toelken. His father and mother taught him themselves in his early years, and Toelken especially emphasizes the religious and cultural education he gained from his mother, saying that "totam sese educationi meae addixit". Toelken lost his father early in life and was in later years raised by his grandfather, the businessman Ernst Trüper. Toelken went to several Bildungsanstalten and schools in his home town, including the "Rothen Waisenhauses", and then spent 1794-1802 at the "Pädagogium", studying in the top class and graduating with honours. Toelken next took the opportunity to continue his education privately, particularly in modern languages (French, English and Italian or, in his words, "Galliam, Anglicam et Italieam"), which he studied under several teachers. Because at that time not all public schools taught ancient Greek, Toelken decided to teach himself it:

"subito amore incensus, privatim in hoc studio consumsi; praepostere initium faciens ab Euripidis Hippolyto et Platonis Phaedone"

and so taught himself using material otherwise way beyond a beginner. In his mathematical inclinations, he was supported by Dr. G. R. Treviranus, who taught him the principles of spherical trigonometry.

University

On 25 April 1804 Toelken, aged 18 and as the son of Heinrich Toelken's widow, he matriculated in the theological faculty of the Georgia Augusta at Göttingen, "cui destinatus eram" (as I was destined to be"). Already in the first of his seven semesters there he shifted his focus, opting not for Eichhorn's and Planck's theological courses but instead increasingly for history, philosophy and philology, though still linking them back into theology. With his mother's approval, he used the autumn of his first semester to take the first of his characteristic trips, this time through Germany and Switzerland, of which trip he notes: "idque pene totum pedibus confeci". On returning to Göttingen, he resumed his multilateral studies, spending a year under professor Thibaut studying the Analysis of finite and infinite sizes, stating later that "Scientias quoque naturae indagatries, physicam et chemicam paululum attigi." The studies in ancient and recent history became more and more significant. At the midpoint of his study at Göttingen, he studied under Herbart, though perhaps on material he had already learned in Bremen. Toelken also a member of Herbart's secret society:

viri singularis, cujus in me officia et amicitiam laudibus nunquam satis prosequi potero.

Professor Herbart had many highly talented students, who combined a variety of philological and pedagogic interests characteristic for the "Neuhumanisten" (New Humanists), including Ernst Karl Friedrich Wunderlich, Georg Ludolf Dissen, Friedrich Thiersch and Friedrich Kohlrauschan.

Later life

He was a member of the Gesetzlose Gesellschaft zu Berlin, a social society founded in Berlin in 1809 in the aftermath of the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt to press for the reform of Prussian government and society.

He and Osiander were rare among the private instructors (Privatdozenten) of their time in being able to undertake foreign travel and a "grand tour".

At the age of 30 he became Professor of Art History at Berlin University. He was tutor to Franz Woepcke during his maths dissertation there.

He was appointed director of the Antiquarium, or Cabinet of Antiquities, at the Berlin Museum in 1832, and also became its vice-president.

A set of 419 plaster impressions of Prince Stanisław Poniatowski's (1754-1833) gem collection were presented to the King of Prussia by the prince himself (they now form the Daktyliothek Poniatowski in Berlin). They were shown to Toelken in 1832, and he was the first to doubt that the original gems were ancient, noticing that (from the known signatures of Graeco-Roman engravers) the signatures on these gems suggested that engravers working centuries apart were producing gems that were impossibly identical in style, and stating "Thus, we have here, -- and I am extremely sorry to give this hard judgement! -- in works and words a scientific deceit of such dimensions never seen in art history before." He did, however, judge their classical style with great admiration, and commented that the impressions were "indeed the most beautiful you can expect to see in art".

As a secretary of the Königlichen Akademie der Künste, he was co-signatory and co-author of an 1844 letter of thanks from it to the composer Franz Commer.

Works

External links