Ernst Cohn-Wiener (1882-1941)
Ernst Cohn-Wiener (until 1907 Cohn), born in Tilsit in 1882, was a versatile art historian who not only dealt with European, Jewish and Islamic art history, but also researched and published on Asian art in general. In particular, his 1930 published work on the architecture of Central Asia in Islamic times is known in professional circles (Turan: Islamic architecture in Central Asia, Berlin 1930), which still has lasting value because of the numerous good photographs from the 1920s.
Because of his Jewish origin, Ernst Cohn-Wiener had to leave Germany after a ban on his profession in 1934. Via England he went to India, where he found employment with the Maharaja of Baroda until 1939 (in the National Picture Gallery). From there he emigrated to the United States in 1939, and died in 1941 in New York, not yet 60 years old.
Today largely forgotten, not even a portrait of him was accessible until recently. The photo presented here is due to the architect Ruslan Muradov from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, who discovered it with descendants of a Russian researcher who worked together with Cohn-Wiener in Central Asia.