Heinrich Jacobi (archaeologist)


Heinrich Christian Jacobi was a German architect and archaeologist, specialising in the Roman Empire. He was born and died in Homburg vor der Höhe.

Life

The son of Louis Jacobi and his wife Henriette Will. He studied architecture from 1886 to 1891 at the Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg - during his studies he belonged to the Landsmannschaft Normannia fraternity. From 1895 to 1896 he led excavations in Adamclisi in Romania and travelled to see excavations of Roman sites in north Africa. He was later Regierungsbauführer in Marburg, where in 1896 he became Regierungsbaumeister. In 1899 the Prussian government gave him a job in Homburg vor der Höhe. There he became a member of the Royal Buildings Council and State Building Inspector, both in 1911. The following year he succeeded his father as director of the Saalburgmuseum. He also collaborated with his father on the restoration of the Saalburg. He designed a Protestant Gedächtniskirche on the Weberstraße in the Kirdorf district of Bad Homburg - this opened on 18 August 1913.
His first marriage to Henriette Louise was childless, though they adopted a daughter, Hildegard, nicknamed Hilde. In autumn 1914 he became a Hauptmann of the Landwehr in the Ersatz-Bataillon of the 80th Fusilier Regiment in Wiesbaden. In 1915 he was put in command of a battalion of the 83rd Reserve Infantry Regiment in Homburg After the end of the First World War he resumed his duties as director of the Saalburgmuseum. After his first wife's death in 1925 he remarried in 1926 to Henriette Louise Johanna Trapp, daughter of Eduard Christian Trapp. 1926 also saw him receive an honorary doctorate. He held his post as director until 1936, well past the usual age limit, and took on the role again from 1945 to 1946.

Awards