Böttiger, Karl August

Karl August Böttiger, German archaeologist and classicist, 1760-1835

Karl August Böttiger was a German archaeologist and classicist, a prominent member of the literary and artistic circles in Weimar and Jena, and one of the most influential personalities of the Goethe era. Under the influence of Johann Gottfried Herder, he was for 13 years headmaster at the gymnasium and consistorial councillor in Weimar, from 1790 to 1804. For the remaining 31 years of his life, he resided at Dresden as director of the Museum of Antiquities, and was active as a journalist and public lecturer.