COHN-WIENER, Ernst (until 1907 Ernst Cohn). Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sovetsk in Russia) 25.12.1882 — New York 13.4.1941. German Historian of Asian Art. Son of Alfred Cohn and Helene Wiener. Matriculated 1902 from Bromberg (Bydgoszcz in Poland), then studies of art history at Berlin and Heidelberg, where Ph.D. 1907. From 1908 until 1933 taught at Humboldt-Akademie, a community college in Berlin. In 1924-25 two art historical study tours to Russia, Asia Minor, Central Asia and China and in 1930 and 1932 to Syria, Palestine and Egypt. As a Jew (although Christian) he lost his position in 1933 and migrated with his wife via U.K. to India. Director of Museum and Picture Gallery in Baroda. He had health problems and in 1939 moved to the U.S.A. An active photographer. Married 1921 Eva Margarete Brasch (b. 1891), then Gemma.
Publications: After early works on Western art (diss. on a medieval manuscript) he wrote mainly on Central and East Asian art, also on general art history, and Die jüdische Kunst: Ihre Geschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. 268 p. B. 1929, new ed. B. 1995.
– Das Kunstgewerbe des Ostens: Geschichte, Stile, Technik. 256 p. B. 1923.
– Asia, Einführung in die Kunstwelt des Ostens; Indien, China, Japan, Islam. 159 p. ill. B. 1929.
– Turan: islamische Baukunst in Mittelasien. 47 p. ill. B. 1930.
Sources: *J. Gierlichs, “E.C.-W. (1882–1941) and his contribution on Islamic art and architecture in Central Asia”, Journal of Art Historiography 28, 2023, 1-14; C. Klos in arthistorians.info; German Wikipedia; books in worldcat.org.
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