Medenbach, Olaf
The von Portheim Foundation in Heidelberg: A Century for Science and the Arts
In 2019, the ›Josefine and Eduard von Portheim Foundation for Science and the Arts‹ celebrated its centenary. The book gives a summary description of the development of the Foundation, its institutes and collections from its establishment until the difficult new start after the Second World War. It is equally the history of today’s Ethnographic Museum vPST which is based on the Foundation’s former Ethnographic Institute. The publication provides information on the life and work of Victor and Leontine Goldschmidt, who established and endowed the Foundation, on its guiding ideas and purpose, and on its misuse under the National Socialist regime. It looks at the scientific work of Victor Goldschmidt, the eminent crystallographer, at his attempts to bridge the gap between sciences and the humanities, and the manifold relations between the Foundation and the University of Heidelberg.
