Gertrud Bing

Gertrud Bing (7 June 1892 – 3 July 1964) was a German art historian and director of the Warburg Institute.

Early life and education Gertrud Bing was born in Hamburg on 7 June 1892, to Moritz Bing, a merchant, and Emma Jonas. Bing originally trained as a school teacher, and taught for eighteen months during the early 1910s.

Career

Kulturwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek Warburg In 1922, Bing began working as a librarian at the ″Kulturwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek Warburg″, founded by Aby Warburg.

Warburg Institute In December 1933, the ″Kulturwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek Warburg″ was moved to London when the Nazis rose to power, becoming the Warburg Institute. With her partner, Fritz Saxl, the new institute's first director, she settled in Dulwich. Saxl died in 1948, and was succeeded as director by Henri Frankfort.

After the death of Frankfort in 1954, Bing in 1955 became director of the institute and Professor of the History of the Classical Tradition. She held these posts until her retirement in 1959. Gertrud Bing died in 1964 in London, following a brief illness.

Writings Fragments sur Aby Warburg. Documents originaux et leur traduction française. Avant-propos de Carlo Ginzburg. Edited by Philippe Despoix and Martin Treml. Paris 2019.