Wolfgang Dieter Brönner (born 17 November 1940) is a German art historian and historic preservationist. From 1991 to 2005, he was the of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate in Mainz.
Born in Berlin, Brönner studied law at the universities of Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, the University of Lausanne and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn from 1961, before staying in Bonn in 1965 to study Art History and Classical Archaeology. In 1971, he passed the . In the same year he was awarded a degree in art history by Heinrich Lützeler with a thesis on "French architectural theory of the 17th century"[1] to the Dr. phil.[2]
After graduating, he first moved to the administration[3] of the Technische Universität Dortmund and then entered the service of the as a scientific officer in 1973. From there, he joined the as a scientific officer in 1980. Its director at the time, Udo Mainzer, entrusted Brönner with basic research on 19th and 20th century architecture after his arrival and 20th century, for which a new department within the inventory was established and thus initiated the creation of the standard work on villa architecture in Germany: Die bürgerliche Villa in Deutschland 1830 - 1900. [4] From 1986 Brönner headed the inventory department.
One year after his habilitation in art history at the University of Bonn, Brönner resigned as senior conservator at the Rhineland Office for the Preservation of Monuments on 15 September 1991[5] and succeeded Magnus Backes as state conservator of Rhineland-Palatinate. A task he performed until his retirement on 29 November 2005.
In addition to his official duties, Brönner has acted as editorial director of the biannual journal since 1993. In 1999, he also received an appointment as associate professor at the University of Mainz. He had already held repeated teaching posts at the University of Bremen, University of Cologne, Bonn and Mainz since 1974.
In addition to other memberships in scientific advisory boards, including those for Speyer Cathedral and Mainz Cathedral Brönner was also involved in the preparations for the inclusion of the Rhine Gorge in the List of World Heritage Sites in Germany in 2002 via the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Rhineland-Palatinate.