Burchard Brentjes

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Burchard Brentjes

Burchard Brentjes (born August 20, 1929 in Halle an der Saale , † September 28, 2012 in Berlin ) was a German archaeologist from the Near East .

life and career

Brentjes' high school attendance was interrupted since 1944 by the Reichsarbeitsdienst , participation in World War II and American captivity. In 1946 he finished his schooling and initially joined the KPD and became a member of the SED after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD . In the same year he attended the preparatory college and in 1947 began studying history , prehistory and early history as well as archeology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). During his studies, Brentjes worked on textbooks for the fifth and ninth grades. In 1952 he became a graduate historian, and since 1953 he has worked as a research assistant in the Department of Early History of the Orient at the Archaeological Seminar of the MLU. In the same year, Brentjes' doctorate took place with an investigation into the history of the plow . Reviewers were Heinz Mode and Johannes Jahn . The habilitation took place in 1960 with the work Archaeological Basics for the Pet Development of the Cattle , for which again Mode and Gerhard von Lengerken and Heidenreich were reviewers. Subsequently, Brentjes became a lecturer in the archeology of the Near East at MLU. From 1971 to 1978 he was associate professor and from 1978 until his retirement in 1991 full professor and holder of the chair for oriental archeology , from 1981 to 1991 at the same time head of the scientific field oriental archeology at the MLU.

Brentjes' works cover a wide area, with the focus being on the archeology and cultural history of Central Asia, especially Iran , Afghanistan , Azerbaijan , Armenia , the areas inhabited by Kurds and the wider Islamic world. Brentjes dealt with the history of settlements, the environmental behavior of early peoples and the history of the domestication of animals and plants. He also dealt with border areas between his central research areas and other topics, for example with the cultural history of North Africa , the Central Asian equestrian peoples or the history of utopias . In an interdisciplinary manner, he encouraged the scientific discussion of general issues beyond the Orient, for example at the interdisciplinary conference on applied and historical climate science (Elbingerode 1988). The history of science of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg , which has a long orientalist tradition, as well as research on the social structure and ideological history of the Orient were also part of his research area. The theories of Erich von Däniken or Thor Heyerdahl found a witty and sharp critic in Brentjes.

With his teaching activity, Brentjes did not create a school in the strict sense, but the upgrading of oriental disciplines and their networking left their mark on academic life, as did the collegial support of his academic students. In recent years, Brentjes has increasingly addressed the current situation in Central Asia, such as the problem of the Kurds and the situation in Afghanistan. From 1973 he was chairman of the friendship society GDR - Arab countries , 1973 to 1985 he was a member of the editorial board of the yearbook Asia - Africa - Latin America . Many of his publications have been translated into other languages ​​(13 in total). The books on the current situation, some of which Brentjes wrote with his wife Helga , are particularly popular in the English-speaking world. Furthermore, Brentjes published works on the history and history of science of the Third Reich . He was a very prolific scientist whose work list includes over 50 monographs and hundreds of essays. His daughter is the science historian Sonja Brentjes .

On April 9, 2013, a memorial colloquium took place at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Fonts

  • Wild animals and domestic animals in the ancient Orient. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962 → Book cover and table of contents
  • Land between the streams. A cultural history of the ancient Mesopotamian Iraq. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1963
  • Rock and cave art of Africa . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1965
  • (Ancient Persia) The Iranian world before Mohammed . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1967
  • From Shanidar to Akkad. 7 millennia of oriental world history . Urania, Leipzig 1968
  • The sons of Ishmael. History and culture of the Arabs. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1971
  • The Arabs. History and culture. From the beginning to the Turkish domination. Schroll, Vienna 1971
  • Three millennia of Armenia. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1973
  • Chans, sultans, emirs. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1974
  • The invention of the pet . Urania, Leipzig 1975 (= Akzent series . Volume 11) ISBN 3-332-00072-1
  • Anton Wilhelm Amo . The black philosopher in Halle. Leipzig 1976
  • Central Asia. A cultural history of the peoples between the Caspian Sea and Tien Shan. Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1977
  • with Sonja Brentjes: Ibn Sina (Avicenna) the princely master from Bukhara. Leipzig 1979 (= biographies of outstanding natural scientists, technicians and physicians. Volume 40)
  • From the tribe to the state . Urania, Leipzig 1979 (= Akzent series . Volume 41)
  • Ancient riddles . Urania, Leipzig 1980 (= Akzent series . Volume 47)
  • White gods? Culture, human work or extraterrestrial civilizations? New life, Berlin 1980. (concrete left; 45)
  • Under the crescent moon and the star. Islam - religion, worldview or way of life. Union, Berlin 1980
  • Peoples on the Euphrates and Tigris . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1981
  • with Stepan Mnazakanjan and Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union, Berlin 1981
  • The animal style in Eurasia . Seemann, Leipzig 1982
  • Libya's way through the millennia. Urania, Leipzig 1982 (= Akzent series . Volume 60)
  • The fate of the people in the Hindu Kush. Afghans, Baluchi, Tajiks . Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1983
  • Ancient sealing art of the Middle East . Seemann, Leipzig 1983
  • Peasants, mullahs, Shahinschahs. Urania, Leipzig 1983 (= Akzent series . Volume 63)
  • The ancestors of Genghis Chans. Eurasia and the becoming of Europe. German Science Publishers, Berlin 1988
  • The Moors. Islam in North Africa and Spain (642–1800) . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-7338-0088-5
  • Steppe riders and merchants. The art of the Parthian period in the Middle East. Seemann, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-363-00459-1
  • as editor: Science under the Nazi regime. Peter Lang, Schöneiche near Berlin 1992 ISBN 3-86032-017-3
  • Atlantis. Story of a utopia. DuMont, Cologne 1993
  • The myth of the Third Reich. Three millennia longing for redemption . Torch bearer, Hanover 1997, ISBN 3-7716-2112-7
  • with Siegwart-Horst Günther: Before the third Gulf War. History of the region and its conflicts. Causes and consequences of the conflict in the Gulf. edition ost, Berlin 1998 ISBN 3-932180-34-8 (2nd edition 2002 with a contribution by Rainer Rupp ).
  • Middle East secret operation. On the history of the cooperation between Mossad and BND . edition ost published by Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-01023-X

literature

  • Lothar Mertens : Lexicon of the GDR historians. Biographies and bibliographies on the historians from the German Democratic Republic. Saur, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-598-11673-X , pp. 154-155.

Web links

Commons : Burchard Brentjes  - Collection of Images

Remarks

  1. ↑ Mertens calls it "settled"; see. also Burchard Brentjes: As I seem to remember. In: Hochschule Ost. 5, No. 3, 1996, ISSN  0944-7989 , pp. 71-82.
  2. ↑ MPIWG .
  3. ↑ DFG: Privatdozentin Dr. Sonja Brentjes .
  4. ↑ Event flyer "Memorial Colloquium: Life and Work of Professor Dr. Burchard Brentjes (1929-2012)" (PDF).
  5. ↑ This contains Adolf Eichmann's travel report about his trip to Egypt in 1937.
personal data
SURNAME Brentjes, Burchard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German oriental archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 2012
Place of death Berlin