For almost 17 years – from January 1917 until November 1933, archaeologist and art historian Wolfgang Fritz Volbach was on the staff of the Berlin museums, initially in the Early Christian and Byzantine Collection as the assistant of Oskar Wulff (1864-1946) whom he later succeeded as director.
During his Berlin years, Volbach published fundamental catalogues, some with a scope wider than his department. There is his catalogue of the collection of Late Antique-Byzantine textiles from Egypt as well as a comprehensive compilation of Late Antique works in ivory and a new edition of the older catalogue of the museum’s holdings. He deepened his knowledge of this material by travelling; the time he spent in Egypt, 1927/28, proved most significant for his work. In 1933 he reinstalled the Berlin collection employing the most up-to-date aesthetic and scholarly criteria of his times.
After Hitler seized power in 1933 Volbach’s career in Berlin came to a sudden end. Following the passage of the anti-Semitic Civil Service Restoration Act, he was expelled from his position, effective December 1, 1933. Volbach survived the National Socialist era in Rome where, in 1934, he joined the staff of the Vatican’s Museo Sacro.
After World War II he returned to Germany, becoming director of the Römisch-Germanisches-Zentralmuseum in Mainz, the city of his birth and where he passed away on December 23, 1988.