Margarete Bieber

Margarete Bieber (31 July 1879 – 25 February 1978) was a Jewish German-American art historian, classical archaeologist and professor. She became the second woman university professor in Germany in 1919 when she took a position at the University of Giessen. She studied the theatre of ancient Greece and Rome as well as the sculpture and clothing in ancient Rome and Greece.

Bieber left Germany after the Nazis seized power and she made her way to the United States where she taught at Barnard College, Columbia University and Princeton University. She published hundreds of works during her career and authored definitive works in four areas of study: the Greek and Roman theater, Hellenistic sculpture, ancient dress, and Roman copies of Greek art. She emphasised that Roman reproductions of Greek originals were essentially Roman works and carried the stamp of Roman civilization. (present day Przechowo, Poland) to Jewish parents Valli Bukofzer, and Jacob Heinrich Bieber, a factory owner. She attended a girls' school in Schwetz (present day Świecie) for six years before being sent to a finishing school in Dresden.

After several unsuccessful attempts, her postdoctoral was finally approved in 1919 and she became an associate professor in classical archaeology at the University of Giessen. She was the second woman to become a University professor in Germany. After the Nazis seized power in Germany, they removed Jewish people from academic positions and Bieber was removed from her professorship in July 1933. She, Ingeborg and her governess Katharina Freytag left Germany for England where Bieber became an honorary fellow at Somerville College, Oxford.

Emigration to America Bieber left for the United States in 1934 at the invitation of Barnard College, where she was a lecturer. She was recommended to Columbia University, where she became a visiting professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1936. She applied for American citizenship in 1939.

During World War II, Bieber assisted German refugees. She retired from Columbia University in 1948, though she continued to lecture at the Columbia University School of General Studies and at Princeton University. The Bollingen Foundation helped to fund The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, published in 1955. She continued to publish works, describing sculpture in American museums and ancient clothing. and in 1974, the Archaeological Institute of America awarded her the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement. She remained active in her later years, living with her adopted daughter, Ingeborg Sachs. Her final work, Ancient Copies, was published in 1977 and detailed the transformation and reflection in Roman copies of Greek art. Bieber died on 25 February 1978 in New Canaan, Connecticut. She was 98. Das Dresdener Schauspielrelief. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des tragischen Kostüms und der griechischen Kunst. Dissertation, 1907 Die Denkmäler zum Theaterwesen im Altertum. Habil.-Schrift, University of Giessen 1919

(1980 reprint: )