Drama, adventure, vice and virtues, romance, and an endless thirst for travel and knowledge, all these elements and many more constitute the life story of Heinrich Schliemann, the famous excavator of Troy and Mycenae. That story begins January 6, 1822, in Neu-Buekow in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany. A year later, in 1823, the family moved to Ankershagen, a small village in the same region, where his father, Ernst, took up the post of pastor. At the age of seven, Schliemann stated he received a copy of Georg Ludwig Jerrer’s Universal History containing an engraving of Aeneas and Anchises and Troy in flames; it was then, he decided he would one day excavate Troy.
When Heinrich was 14, he completed vocational school and was apprenticed to a grocer in Fürstenberg. After the apprenticeship ended in 1841, Schliemann went to Hamburg to seek employment, then signed up as a cabin boy aboard a ship bound for South America in hope of better opportunities. But the ship ran aground off the coast of the Netherlands. A local family saved Schliemann and helped him to travel to Amsterdam where he found employment at a trading firm. In 1844 he took a job as clerk and bookkeeper for B.H. Schröder and Co., a more eminent trading and banking house. Amsterdam was where Schliemann decided he had to learn foreign languages, within four years mastering Dutch, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. In 1846, aged 24, he moved, to St. Petersburg in Russia, primarily as Schröder’s agent. By the next year Schliemann had founded his own company in the Russian capital, trading commodities such as dyewoods, indigo, camphor, and cigars.
"With deep emotion I recall the garden at Ankershagen with its flowers, pear trees, cherry trees, apple trees, plum trees, gooseberry bushes and the tall lime tree on which I carved my name. I recall the church steeple, which I imagined to be the tallest in the world..." Excerpt from Emil Ludwig, Schliemann, The Story of a Gold-seeker (Boston, 1931), p. 78
Photo of the Schliemann family home in Ankershagen, now the Heinrich-Schliemann-Museum at Ankershagen Richard Peter, photographer. Ankershagen. Heinrich-Schliemann-Museum. Deutsche Fotothek, Germany, in Copyright, Educational Use Permitted.
"I was born on the 25th December 1821/6 January 1822 in Ankershagen a small village in Mecklenburg Schwerin where my father was clergyman. Like all or nearly all clergymen my father had nine children and no money and his time being very much taken up by his duty, he was unable to procure me or to give me any education…"
ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers, Diary A2
"My father did not know Greek, but he knew Latin, and availed himself of every spare moment to teach it me. When I was hardly nine years old, my dear mother died [1831]: this was an irreparable misfortune, perhaps the greatest which could have befallen me and my six brothers and sisters…."Excerpt from Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios, The City and Country of the Trojans (New York, 1881), p. 5
Ernst Schliemann (1780-1870), father of Heinrich Schliemann ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
"Though my father was neither a scholar nor an archaeologist, he had a passion for ancient history. He often told me with warm enthusiasm of the tragic fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii…. He also related to me with admiration the great deeds of the Homeric heroes and the events of the Trojan War, always finding in me a warm defender of the Trojan cause. With great grief I heard from him that Troy had been so completely destroyed, that it had disappeared without leaving any traces of its existence. My joy may be imagined, therefore, when, being nearly eight years old, I received from him, in 1829, as a Christmas gift, Dr. Georg Ludwig Jerrer’s Universal History, with an engraving representing Troy in flames, with its huge walls and the Scaean gate, from which Aeneas is escaping, carrying his father Anchises on his back and holding his son Ascanius by the hand; and I cried out, “Father, you were mistaken: Jerrer must have seen Troy, otherwise he could not have represented it here,” “My son,” he replied, “that is merely a fanciful picture.” But to my question, whether ancient Troy had such huge walls as those depicted in the book, he answered in the affirmative. “Father,” retorted I, “if such walls once existed, they cannot possibly have been completely destroyed: vast ruins of them must still remain, but they are hidden away beneath the dust of ages.” He maintained the contrary, whilst I remained firm in my opinion, and at last we both agreed that I should one day excavate Troy."
Excerpt from Heinrich Schliemann,
Ilios, The City and Country of the Trojans (New York, 1881), p. 3
[Click here to listen to the excerpt]
Illustration from Georg Ludwig Jerrer, Die Weltgeschichte für Kinder (Nuremberg, 1828)
In 1841, at the age of 19, Schliemann arranged to leave Germany and sail to Colombia in South America to seek employment. The ship, however, encountered a tremendous storm and made it only as far as the coast of the Netherlands. Schliemann moved on to Amsterdam where he was hired as an office clerk, studied foreign languages, and moved to a position at B. H. Schröder and Co.
View of the port of Amsterdam Andries Jager, photographer. Amsterdam [1860-1875], public domain. Retrieved from the Rijksmuseum
The first page of Schliemann’s letter to his sisters Wilhelmine and Doris, dated February 20, 1842. Schliemann wrote the letter two months after he had settled in Amsterdam, describing the events and details of his new life in the Netherlands.
One of Heinrich Schliemann’s passports, issued in Amsterdam on December 4, 1846, by the Consul of Mecklenburg. That year found Schliemann doing business and residing in Russia.
"In my very first year at St. Petersburg my operations had already been so successful, that in the beginning of 1847 I was inscribed in the Guild as a wholesale merchant. But, in spite of my new functions, I remained connected with Messrs. B. H. Schröder and Co. of Amsterdam, whose agency I kept for nearly eleven years. As I had acquired in Amsterdam a thorough knowledge of indigo, my transactions were almost exclusively limited to that article." Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios. The City and Country of the Trojans (New York, 1881)
[Click here to listen to the excerpt]
View of the Stock Market Building, St. Petersburg. c.1850 - c.1880. Public domain. Retrieved from Rijkmuseum
Page with copy of a pro forma invoice for 45 cases of Bengal indigo from one of Heinrich Schliemann’s account books (Ledger E29 [1862]) ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
An indigo factory in India. This natural dye was produced by soaking the indigo plants in tanks of water to induce fermentation, straining out the leaves, allowing the solution to oxidize and the sediment to settle, then drying the sediment and packaging it in cake form.
"With deep emotion I recall the garden at Ankershagen with its flowers, pear trees, cherry trees, apple trees, plum trees, gooseberry bushes and the tall lime tree on which I carved my name. I recall the church steeple, which I imagined to be the tallest in the world..." Excerpt from Emil Ludwig, Schliemann, The Story of a Gold-seeker (Boston, 1931), p. 78
Photo of the Schliemann family home in Ankershagen, now the Heinrich-Schliemann-Museum at Ankershagen Richard Peter, photographer. Ankershagen. Heinrich-Schliemann-Museum. Deutsche Fotothek, Germany, in Copyright, Educational Use Permitted.
"I was born on the 25th December 1821/6 January 1822 in Ankershagen a small village in Mecklenburg Schwerin where my father was clergyman. Like all or nearly all clergymen my father had nine children and no money and his time being very much taken up by his duty, he was unable to procure me or to give me any education…"
ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers, Diary A2
"My father did not know Greek, but he knew Latin, and availed himself of every spare moment to teach it me. When I was hardly nine years old, my dear mother died [1831]: this was an irreparable misfortune, perhaps the greatest which could have befallen me and my six brothers and sisters…."Excerpt from Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios, The City and Country of the Trojans (New York, 1881), p. 5
Ernst Schliemann (1780-1870), father of Heinrich Schliemann ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
The Schliemann family’s Genealogical Chart (family tree) ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Family Papers
Uncle Friedrich Schliemann and Aunt Magdalena Schliemann from Kalkhorst ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
"Though my father was neither a scholar nor an archaeologist, he had a passion for ancient history. He often told me with warm enthusiasm of the tragic fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii…. He also related to me with admiration the great deeds of the Homeric heroes and the events of the Trojan War, always finding in me a warm defender of the Trojan cause. With great grief I heard from him that Troy had been so completely destroyed, that it had disappeared without leaving any traces of its existence. My joy may be imagined, therefore, when, being nearly eight years old, I received from him, in 1829, as a Christmas gift, Dr. Georg Ludwig Jerrer’s Universal History, with an engraving representing Troy in flames, with its huge walls and the Scaean gate, from which Aeneas is escaping, carrying his father Anchises on his back and holding his son Ascanius by the hand; and I cried out, “Father, you were mistaken: Jerrer must have seen Troy, otherwise he could not have represented it here,” “My son,” he replied, “that is merely a fanciful picture.” But to my question, whether ancient Troy had such huge walls as those depicted in the book, he answered in the affirmative. “Father,” retorted I, “if such walls once existed, they cannot possibly have been completely destroyed: vast ruins of them must still remain, but they are hidden away beneath the dust of ages.” He maintained the contrary, whilst I remained firm in my opinion, and at last we both agreed that I should one day excavate Troy."
Excerpt from Heinrich Schliemann,
Ilios, The City and Country of the Trojans (New York, 1881), p. 3
[Click here to listen to the excerpt]
Illustration from Georg Ludwig Jerrer, Die Weltgeschichte für Kinder (Nuremberg, 1828)
In 1841, at the age of 19, Schliemann arranged to leave Germany and sail to Colombia in South America to seek employment. The ship, however, encountered a tremendous storm and made it only as far as the coast of the Netherlands. Schliemann moved on to Amsterdam where he was hired as an office clerk, studied foreign languages, and moved to a position at B. H. Schröder and Co.
View of the port of Amsterdam Andries Jager, photographer. Amsterdam [1860-1875], public domain. Retrieved from the Rijksmuseum
The first page of Schliemann’s letter to his sisters Wilhelmine and Doris, dated February 20, 1842. Schliemann wrote the letter two months after he had settled in Amsterdam, describing the events and details of his new life in the Netherlands.
ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
One of Heinrich Schliemann’s passports, issued in Amsterdam on December 4, 1846, by the Consul of Mecklenburg. That year found Schliemann doing business and residing in Russia.
ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
"In my very first year at St. Petersburg my operations had already been so successful, that in the beginning of 1847 I was inscribed in the Guild as a wholesale merchant. But, in spite of my new functions, I remained connected with Messrs. B. H. Schröder and Co. of Amsterdam, whose agency I kept for nearly eleven years. As I had acquired in Amsterdam a thorough knowledge of indigo, my transactions were almost exclusively limited to that article." Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios. The City and Country of the Trojans (New York, 1881)
[Click here to listen to the excerpt]
View of the Stock Market Building, St. Petersburg. c.1850 - c.1880. Public domain. Retrieved from Rijkmuseum
Schliemann during his St. Petersburg years ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
Page with copy of a pro forma invoice for 45 cases of Bengal indigo from one of Heinrich Schliemann’s account books (Ledger E29 [1862]) ASCSA Archives, Heinrich Schliemann Papers
An indigo factory in India. This natural dye was produced by soaking the indigo plants in tanks of water to induce fermentation, straining out the leaves, allowing the solution to oxidize and the sediment to settle, then drying the sediment and packaging it in cake form.
Super User2021-12-06 07:26:12From Ankershagen to St. Petersburghttps://schliemannlegend2022.gr/Super Userhttps://schliemannlegend2022.gr/templates/gk_academy/images/logo.png
