Kiesow, Gottfried

Art historian, President of the Hesse State Office for the Preservation of Monuments

Born: 07.07.1931 in Alt Gennin (district of Landsberg an der Warthe)

died: 07.11.2011 in Wiesbaden

After moving to West Germany in 1950 for political reasons, Kiesow studied art history, classical archaeology and history in Göttingen from 1951-56 and completed his studies with a doctorate.

In 1956, he was awarded a research contract by the German Research Foundation on the subject of "Gothic Architecture in Tuscany" at the Institute of Art History in Florence. From 1961, he worked for two years as district monument conservator in Hanover and then for three years as district conservator in Braunschweig. In 1966 he became state curator in Hesse. From 1990 until his retirement in 1996, Kiesow was President of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse. From 1970, he took on teaching assignments at the universities of Heidelberg, Marburg and Frankfurt am Main, where he was an honorary professor in the Department of Art History from 1975. From 1975-78, he was also chairman of the Association of State Monument Conservators in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kiesow was district chairman of the FDP Wiesbaden for many years and was a member of the Wiesbaden city council from 1985-97, serving as deputy city council chairman from 1991-97. He was involved in the board of the Protestant market church community and campaigned for Wiesbaden's inclusion in the World Heritage List.

In 1985, he was one of the founding members of the "German Foundation for Monument Protection". In 1990, he was elected Deputy Chairman, held the position of Chairman from 1994-2010 and has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees since 2011. Kiesow had a lasting impact on the work of the foundation. After 1989, he was particularly committed to the preservation of dilapidated architectural monuments in East Germany. In 1991, he was one of the founders of the training center for craftsmanship and monument preservation in Görlitz. Thanks to his efforts, the cities of Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund, as well as the old towns of Quedlinburg and Görlitz, were saved from final destruction.

Eight cities made him an honorary citizen: Görlitz (1995), Morschen (1997), Quedlinburg (1998), Stralsund and Wismar (2004), Zittau (2005), Romrod (2005) and Wiesbaden (2006). He has received numerous other honors. In 2000, the Federal President awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2001 he received the Cultural Prize of the State Capital of Wiesbaden and in 2004 an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Dresden. In 2011, he was awarded the German National Prize by the German National Foundation for his life's work.

Kiesow has written numerous publications since 1963. After the death of his wife, K. set up the "Ingeborg and Gottfried Kiesow Foundation" with his private assets, with which he supported three monument academies in Romrod, Görlitz and Frankfurt-Höchst.