Helmut Thierfelder

This article deals with the ancient historian. For a similar-named conductor, see Helmuth Thierfelder .

Helmut Thierfelder (born June 25, 1921 in Dresden , † December 17, 1982 in Münster ) was a German ancient historian .

Helmut Thierfelder graduated from high school in 1939 and was obliged to work in a canning factory from 1940. From 1941 to 1943 he took part in the Second World War , but was then released due to illness. Until the end of the war he was on cure for convalescence. In 1946 Thierfelder began studying history, Latin and philosophy at the University of Leipzig . The doctorate took place in 1949 with a thesis on the subject of government programs and propaganda on the Roman imperial coins in the age of the military archy (248-268). From Philippus Arabs to Gallienus , experts were Otto Theodor Schulz and Wilhelm Schubart . He then became a research assistant in Leipzig and in 1953 was given the task of teaching. After he had completed his habilitation in 1954 with the work The Roman Empire Policy from Septimius Severus to the State Emperor in the Mirror of Coins and Inscriptions 193-238 AD , Thierfelder became a lecturer in auxiliary sciences of ancient history at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and was acting Director of the Ancient History Institute. His competencies were controversial. For the appointment to a professorship, Thierfelder's entry into the SED was up for debate. But in 1958 he left the GDR illegally because of the university disputes, whereupon his academic degrees in the GDR were revoked. His competitor Rigobert Günther wrote an article in the Leipzig university newspaper with the title No place for republic traitors at the university , in which he accused Thierfelder of political and moral depravity and sympathy for nuclear war planning in the FRG. In 1958 he became a scientific assistant at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster, and in June 1964 he became a scientific adviser and an adjunct professor for auxiliary sciences in ancient history at the Institute for Epigraphy and Papyrology.

Fonts

• Sibling marriage in Hellenistic-Roman Egypt , Aschendorff, Münster 1960 (Fontes et commentationes, no.1)
• Unknown ancient world. A representation based on papyrus documents , Mohn, Gütersloh 1963

literature

• Burkhard Meißner : The ancient history at the Karl Marx University Leipzig: Comments on the historical picture Rigobert Günther. In: Isolde Stark (ed.): Elisabeth Charlotte Welskopf and the old history in the GDR. Contributions to the conference from November 21 to 23, 2002 in Halle / Saale. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08457-6 , pp. 90-107.
• 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 , p. 595.

Web links

• Literature by and about Helmut Thierfelder in the catalog of the German National Library