A concise description of Angelis penned by the archeologist Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen (Hiller von Gaertringen 1901, 26 f.) in 1901 \u2013 heavily indebted to the style and zeitgeist of his time \u2013 transports us in medias res<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u201dEveryone who has ever been involved with the German Institute and its work knows this man. Since the beginning of the excavations at Olympia, he has always, again and again, been active in the service of the Institute. On every one of the great trips to the Peloponnese, he bore the ultimate responsibility for securing mounts and lodgings for all the participants as they traveled through mountainous Arcadia. In his Greek national dress, the fustanella<\/em>, and with his broad, now graying beard and his honest, fearless, and intelligent expression, he is one of the best and most appealing exponents of the unspoiled, powerful Hellenic Volk<\/em>, dedicated to his task and to the person of his master with his whole soul. He wields absolute authority over his workers, whom he treats fairly and with rare impartiality, while not permitting any carelessness on their part\u201d (Hiller von Gaertringen 1901, 26).<\/p>\n Hiller von Gaertringen knew Angelis well: he had worked for Hiller and his colleagues several times (1896, 1897, 1899, 1902) as a foreman and excavation supervisor on Thera (fig. 1). In addition to the description above, which derives from a public lecture for a general audience, Hiller mentions Angelis repeatedly in his excavation reports, describing his good archeological eye, his initiative, and his efficient work manner (fig. 2): \u201dNot far from the highest point in the city, on July 13, Angelis happened upon the corner of a marble base, which turned out to be an altar to Hestia. On his own initiative, he had the men dig further and found the corner of a building. The next day proved that the move was a good one: no fewer than two youths\u2019 heads, […] a large Hellenistic statue of a woman, […] and the dedication of a gymnasiarch were found in the building\u201d (Hiller von Gaertringen 1899, 29 and 31). \u201dOf course, Angelis was not satisfied with carting away debris from this badly preserved tangle of walls that had been reworked at a later date; and when Angelis is not happy with his finds, he looks for something better. Thus, on March 11, he had already deployed a few workers at a corner of the wall […]\u201d (Hiller von Gaertringen 1904, 5).<\/p>\n Angelis not only brought tools from the mainland, but also actively searched for find sites, supervised workers, haggled over the price of antiquities for museum purchases, secured lodgings for the scholarly staff and looked after their physical wellbeing (e.g. Dragendorff 1903, 7), and supported the archeologists in practical terms by solving a variety of technical problems; in this way, he won everyone\u2019s respect. Among other things, he erected \u2013 from a modern perspective \u2013 hair-raising structures on site, such as a temporary platform that one reached via three ladders stacked one on top of the other, on which Hiller copied inscriptions (Hiller von Gaertringen 1904, 24 with illustrations).<\/p>\n The Institute liked to assign Angelis to young archeologists whom he could help with his experience, such as Otto Rubensohn on Paros from 1897 to 1899 (D-DAI-ATH-Paros-0008). The Institute trusted Angelis so completely that, among other destinations, it sent him (together with at least two more foremen) to Egypt in 1900 as foreman to Ernst von Sieglin\u00b4s excavations at Alexandria as suggested by D\u00f6rpfeld. The accounts and wage lists, that Angelis kept, as well as photographs of him taken during the campaign, are now preserved in T\u00fcbingen (Laube 2012, 32 n.\u00a012, 34 fig.\u00a013).<\/p>\n In the years 1905\u20131914, Angelis was always at D\u00f6rpfeld\u2019s side as he increasingly pursued his own research interests in Homeric Greece, undertaking excavations at Tiryns, Kakovatos (\u2018Old Pylos\u2019), Leukas (\u2018Ihaka\u2019), Olympia, and Corfu (e.g. Karo 1959, 83); numerous photographs of him at the various excavation sites bear witness to this fact (figs. 3, 4).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Angelis\u2019s personal ties to the Institute were not limited to D\u00f6rpfeld, but rather grew and extended from one generation of young archeologists to the next:<\/p>\n When excavations in Tiryns resumed under the direction of Georg Karo in 1910, Angelis Kosmopoulos supported him as foreman (Karo 1959, 80\u00a0f.). A photograph that survived from 1914 shows both men working together in the field on the excavation (fig.\u00a05).<\/p>\n As we have seen, there are countless photographs of Angelis Kosmopoulos from all his years of service, easily recognizable on account of his distinctive dress (D-DAI-ATH-Tiryns-0049, D-DAI-ATH-Tiryns-0050, D-DAI-ATH-Tiryns-0071). Another source provides valuable insight into the existence of this photographic abundance. In 1901, Friedrich Seiler took part in all three of the trips led by D\u00f6rpfeld that spring; he gave an account of them first in short journal contributions and, in 1904, in a book. Seiler often makes mention of Angelis and discusses him specifically at the end of the trip to the Peloponnese (Seiler 1904, 179\u00a0f.):<\/p>\n \u201dHere Angelis, whose service ended today, was photographed for the last time. This important person is actually named Kosm\u00f3poulos, a name no one ever uses, though, and comes from Magouliana in north Arcadia. His father had been involved with the German archeologists as a foreman at the excavations in Olympia. He himself passed his relationship with the Germans down to his sons Georgios and Vassili, of whom the former, a young man of about twenty, also accompanied us. His father [i.e. Angelis] is one of those phenomenal characters you cannot forget once you have come into close contact with them. His handsome, gray beard \u2013 Angelis is about sixty years old \u2013 lends him an air of dignity, and his Greek national dress, a white fustanella and similar leggings, suits him perfectly. His white leather belt had great allure for all the Greeks we ever dealt with. It served not only as a holder for his handkerchiefs, knife, and tools, but also as a wallet. From it sprang those much sought-after, greasy drachma bills that rained down over the poor villages on our route like a life-bringing shower. Angelis was an outstanding Reisemarschall.<\/em> He rented the mounts along with their drivers, bought provisions for our lunches, and mediated everything between ourselves and the Greek population. He seemed to be a familiar figure all over the Peloponnese. All the horse drivers, peasants, and tavernkeepers bowed to him, […]. Yet Angelis was always friendly and humble, usually serving us personally at lunch with devoted enthusiasm. On account of these qualities, he enjoyed the greatest popularity among the trip participants. Everyone wanted to have a picture, if possible, and he gradually became indisputably one of the most photographed people in Greece. One sees his characteristic figure not only in the large photographs that the Institute\u2019s photographer or D\u00f6rpfeld himself customarily took during the trips, but frequently private Kodaks of all sizes were also pointed all too eagerly at him, and countless times he was posed like a sacrificial lamb by columns, in front of house doors, on stone bases and memorialized on glass and film. He knew that he could make himself seen, and so he was very happy to pose\u201d.<\/p>\n Seiler thus emphasizes the organization of the Institute\u2019s expeditions as Angelis\u2019s key area of responsibility even more than Hiller von Gaertringen (fig.\u00a06).<\/p>\n One of the highlights of the Institute\u2019s annual trips was the visit to the theater in Epidaurus. To entertain the travelers there, small shows were staged, the Ancient Greek chorus was imitated, and circle dances were performed. Angelis was evidently one of the protagonists here, too (fig.\u00a07).<\/p>\n Although Angelis had begun his career as a foreman and was still regularly active as such, by about 1900 his official designation, as it were, appears to have been \u201dtour leader\u201d.<\/p>\n That emerges especially clearly from a document connected to the award of medals to distinguished members of the Institute and Greek archeologists in leading functions on the occasion of the 25-year anniversary of the department: on February 25, 1900, tour leader Angelis Kosmopoulos, employee of the Athenian department of the Archeological Institute, received from His Majesty, the Emperor and King, as represented by the Foreign Office, the Medal of the Crown Order, which was awarded to him at the dedication of the Institute\u2019s newly constructed hall (fig. 8). This honor naturally marked a highlight of Angelis\u2019s relationship with the Institute in Athens.<\/p>\n Episodes from his life also brought Angelis personal recognition. Julius Ziehen, who was on a travel scholarship, for instance, fell into a serious fever in Sparta in 1892, which \u2013 it was believed at the time \u2013 could be treated with champagne. Angelis was duly dispatched: he searched every store in Sparta for champagne until he finally found a cobweb-covered bottle with a cork and a strange fastener that proved to be the requisite medicine, and which indeed also helped the grateful patient.<\/p>\n Angelis not only served the Institute on tours and excavations. He also occasionally helped out in the headquarters in Fidiou, as emerges from expense books. For example, in September 1909, he received pay as a construction guard, apparently in connection with the construction of the Trikoupi Wing (Sporn 2018, 15).<\/p>\n Angelis\u2019s fame and distinctive appearance led to another honor of a very special nature \u2013 a curiosity, in fact. As mentioned above, D\u00f6rpfeld\u2019s loyal companion, Angelis also took part in the excavations of Kaiser Wilhelm\u00a0II in Corfu, which the latter not only financed but also followed with keen interest (e.g. Karo 1959, 83\u201390).<\/p>\n When Joseph Lauff staged the play \u2018Kerkyra\u2019 (fig. 10) for Kaiser Wilhelm II on Corfu on the occasion of the discovery of the Gorgo Temple in 1913 (link: https:\/\/www.akg-images.com\/archive\/-2UMDHUNWCG8K.html<\/a>, last visited on September 24, 2021), contemporary dances from Corfu were performed in the second part of the program \u201dwith an archeologist and his foreman Angelis\u201d as D\u00f6rpfeld puts it in the manuscript of his autobiography Mein Lebenslauf<\/em> (p.\u00a0145), which is kept today in the city archives of Wuppertal.<\/p>\n In Lauff\u00b4s play, the figure of the dancing Angelis was probably inspired by real-life events. Most likely, Lauff was aware of the Greek circle dances performed in the Kaiser\u2019s honor on Corfu (Karo 1959, 94) (cf. also the dances in Epidauros mentioned above). His decision to include Angelis in the play may therefore have been based on Angelis\u2019s appearance in traditional dress, his relationship with D\u00f6rpfeld, and his prominent role at the excavation on Corfu itself.<\/p>\n It is well known that D\u00f6rpfeld remained in regular contact with his ca. ten-years-older friend Angelis Kosmopoulos until an advanced age (Moustaka 2012, 177 fig. 4; Kankeleit 2021, figs. 15, 20). D\u00f6rpfeld even appears to have drafted plans for a house for the Kosmopoulos family in Magouliana (Kienast in print; Vogeikoff-Brogan 2020). That draft, in my opinion, might have been connected to the family of Angelis\u2019s son Georgios Kosmopoulos and his wife Leslie Walker-Kosmopoulos. This couple (see also Vogeikoff-Brogan 2020) had their own connection to D\u00f6rpfeld, which we will explore another time.<\/p>\n Angelis\u2019s importance to the DAI at Athens can be observed literally until his final breath: as late as April 1937, Angelis was present at the reopening of the excavations in Olympia (Kankeleit 2021, 191 with n. 93 and fig. 15). Three documents concerning him from November 18, 1937, survived in the archive of the DAI Athens, and are soon available online as part of the project ARCHAthen<\/a>. In one telegram, the Kosmopoulos family informs the DAI from Magouliana of the passing of its longstanding collaborator. On the same day, the leading director, Walther Wrede, informed D\u00f6rpfeld by telegram of the death of his friend and also expressed his condolences to Angelis\u2019s family in a very personal and compassionate letter (fig. 11). Thus, closed a circle of almost sixty years of close collaboration between Angelis Kosmopoulos and the German archeologists of the DAI at Athens.<\/p>\n Works cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dragendorff 1903 Herrmann 2007 Hiller von Gaertingen 1899 Hiller von Gaertingen 1901 Hiller von Gaertingen 1904 Kankeleit 2021 Karo 1959 Kienast forthcoming Moustaka 2012 Seiler 1904 Sporn 2018 Sporn 2019 Vogeikoff-Brogan 2019 Vogeikoff-Brogan 2020 Ziehen 1980 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cEveryone who has ever been involved with the German Institute and its work knows this man\u201d This entry is dedicated to Angelis Kosmopoulos, a Greek who helped shape the image of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens for decades. The … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,42,60,46,53,52,36,57,50,34,55,56,58,59,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dai-staff","category-dorpfeld-wilhelm","category-excavation-staff","category-herrmann-klaus","category-hiller-von-gaertringen-friedrich","category-karo-georg","category-kosmopoulos-angelis","category-lauff-joseph","category-muller-kurt-ferdinand","category-people","category-rubensohn-otto","category-seiler-friedrich","category-wilhelm-ii-kaiser","category-wrede-walther","category-ziehen-julius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2778,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/2778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/01_D-DAI-ATH-Thera-0384-3zu4JE-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/02_D-DAI-ATH-Thera-0362-3zu4JE-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/03_D-DAI-ATH-Triphylien-00973zu4JE-768x1024.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/04_D-DAI-ATH-Korfu-0168-3zu4JE-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/05_D-DAI-ATH-Tiryns-0607-3zu4JE-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/06_D-DAI-Arkadien-0197-2500px-3zu4-1024x767.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/07_D-DAI-ATH-Epidavros-0072-3zu4JE-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/08_Adlerorden001-2500pxWIDTH-JE-235x300.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/09_D-DAI-ATH-Korfu-0132-3zu4JE-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/10_Kerkyra_Schauspiel001-3zu4-2500WIDTH-JE-225x300.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dainst.blog\/people-at-the-dai-athens\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/10\/11_Beileidsschreiben-Wrede3zu4JE-225x300.jpg\")
Dragendorff, H., Thera: Untersuchungen, Vermessungen und Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1895\u20131902. Vol.\u00a02: Theraeische Gr\u00e4ber (Berlin 1903)<\/p>\n
Herrmann, K., \u201dWer nie Pilaf mit Unschlitt a\u00df \u2026\u201d Das alte Grabungshaus in Olympia und seine Bewohner, in: H. von Steuben (ed.) et al., Beitr\u00e4ge zur antiken Plastik \u2013 Festschrift zu Ehren von Peter Cornelis Bol (M\u00f6hnesee 2007) 13\u201340<\/p>\n
Hiller von Gaertingen, F., Thera: Untersuchungen, Vermessungen und Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1895\u20131898. Vol. 1, Die Insel Thera in Altertum und Gegenwart: mit Ausschlu\u00df der Nekropolen (Berlin 1899)<\/p>\n
Hiller von Gaertingen, F., \u2018Ausgrabungen in Griechenland.\u2019 Vortrag gehalten am 12. November 1900 in der Aula der Universit\u00e4t Rostock zum Besten der Errichtung einer Bismarcks\u00e4ule (Berlin 1901)<\/p>\n
Hiller von Gaertingen, F., and P. Wilski (eds.), Thera: Untersuchungen, Vermessungen und Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1895\u20131902. Vol. 3, Stadtgeschichte von Thera (Berlin 1904)<\/p>\n
Kankeleit, A. \u201dEr lebt allein im Kampfe f\u00fcr seine Idee.\u201d Wilhelm D\u00f6rpfeld in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, in: M. Weidhaas-Bergh\u00f6fer and A. Eich (eds.), Eine Odyssee \u2013 Studien zum Leben und Werk Wilhelm D\u00f6rpfelds (Wuppertal 2021) 162\u2013212 https:\/\/www.kankeleit.de\/pdfs\/akankeleit_doerpfeld_2021.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n
Karo, G., F\u00fcnfzig Jahre aus dem Leben eines Arch\u00e4ologen (Baden-Baden 1959)<\/p>\n
Kienast, H. J., Wilhelm D\u00f6rpfeld als Architekt, Athenische Mitteilungen (forthcoming)<\/p>\n
Moustaka, A., Die deutschen und griechischen Ausgrabungen, in: W.-D. Heilmeyer (ed.), Mythos Olympia: Kult und Spiele (Munich 2012)<\/p>\n
Seiler, F., Griechische Fahrten und Wanderungen: Reiseeindr\u00fccke und Erlebnisse (Leipzig 1904)<\/p>\n
Sporn, K., Das Deutsche Arch\u00e4ologische Institut: Entwicklung und Bedeutung, in: Das Deutsche Arch\u00e4ologische Institut in Athen: Architektur und Geschichte Athens (Athen 2018)<\/p>\n
Sporn, K., Travel and Research: Journeys and Travel Grant Recipients at the DAI Athens, in: K. Sporn and A. Kankeleit (eds.), Die Abteilung Athen des DAI und die Aktivit\u00e4ten deutscher Arch\u00e4ologen in Griechenland 1874\u20131933, Tagung DAI Cluster 5 in Athen Deutsches Arch\u00e4ologisches Institut und Benaki Museum, 12. bis 13. Dezember 2016, Beitr\u00e4ge zur Geschichte der Arch\u00e4ologie und der Altertumswissenschaften 2 (Wiesbaden 2019) 49\u201366<\/p>\n
Vogeikoff-Brogan, N., On the Trail of the \u2018German Model\u2019: \u03a4he American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), 1881\u20131918, in: K. Sporn and A. Kankeleit (eds.), Die Abteilung Athen des DAI und die Aktivit\u00e4ten deutscher Arch\u00e4ologen in Griechenland 1874\u20131933, Tagung DAI Cluster 5 in Athen Deutsches Arch\u00e4ologisches Institut und Benaki Museum, 12. bis 13. Dezember 2016, Beitr\u00e4ge zur Geschichte der Arch\u00e4ologie und der Altertumswissenschaften 2. (Wiesbaden 2019) 253\u2013267<\/p>\n
Vogeikoff-Brogan, N., \u201dAn Unconventional Union: Mr. and Mrs. George Kosmopoulos.\u201d From the Archivist\u2019s Notebook, 2020 [web blog]. March 14, 2020. https:\/\/nataliavogeikoff.com\/2020\/03\/14\/an-unconventional-union-mr-and-mrs-george-kosmopoulos\/<\/a> Accessed September 21, 2021<\/p>\n
Ziehen, H. Julius Ziehen: Erinnerungen 1864\u20131925 (Frankfurt 1980).<\/p>\n