Wolfram von Soden
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Wolfram von Soden | |
|---|---|
| Born | Wolfram Theodor Hermann Freiherr von Soden 19 June 1908 |
| Died | 6 October 1996 (aged 88) |
| Occupation | Assyriologist |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Leipzig |
| Doctoral advisor | Benno Landsberger |
Wolfram Theodor Hermann Freiherr von Soden (19 June 1908 – 6 October 1996) was a German scholar of Assyriology. He was active during the Nazi era and World War II.[1] Some of von Soden's published works have been interpreted as supporting aspects of Nazi cultural and racial ideology.
Early life and education
[edit]Von Soden was born in Berlin on 19 June 1908.[2] He studied ancient Semitic languages under Benno Landsberger at the University of Leipzig, where he received his doctorate in 1931.[2] His dissertation was titled Der hymnisch-epische Dialekt des Akkadischen (The Hymnic-Epic Dialect of Akkadian). In 1936, he was appointed as the Associate Professor of Assyriology and Arabic studies at the University of Göttingen after Benno Landsberger was forced to leave Germany due to the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws implemented by the Nazi regime, which stripped Jewish people of many civil rights, including citizenship.
Career
[edit] |
Von Soden joined the Sturmabteilung in 1934 and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1937.[3] From 1939 to 1945, he served in the German military, primarily as a translator. In 1940, he was unable to accept a professorship in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, due to being in the military.
Following the Second World War, von Soden's Nazi Party membership initially hindered his academic career. However, with a recommendation from Benno Landsberger (by then at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago), von Soden was appointed to an academic position at the University of Vienna in 1954. In 1961, he accepted a professorship at Münster, where he directed the Oriental Seminar until his retirement in 1976. After his death in 1996, his library was bequeathed to the newly revived Institute for Near Eastern Studies at the University of Leipzig, where he had earned his doctorate.
Von Soden specialised in ancient Semitic languages. As a member of the "History of Religions" (Religionsgeschichte) school at the University of Gottingen, he challenged the interpretation that Babylonians regarded their creator god, Marduk, as a "dying and rising god." He suggested that texts supporting this view were polemical works created by the Assyrians to criticise the chief god of their rival state.[citation needed]
Von Soden's significant philological works include the Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHW), developed with assistance from Rykle Borger, and the Grundriss Akkadischer Grammatik (GAG). These are considered essential reference works in Assyriology. His work on the AHW has been noted as providing a foundation for later philological projects such as the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.
Controversy
[edit]Von Soden's work has been alleged to support Nazi ideology. His early works, particularly Der Aufstieg des Assyrreiches als geschichtliches Problem (1937), have been interpreted by some as promoting "racist concepts of Aryan superiority" over Semitic culture.[2]
For example, in Leistung und Grenze sumerischer und babylonischer Wissenschaft (1936), the 1965 edition (page 122) concludes: "that science in the strict sense of the word could only take shape under the special conditions given by the Indo-European Greeks and Indians." The original 1936 edition (page 556) had concluded that "science in the strict sense of the word is something that could only be created by the Indo-Europeans determined by the Nordic race."[3]
His Einführung in die Altorientalistik (The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, 1985) discusses the skin color of ancient Near Eastern inhabitants, mentioning "the presumably always light-skinned inhabitants of the Near East during the Copper Age".
Death
[edit]Wolfram von Soden died on 6 October 1996 in Münster, Germany.
Works (partial)
[edit]- Das akkadische Syllabar (1948, rev. 1967, 1976, 1991, ISBN 88-7653-257-9)
- Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik (1952, ISBN 88-7653-258-7)
- Das Gilgamesch-Epos (1958, with Albert Schott; ISBN 3-15-007235-2)
- Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (1965–1981, 3 vols; ISBN 3-447-01471-7)
- Das akkadisch-hethitische Vokabular KBo I 44+KBo XIII 1 (1968, with Heinrich Otten)
- Einführung in die Altorientalistik (1985; ISBN 0-8028-0142-0); translated (by Donald G. Schley) into English as The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
References
[edit]- ^ E. Steinweis, Alan (2022). The Betrayal of the Humanities The University During the Third Reich. Indiana University Press. p. 317. ISBN 978-0-253-06081-5.
- ^ a b c Beckman, Gary (22 June 2018). "von Soden, Wolfram (1908–1996)" (PDF). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History.
- ^ a b Jakob Flygare, "Assyriology in Nazi Germany: the Case of Wolfram von Soden." In 'Perspectives on the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies.' 2020, p. 44-60".
- Rykle Borger, "Wolfram von Soden". In: Archiv für Orientforschung 44/45, 1997/98, pp. 588–594.
- Jakob Flygare, "Assyriology in Nazi Germany: the Case of Wolfram von Soden." In 'Perspectives on the History of Ancient Near Eastern Studies.' 2020, p. 44-60. ISBN 978-1-57506-836-7
