Gertrud Schiller (7 January 1905 – 4 December 1994) was a Germanart historian, nurse,social pedagogue and Lutheran teacher of religion. Despite not having a doctorate in art history, she wrote what remains a standard work on Christianiconography. Schiller received an honorary doctorate from theKirchliche Hochschule Berlin in 1979.[1][2]
Schiller was born on 7 January 1905 in Beerbach (now part ofLauf an der Pegnitz), the daughter of the pastor and laterdean Wilhelm Heinrich Schiller and his wife Elise Anna Margaretha Schiller, née Kübel. She grew up in Beerbach andAugsburg.
From 1915 she attended the Anna Barbara von Stettensches Institut, aHöhere Mädchenschule in Augsburg, which did not allow its students to take theAbitur. This meant that she could not study art history at university. DuringFirst World War, she suffered the death of cousins and uncles. In 1923, she attended a household school (Haushaltsschule) inMunich and then learned nursing care at the municipal hospital in Augsburg.
In 1927, Schiller decided to pursue the then new profession ofsocial pedagogue and therefore went toFrankfurt. She chose the topic "Adult Education and Elementary Schools" for her exam to enter. During her training she held a six-month internship at the welfare office (Wohlfahrtsamt) inMarburg, which was also responsible for the youth welfare office (Jugendbehörde) inHamburg at the time. After her training, she accepted a job at theProtestant Church in Hamburg and moved there in 1928.
In 1930 she became director of theClemens-Schulz-Heim, a church conference centre inKuddewörde. Under the Nazi regime, churches rather than schools had to deliver religious instruction. Schiller took a course to qualify as an instructor at theJohannesstift [de] inSpandau. At this time, she became interested in the medieval art on display at theKaiser-Friedrich-Museum.
In 1944, Schiller gave religious instruction inFranconian Switzerland, but lived inBamberg. After the war ended, she suggested establishing an office for advising congregations on artistic matters.[3] From 1946 to 1969, Schiller was head of the church art service, an office of the Lutheran Church in Hamburg.[3] She encouraged young theologians and artists at the Kirchliche Hochschule Hamburg. In 1979, was awarded anhonorary doctorate from theKirchliche Hochschule Berlin.[4]
In 1994 she died inGrafrath, and was buried in Augsburg.
Schiller's standard work on Christianiconography,[5]Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, was published in a total of seven volumes in German, from 1966 to 1991 - it was planned as five volumes, but in the last two the text and illustrations were bound separately. A second edition, slightly revised, was published in German.[6] The first two volumes only have been translated into English, by Janet Seligman, using the revised edition. These were published asIconography of Christian Art in 1971 and 1972 by Lund Humphries in London and the New York Graphic Society in New York.
In 1938 she published a book in three volumes, titledImages of the Bible (Easter,Christmas,Encounters with Christ) at theAtlantis Verlag [de], which were published in the second edition by the Johannes Stauda-Verlag inKassel.
In 1941, two further volumes,The Passion of Christ andCreation were also published there. Following a review byWilhelm Stählin, theDeutscher Caritasverband requested Schiller to set up an iconographic library. In Freiburg she got in touch withReinhold Schneider. At the end of the war, she wroteDas Licht scheint in der Finsternis, which was published in 1946 by Johannes-Stauda-Verlag.[3]
