Konrad Johannes Ernst Zimmermann (born Junie 18, 1940 in Plowdiw) is a German Klassischer Archäologe.
Konrad Zimmermann was born in Bulgaria, where his father Johannes Zimmermann taught as a secondary school teacher at the German School in Plovdiv. After his father was called up for the Wehrmacht, his mother returned with him to their families of origin in the Erzgebirge in 1942. After the war, the family moved to Königs Wusterhausen so that his war-blind father could resume his profession as a teacher of Latin, ancient Greek and mathematics at the local school for the blind. .
After graduating from high school, Konrad Zimmermann began studying Classical Archaeology and Ancient Oriental Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1964 he passed his diploma examination and became a research assistant to Gottfried von Lücken at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Rostock. His doctoral thesis was on Athena statues in Dresden. Their Acquisition and Position in the Development of the Greek Athena Image as a Contribution to the History of the Dresden Collection of Classical Antiquities was completed in December 1969. The examiners were Ludger Alscher and Gottfried von Lücken. In 1983 followed the doctorate B on the topic Roof Terracottas of Greek Period from Histria. Studies on the typology, dating and distribution of ceramic building elements in the Black Sea region. In addition to Petre Alexandrescu and Wolfgang Schindler, Ludger Alscher was again the reviewer. In 1972 Zimmermann became a senior assistant in Rostock, where he was the only representative of his subject until the restructuring of the discipline after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1992. After his habilitation in 1987, he was a university lecturer in Classical Archaeology until 1992. After the reorganisation of the university following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zimmermann was appointed professor in Rostock in 1992. He retired in 2005 and was succeeded by Detlev Wannagat.
From 1991 until 1995, Zimmermann was the spokesperson of the newly founded Heinrich Schliemann Institute for Classical Studies and played a significant role in its establishment. From 1990 until his retirement, he was a member of the Council of the Faculty of Humanities without interruption and served two terms - from 1994 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2000 - as its Vice-Dean. He was a member of the Council from 1990 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2004. As chair, Zimmermann was also director of the Archaeological Collection as well as that of the university's former Academic Coin Cabinet. From 1991 to 1994 he held the position of Rostock local chairman of the German University Association and was a board member of the German Archaeologists' Association from 1992 to 1996. From 1993 to 1997 Zimmermann was a member of the study commission of the Mommsen Society. He has been a member of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) since 1990 and was the representative of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg in the DAI's central directorate from 1994 to 2008.
Zimmermann worked on several major projects in the field of classical antiquities in the GDR. In addition, he researched mainly Greek and Roman sculpture as well as Greek ceramics and roof terracottas. One of his main areas of research is Black Sea archaeology; he took part in excavations in Histria. Zimmermann is also concerned with the history of classical archaeology, especially the biographies of Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Heinrich Schliemann. He was significantly involved in the conception and construction of the Heinrich Schliemann Memorial in Neubukow.
[[Category:Men]] [[Category:1940 births]] [[Category:German people]] [[Category:Scholars of ancient Greek pottery]] [[Category:Academic staff of the University of Rostock]] [[Category:Classical archaeologists]]