Koepp, Friedrich

Classical archaeologist

Born: 03.02.1860 in Biebrich on the Rhine

Died: 09.05.1944 in Münster

Throughout his life, the archaeologist Koepp was preoccupied with the Varus Battle. Koepp studied in Bonn and Göttingen, where Karl Dilthey, the brother of philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey, one of Koepp's uncles, was his academic teacher. He completed his doctorate with a thesis on Greek mythology, traveled to the ancient sites of Greece in 1884, took part in the excavations at Pergamon and then spent long periods in Rome, Naples and Pompeii. After his habilitation in 1891, Koepp took on a teaching position for archaeology and history in Münster.

In 1899, as a member of the Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, founded in 1896, Koepp took part in an exploratory excavation in Haltern, where the Roman fort of Aliso was suspected. Under his direction, the Roman camp was discovered in the following years.

On Koepp's initiative, the Roman-Germanic Museum was opened in Haltern in 1907. A street here was named after him. Koepp became a member of the Roman-Germanic Commission in Frankfurt in 1908 and its director in 1916. He moved to Frankfurt, where he also took up a teaching position at the university. In 1925 he moved to Göttingen.