Aby Warburg
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"Jew by birth, Hamburger at heart, Florentine in spirit"—this is how Aby Warburg once described himself. As one of the pioneers of modern cultural studies, he studied the influence of antiquity on the modern age. Breaking through academic habitudes, the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (K.B.W.) was established in Hamburg as the result of his work and the necessary basis for its continuation.
Biography
1871
The family moves to the district of Rotherbaum
13.6.1866
Born in Hamburg (Grindelviertel), the eldest of seven children. Parents: Charlotte Esther (née Oppenheim) and Moritz Warburg, head of the family-run banking house, M. M. Warburg & Co., founded in 1798
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1873 – 1885
Besuch der Vorschule und des Realgymnasiums des Hamburger Johanneums
1879
Since-legendary forfeiture of primogeniture and transferal of rights to his brother Max, on the condition that he agrees to provide the funds to purchase any book that Aby desires in future
1885
Abitur (A-Levels) at the Realgymnasium of the Johanneum
1886
Sits additional exams in Greek, Latin and ancient history at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. Intended profession: archaeologist
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1888
Warburg meets his future wife, sculptor and painter Mary Hertz, in Florence
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1891
Attains his PhD in Strasbourg; theme of dissertation: Sandro Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ and ‘Primavera’: A Study on the Ideas of Antiquity in the Italian Early Renaissance
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1892 – 1893
Military service in Karlsruhe as a horseman in an artillery regiment
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1893
Publication of his dissertation; the first of Warburg’s many publications
1893 - 1895
Archive studies in Florence, including investigations into the festivals held at the Seicento in Florence; summer sojourns in Hamburg, Germany
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1895
Travels to the United States to attend the wedding of his brother, Paul M. Warburg
Visits the Hopi Indians, acquires various objects, which he then donates to the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg.
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1897
Marries Mary Hertz; their daughter Marietta is born in 1899, their son Max Adolph in 1902, and daughter Frede Charlotte in 1904
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1900
Plans commence for building of the ‘Warburg Library of Cultural Studies’ in Hamburg.
1904
Family returns to Hamburg
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1909
The Warburgs move into the house at no. 114 Heilwigstraße and acquire the neighbouring plot of land at Heilwigstraße 116
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1911
Meets Fritz Saxl for the first time
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1912
Turns down position in Halle. Appointed by the Hamburg Senate as professor to the nascent Hamburg University, eventually founded in 1919.
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His Schifanoia lecture at the International Congress of Art Historians in Rome marks the ‘birth’ of iconology
1913
Fritz Saxl takes up post at the library
1915
Meets Erwin Panofsky for the first time
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1918
Signs of mental illness; treatment at the private clinic of Dr Lienau, Hamburg
1920
Publication of Pagan-Antique Prophecy in Words and Images in the Age of Luther
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1921 – 1924
Stays at Ludwig Binswanger’s private clinic, Bellevue, in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
1923
Lecture on the ‘snake ritual’, delivered in Bellevue clinic on 21 April
1924
Meets Ernst Cassirer for the first time in Kreuzlingen
Returns to Hamburg in August
1925 – 1929
Gives seminars for the art history course at the University of Hamburg
Works on the Mnemosyne Atlas, his many picture series and the Bildersammlung zur Geschichte von Sternglaube und Sternkunde, on the history of astrology and astronomy
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1926
Participates in the Oriental studies conference in Hamburg
Visualizes design for a postage stamp on the theme of
idea vincit
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1928 - 1929
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Stays in Italy with Gertrud Bing, continues work on the Mnemosyne Atlas, gives several lectures, including at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome
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1929
Warburg dies in Hamburg on 26 October
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1930
Warburg’s ‘Image Collection on the History of Astrology and Astronomy’ opens at the Hamburg Planetarium
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1933
K.B.W. relocates to London
Warburg’s study practices and approaches are continued, advanced and rediscovered. They inform and inspire scholarship in art and cultural history, visual studies, as well as other branches of the humanities.