Publication details
“Die Assyriologie nicht weiter unberücksichtigt bleiben dürfte”: On the (Non-)Existence of Assyriology at the German University in Prague (1908–1945)
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Attached files | |
| Description | In this essay, we describe the history of German Assyriology in Prague. Even though never institutionally established, the field was represented there by three outstanding scholars between 1908 and 1945. Two of them spent only limited time in Prague, and both are well known to every student of cuneiform cultures. However, the one who introduced Assyriology to the German academic milieu in Prague, and who continued to teach it throughout the investigated period, is almost entirely forgotten. Special attention is paid to a failed attempt at establishing a chair of Assyriology at the Faculty of Arts of the German University between 1922 and 1929, which, if successful, may have changed the global history of the field. We will then follow the development of the Department of Semitic Philology at that faculty until February 1945, when the graduation of a peculiar doctoral candidate with his thesis on an Assyriological topic effectively marked the end of German cuneiform studies in Prague. |