Bertold Spuler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bertold Spuler (born December 5, 1911 in Karlsruhe , † March 6, 1990 in Hamburg ) was a German orientalist .

life and work

Spuler grew up in an Old Catholic family and remained a member of that church all his life. As a student at the humanistic Bismarck-Gymnasium in Karlsruhe , he learned not only ancient Greek and Latin but also French, Russian and English. He completed his university studies in Slavic and Islamic Studies in Heidelberg, Munich and Hamburg, and graduated from the University of Breslau at the age of 24 . Carl Brockelmann and Rudolf Strothmann were among his professors .

After 1933 he worked temporarily for the Gestapo as a translator for Hebrew and Yiddish and from 1934 worked for the Historical Commission for Silesia as a consultant for Polish literature . Spuler was appointed full professor for Semitic philology and Islamic studies at the University of Munich in 1943. He later headed the Islam Institute of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen , where he taught Muslim legionaries, mostly Soviet prisoners of war, basic religious knowledge and ritualistics of Islam, starting in June 1944, in courses lasting initially for 14 days and then for three to four months. to train them to become field chaplains, so-called field mullahs. In total, he had students with ten different mother tongues, all of which only he, but none of his students, could speak. In the face of disputes among Muslims, he recommended a separation of Shiites and Sunnis. In addition, Spuler was head of the "History" department in the " Turkestan Working Group ", which had been implemented by the Reich Security Main Office within the German Oriental Society .

In 1948, Spuler took over the chair for Islamic studies from Rudolf Strothmann at the Department of History and Culture of the Middle East at the University of Hamburg and was the founder of the subject Egyptology at the same university.

Spuler caused a public scandal in 1967. When students protesting at the handover of the rectorate revealed a banner reading “ Under the gowns - Muff of 1000 years ”, he shouted: “They all belong in the concentration camp!” He was temporarily suspended from his official business . In this context it turned out that Spuler had joined the NSDAP in 1937 after his membership in the SA (1933 to 1934) and was cell leader there.

Spuler emerged as a scientist through the publication of the Handbook of Oriental Studies , which has appeared in sequels since the 1950s, sorted by focus, and claims to cover all areas of Oriental Studies.

The Turkologist Ursula Spuler-Stegemann is his great niece.

Publications (selection)

  • European diplomacy in Constantinople until the Peace of Belgrade (1739). 3 parts. In: Yearbooks for the culture and history of the Slavs. NF Vol. 11, Issue 1, 1935, ZDB -ID 217860-6 , pp. 53-115, JSTOR 41040262 ; No. 2, 1935, pp. 171-222, JSTOR 41040271 ; Issue 3/4, 1935, pp. 313-366, JSTOR 41040356 , (At the same time: Breslau, Universität, Dissertation, 1935).
  • The minority schools of European Turkey from the reform period to the world war (= publications of the Eastern European Institute in Breslau. New series H. 8, ZDB -ID 554629-1 ). With an introduction to the Turkish Muslim school system. Priebatsch, Breslau 1936.
  • The Mongols in Iran. Politics, administration and culture of the Ilchan period 1220–1350 (= Iranische Forschungen. 1, ZDB -ID 538612-3 ). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1939, (at the same time: Göttingen, university, habilitation paper; several editions).
  • Idel Urals. Peoples and states between the Volga and the Urals. O. Stollberg, Berlin 1942.
  • The Golden Horde. The Mongols in Russia 1223–1502 (= The Mongolian Empire. Vol. 2). Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1943, (2nd expanded edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1965).
  • The present situation of the Eastern Churches in their national and national environment (= books of knowledge. 1947, 6, ZDB -ID 844420-1 ). Metopen, Wiesbaden 1948, (2nd edition supplemented to the present, as: Present situation of the Eastern Churches in their national and state environment. Metopen, Frankfurt am Main 1968).
  • The Mongol period (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Dept. 1: The Near and Middle East. 6: History of the Islamic Countries. 2). Scientific Editionsgesellschaft, Berlin 1948, (again: Brill, Leiden et al. 1953).
  • The Chalife time. Origin and disintegration of the Islamic world empire (= Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East. 6: History of the Islamic Countries. 1). Brill, Leiden et al. 1952.
  • Iran in early Islamic times. Politics, culture, administration and public life between the Arab and the Seljuk conquests 633 to 1055 (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Publications of the Oriental Commission. 2). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1952.
  • Rulers and governments of the world. = Sovereigns and Governments of the World.
    • Part 2: 1492-1953. Ploetz, Würzburg et al. 1953;
    • Part 2, Volume 3: Modern Times 1492-1918. 2nd Edition. Ploetz, Würzburg et al. 1962:
    • Part 2, Volume 4: Latest Time, 1917/18–1964. 2nd Edition. Ploetz, Würzburg et al. 1964;
    • Part 2, Volume 4: Latest Time 1917 / 18–1964. Addendum 1964/65. 2nd Edition. Ploetz, Würzburg et al. 1966;
    • Part 2, Volume 5: Most Recent 1965-1970. Ploetz, Würzburg 1972, ISBN 3-87640-026-0 .
  • with Ludwig Forrer : The Front Orient in Islamic Time (= Oriental Studies. Tl. 3 = Scientific Research Reports . Humanities Series. NF 21, ZDB -ID 533322-2 ). Francke, Bern 1954.
  • The oriental churches. Brill, Leiden et al. 1964.
  • History of the Mongols. According to Eastern and European evidence from the 13th and 14th centuries. Artemis, Zurich et al. 1968.
  • Collected Essays. Brill, Leiden 1980, ISBN 90-04-06049-9 .

literature

  • Hans Robert Roemer , Albrecht Noth (Ed.): Studies on the history and culture of the Middle East. Festschrift for Bertold Spuler on his 70th birthday. Brill, Leiden 1981, ISBN 90-04-06535-0 .
  • Werner Ende :  Spuler, Bertold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 769 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Heribert Busse : Bertold Spuler (1911–1990). In: Islam. Volume 67, Issue 2, 1990, pp. 199-205.
  • Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld: The Training of Imams by the Third Reich. Cape. 12. In: Willem B. Drees, Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld (ed.): The Study of religion and the training of muslim clergy in Europe. Academic & religious freedom in the 21st century. University Press, Leiden 2008, ISBN 978-90-8728-025-3 (English, German full text ; Spuler as teacher of the Mufti-Mullah courses of the SS . The original of SS man Olzscha, written after the war and in the Zehlendorf Federal Archives in stock: pp. 333-368). Spuler passim (25 responses).
  • Werner Ende, Bert Fragner, Dagmar A. Riedel: Spuler, Bertold. In: Encyclopædia Iranica . ( columbia.edu ).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Arno Herzig : The East Research of the University of Hamburg after 1945. In: Rainer Nicolaysen , Axel Schildt (Hrsg.): 100 years of history in Hamburg. Berlin et al. 2011, pp. 181–196, here: p. 187.
  2. ^ News sheet of the German Science and Technology, organ of the Reich Research Council (Hrsg.): Research and progress: Personalnachrichten. Appointments . tape 19, 23/24 , 1943, pp. 252 .
  3. ↑ The SS Mullah School and the Turkestan Working Group in Dresden: Zukunft-bendet-erinnerung.de and van Koningsveld, see literature and web links. From the original source, Reiner Olzscha, he specifies 6 weeks as the course duration.
  4. ^ Van Koningsveld, p. 350
  5. ^ University of Hamburg: History of Egyptology at the University of Hamburg. ( Memento from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ a b Muff in a gown . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1967, p. 84 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Professor Spuler suspended. ( Memento from December 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Hamburger Abendblatt , November 17, 1967, p. 1 (PDF; 729 kB).
    Nov. 9, 1967: Student protest at Hamburg University. In: The world . November 29, 1999.
    Armgard Seegers, Matthias Gretzschel: I had hidden the scarf in my jacket…. ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Interview with Gert Hinnerk Behlmer in the Hamburger Abendblatt . May 8, 2008.
  8. ↑ Werner Ende, Bert Fragner, Dagmar Riedel: SPULER, Bertold . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica , as of September 17, 2010, accessed on January 2, 2014 (English, including references)
personal data
SURNAME Spuler, Bertold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spuler, Berthold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1990
Place of death Hamburg