Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann (1909–1993) e il Deutsches Archäologisches Institut di Roma durante il Nazionalsocialismo

Abstract

During the Nazi regime, the German Archeological Institute in Rome underwent a turbulent period. The Institute was closed in 1944 and its library transferred to an Austrian mine. Only after the end of World War II, in 1946, was the library restored to the Italian capital. Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann (1909–1993), one of the most renowned scholars of archaeology and Early Christian and Byzantine art of his day and the Institute's Referent für die Christliche Archäologie, was a key figure in determining that organization's history. Thanks to Deichmann's efforts, the Institute managed to restart its activity in 1953. By analyzing the many documents and letters of the Nachlass Deichmanns preserved today in the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, this article reconstructs the numerous difficulties the Roman institute faced during the period under consideration.