Jakob Messikommer
| Jakob Messikommer | |
|---|---|
Dr. Jak. Messikommer, 1902 portrait by J. Welti
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| Born |
18 August 1828 Wetzikon, Switzerland |
| Died | 23 August 1917 (aged 89) Wetzikon, Switzerland |
| Monuments | Messikommer Eich at Robenhausen |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation | Swiss farmer and archaeologist |
| Years active | 1857–1917 |
| Notable work | discovered and researched the UNESCO serial site Wetzikon–Robenhausen |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Wismer by first marriage, Babette Messikommer by second marriage |
| Awards | Dr. hc. phil I by University of Zurich |
Jakob Messikommer (18 August 1828 – 23 August 1917) was a Swiss archaeologist who among others discovered and researched the UNESCO serial site Wetzikon–Robenhausen.
Born in the hamlet of Stegen in Wetzikon as the son of Barbara née Wismer and the farmer Hans-Jakob, Jakob Messikommer attended Sekundarschule (pre-college level) in Wetzikon in 1843/44. As his father died in 1843, Messikommer had to manage the family's farm. Messikommer had the civil rights of the neighboring municipality of Seegräben.Encyclopædia Britannica mentions about his youth: Messikomer dug peat for his mother’s kitchen fire, he dreamed of finding remains of the Helvetii, the Celtic inhabitants of Swiss lands whom Julius Caesar described. At the age of 22, he met the poet Jakob Stutz, and wrote his first poem published a year later in "Allmann", the predecessor of the present regional newspaper Zürcher Oberländer. In 1854 Messikommer published Die Kappeler Milchsuppe, a play in four acts.
In 1856 Jakob Messikommer was appointed as member of the school board. On 12 January 1861 Messikommer married Barbara Wismer from Mädikon; they were parents of Jakob (1857–1879) and two further sons who died as babies, but Barbara Messikommer already died on 10 April 1861 after her fourth child died some days before. On 26 May 1862 Messikommer married his second wife Babette Mäder from Illnau. As Babette Messikommer died on 25 November 1889, their surviving daughther Anna (1865–1901) was ill, Jakob Messikommer was overwhelmed, also due to inundation with work, and his son Heinrich (1864–?) was not interested in taking over the farm, but certainly assisted his father's archaeological work. That's why he sold his farm to a neighbor on 26 September 1890, excluded the lands at the Robenhausen site where Messikommer had established the analogy to a present archaeological open air museum. By discovering and exploring the then usually named "stilt house settlement Robenhausen" within the Robenhausen wetlands on Pfäffikersee, Messikommer became famous from the 1860s far beyond the Swiss borders. Jakob Messikommer died after recently malaise on 23 August 1917 in Wetzikon.
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