Ernst Hammerschmidt

Honorary grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery

Ernst Eduard Maria Hammerschmidt (born April 29, 1928 in Marienbad , Czechoslovakia , † December 16, 1993 in Vienna ) was a theologian, orientalist and Ethiopist.

Life

After passing his Abitur in 1946 in Weiden / Upper Palatinate, Hammerschmidt studied philosophy , oriental languages , theology and law at the universities of Bamberg (1946–1948), Innsbruck (1949–1950), St. Florian (1950/51), Salzburg (1951/52 ), Vienna (1952/53), Münster (1954/55) and Oxford (1955–1957) and again in Vienna (1957/58 and 1980–1986). In 1968 he was appointed adjunct professor of oriental studies at the University of Saarbrücken and then worked from 1970 to 1990 as a full professor for African languages ​​and cultures at the University of Hamburg .

In 1955 he married Ilse Brüner and they had two children: Ulrich (* 1960) and Verena (* 1965).

Ernst Hammerschmidt converted from the Roman Catholic Church to the Old Catholic Church of Austria in 1957 , where he was ordained a priest by Bishop Stefan Török on June 27, 1958, after being ordained as a deacon.

As a sub-area of African studies, Hammerschmidt founded his specialty Ethiopian Studies as a science within the framework of university teaching.

Hammerschmidt has received several honors and awards for his scientific work and diverse publications. He was a member

• the Société d'Archéologie Copte in Cairo,
• the Société Ernest Renan in Paris,
• of the Africa College in Hamburg,
• of the Coptic Orthodox Center in Venice,
• of the German Oriental Society in Mainz,
• the Austrian Armenian Cultural Society in Vienna and
• of the academy of non-profit science in Erfurt . He received the
• Cardinal Innitzer (Science) Prize and the
• Order of Mary Magdalene II of the Polish Orthodox Church .

In 1960 he worked in the Mannheim parish of the Old Catholic Church. In 1988 he took on the role of synod examiner, in 1990 after his retirement in the Viennese theological seminar of the Old Catholic Church he took on leadership and examination activities and in 1991 the role of sworn judicial interpreter for the Ethiopian language in Vienna. In July 1991 he became bishop coadjutor of Bishop Nikolaus Hummel , with the right to wear a miter . Shortly before his death in a car accident, he and his wife converted back to the Roman Catholic Church because of theological and ecclesiastical decisions of his church, which he did not support.

Hammerschmidt was buried in an honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 15 H, Row 1, No. 18). Part of his estate is now in the Museum of Five Continents in Munich. His extensive Ethiopian private library became the property of the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg.

literature

• Christian Weise:  Hammerschmidt, Ernst Eduard Maria. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 568-578.