Ernst Boetticher (;The second name and surname had the spelling form Carl Boetticher during his lifetime; the variants “Karl” and “Bötticher” were used much less frequently. 30 July 1842 – 1 February 1930)Boetticher, Ernst (1842—1930). Kalliope-Verbund. Дата обращения: 5 July 2021. was a Prussian Army soldier and journalist, best known as Heinrich Schliemann’s opponent.
He began his military career at the age of 18 and took part in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars, where he was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class. He retired in 1876 in the rank of captain. He studied at the University of Berlin, passing through several specialities (politics, political economy, history, philosophy). Interested in archaeology, he was elected a member of the Berlin Archaeological Society in 1885, from which he was expelled in 1889. After his resignation, his main occupation was journalism.
In the early 1880s, Boetticher published a series of articles on archaeology, ethnography and politics. He gained scandalous fame with articles arguing that Schliemann's findings at Troy represented a "fire necropolis" rather than an ancient city proper. The active position of the retired officer led to the organisation of two Troy conferences (December 1889 and March 1890), whose participants signed a protocol confirming that the ancient cities excavated by Schliemann were successive settlements. After Schliemann's death, Boetticher continued to publish articles and books in defence of Schliemann's ideas until at least 1911, earning him the reputation of a "mad scientist".
Boetticher's academic biography was only published in 2009. German historiography of the 21st century compares the strategies of self-promotion and promotion of one's theories developed by Schliemann and Boetticher, both of whom are considered dilettantes in archaeology. For Heinrich Schliemann, however, self-aggrandisement through public opinion and the media was necessary to achieve academic recognition and a career change from merchant to scholar-archaeologist. He took the advice of highly professional scientists and specialists such as Rudolf Virchow and Wilhelm Dörpfeld and actively learned from them. Boetticher was never able to cross the line separating the scientist from the dilettante, he was unable to accept criticism, which led him to promote "conspiracy theories" and into oblivion.
Biography
Military career Schliemann's life is well documented, but there is little information about Boetticher. Also, many archives with information were lost during World War II. Ernst Boetticher was born on 30 July 1842 in Düsseldorf to Johann August Wilhelm and Wilhelmina Johanna Elisabeth Schulz. Ernst had a brother, Hermann, but there is no information about him. His father was a printer and publisher. In 1853 he became burgomaster of Otweiler. In 1860, he was appointed district mayor of Sigmaringen and died the same year. In 1860, Ernst Boetticher graduated from the Düsseldorf Gymnasium and joined the army. In 1861-1864, he studied at the Berlin Joint Artillery and Engineering School. In 1862, he was promoted to junior lieutenant and assigned to a howitzer battery of the Eighth Artillery Brigade stationed in Jülich. After it was disbanded, Boetticher was transferred to Cologne to a Second Infantry Brigade battery. This battery fought in the Austro-Prussian War, including at the Battle of Königgrätz on 3 July 1866. On 12 September, his unit returned to Cologne. In winter 1867-68, he moved to Koblenz as adjutant to the Third Infantry Regiment commander. In 1869, he was transferred to Cologne, promoted to senior lieutenant and assigned to the infantry section of the Rhine Artillery Regiment.Little is known about Boetticher's service in the Franco-Prussian War. His regiment was used in two different parts of the war: one fought in northern France, the other supported the siege artillery. Ernst was probably in the siege battery. In late September 1870, he was listed as a member of Captain Kaulbach's fourth company. On October 17, he arrived in Paris with his fellow soldiers. There is a gap in his service record. On 6 January 1871, he replaced the wounded Captain Richard Hoffmann von Waldau, commander of the sixth company of the siege artillery regiment of the Guards. On 27 January, Ernst Boetticher was awarded the second-class Iron Cross. 510 men were honoured with this award during the war. There is no evidence, that Ernst Boetticher was awarded other medals. He also marched in the victory parade before the heir to the throne. Boetticher was transferred to the Rhine Fortress Artillery Regiment in 1873. In 1874, he was promoted to Hauptmann and became a company commander. In 1876, Ernst Boetticher retired from the military. We don't know why he retired because the Prussian military archives were destroyed in 1945.
Journalist After Boetticher resigned, there is no proof of where he was until 1881. He probably settled in the capital in 1880 and made several trips to museums in Kassel, Weimar, Gotha, Leipzig, Dresden, Breslau, Nuremberg and Munich. In 1881, he was studying at the University of Berlin, getting top marks in politics, history, economics and philosophy. On 20 June 1885, Boettischer became a full member of the Berlin Archaeological Society. He remained a member until 1 November 1889. From his letters, we can see that Ernst Boetticher was educated and spoke English, French and Italian. He knew classical languages well.
In the 1880s, Ernst Boetticher started writing for newspapers under the name Otto von Weiler. In 1882, he became interested in interpreting Schliemann's excavations at Hissarlik. In 1883, he published an article in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie about a type of funerary vessel with images of human and animal faces. In January 1884, Boetticher became editor of the Mixture department in the Zeitschrift für Museologie und Antiquitätenkunde. After the death of the chief editor, Johann-Georg Gresse, he took over the publication. The journal closed on 31 December 1885. Boetticher had a bad reputation because of his conflict with Rudolf Virchow. In 1889 he was expelled from the Berlin Archaeological Society. Extant correspondence from 1884-1888 between Boetticher and the editors of some journals, especially the ethnographic Das Auslands, indicates that many of his manuscripts (including articles on German gods and heroes) were rejected and returned to the author.
As evidenced in his address books, Boettcher resided in Munich between the summer of 1887 and the fall of 1889, residing at No. 21 Maximilianstrasse. His extensive bibliography from this period encompasses a diverse range of subjects, including Fayum portraits and reviews of modern painting exhibitions. In the field of archaeology, he gained notoriety for his controversial theory regarding unglazed pottery. Boetticher posited that such vessels were not functional and were instead late imitations, unsuitable for everyday use. This resulted in some contention regarding the donation of nine vessels to the Bavarian National Museum. In contemporary catalogues, they are designated as "Old Germanic”.By the time he was based in Munich, Ernst Boetticher had become a member of the Association of German Writers. Documents from April 1889 have been preserved, which indicate that an inquiry was made to the Association to confirm Boetticher's pension payment. The correspondence with Schliemann and Dörpfeld was conducted through the editors of the newspaper Münchner Neueste Nachrichten. The inaugural Hissarlık Conference was convened between December 1-6, 1889, in Troas. Thereafter, Boetticher relocated to Berlin, as evidenced by the correspondence dated March 1-3, 1890. The management of the Berlin Royal Library declined to lend books to the retired Hauptmann and demanded references. In response, Boetticher asserted that his publications in the fields of culture, archaeology, and art history provided sufficient publicity. Furthermore, surviving correspondence with the Austrian archaeologist Otto Benndorf mentioned, that Boetticher was engaged with Trojan archaeological questions that were distinct from his polemics with Schliemann. In 1892, Otto Crusius refuted Boetticher's article on the geographical locations of Troy and Thymbra. This is evidenced by a letter from the author thanking Crusius for his comprehensive analysis of the errors in the article. In 1896, as evidenced by correspondence, Boetticher visited his army friend in Potsdam and exchanged angry letters with the Berlin library authorities, who charged him a penalty for a four-month overdue subscription, as the maximum period for using a book did not exceed two months. In the same year, Boetticher published an article in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten in which he advocated the resumption of gold mining in the ancient deposits of Thasos. In 1896, he was employed as the editor of the daily newspaper Hamburger Nachrichten, a position he held until at least 1903.
On April 26, 1898, Ernst Boetticher got married with Anna Martha Widmann, who was born in 1866. Her father, the poet Christian Widmann, had by that time already passed away. Anna and her mother Charlotte were neighbors of the journalist. According to the available evidence, the Boetticher couple resided in Berlin until the spring of 1914. Ernst's mother-in-law is known to have died no later than 1900. The head of the family continued to pursue a career in journalism, as evidenced by the few surviving letters, which suggest that his interests remained consistent. In the spring of 1914, the couple relocated to Blankenburg in Harz. Ernst Boetticher sent the last surviving letter to Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff in June from this new residence. Subsequently, likely due to age-related changes, Boetticher ceased engaging in intellectual pursuits. The last decade and a half of his life remains largely uncharted. He died on February 1, 1930, in a hospital in Blankenburg, as a result of a stroke, at the age of 87. On February 5, hisremains were cremated in Quedlinburg, and the urn with his ashes was interred in the Blankenburg City Cemetery. Anna Boetticher departed from Blankenburg in 1933, and her ultimate fate remains uncertain. In April 1945, retreating Nazi troops burned the town archives, which has made it difficult to ascertain her whereabouts and circumstances.
Dispute with Heinrich Schliemann
The first period (1883—1887)