Günther Binding
Günther Binding (born 6 March 1936) is a German art historian and retired professor of art history and urban conservation at the University of Cologne. Life. Born in Koblenz, Binding, brother of the later sculptor Wolfgang Binding and uncle of the painter Stephanie Binding, attended primary schools in Hildesheim and Arnsberg and graduated from Apostelgymnasium in Cologne in 1955 with his Abitur. After three semesters of art history at the University of Cologne, he studied architecture at the TH Aachen and later art history, history, archaeology in Bonn. In 1959, he was accepted into the Studienstiftung des deutschen  Volkes programme for gifted students. After graduating in 1960, he received his doctorate in 1962 under Willy Weyres; his dissertation was on the subject of "Münzenberg Castle in the Wetterau". In 1963, he received his doctorate under Herbert von Einem in Bonn with the thesis "The Palatinate of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in Gelnhausen and Early Baptist Architecture in the Rhine-Main Region". In the meantime, he worked as an architect, first with Wilhelm Riphahn at the time of his construction of the Wi-So wing of Cologne University. Freelance work followed until 1964: residential buildings, excavations and restorations in Hesse . From 1964 to 1970, Binding directed excavations of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn as head of the Lower Rhine district office. 1966-1969 Lectureship in building research at the University of Cologne. In 1969 Habilitation at the University of Cologne with the Habilitation thesis "Burg und Stift Elten am Niederrhein" and was appointed Akademischer Rat and professor there in 1970. From 1974, he was full professor of art history and urban conservation, director of the Institute of Art History with the Department of Architectural History. In his main field of research, the architectural history of the Middle Ages, the standardisation of  technical language is his particular concern. His work "Architektonische Formenlehre", published in 1980, is a standard work on architectural description. At the University of Cologne, he held the office of Dean of the Faculty of Humanities from 1979 to 1981 and that of Rector from 1981 to 1983, followed by the then customary period as Prorector. From 1982 to 1984, he was Vice-President of the German Rectors' Conference. In 2007, Binding was appointed by Cologne to the Scientific Advisory Board on the Archaeological Zone Cologne. In a dispute with the project manager Sven Schütte, Binding resigned again in March  2008. Since 1999 he has been a corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences at Leipzig, since 2002 a corresponding and 2005 a full member of the scientific society at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Binding has been emeritus since 31 March 2001.