Gustav Hirschfeld

Gustav Hirschfeld was a German classical archaeologist. He was the great-uncle of Walter Benjamin.

Life

Born into a Jewish merchant family, he studied in Tübingen, Leipzig and Berlin and from 1870 stayed in Greece, Italy and Asia Minor as a stipendary of the German Archaeological Institute. From 1875 to 1877 he led the German excavations at Olympia, for which he was appointed extraordinary professor then ordinary professor at the University of Königsberg.

Works

Tituli statuarum sculptorumque graecorum Athena und Marsyas Paphlagonische Felsengräber Berichte über alte Geographie Die Felsenreliefs in Kleinasien und das Volk der Hittiter Griechische Inschriften des Britischen Museums

he contributed to the first two volumes of Ausgrabungen zu Olympia
From 1884 he wrote on the geographical investigation of ancient culture in the Geographischen Jahrbuch
''Aus dem Orient''