Herbert Donner

Herbert Donner (born February 16, 1930 in Reichstädt ; † April 28, 2016 in Kiel ) was a German Protestant theologian . He was a specialist in the Old Testament and the Old Orient.

youth

Herbert Donner grew up in Reichstädt in the Eastern Ore Mountains. His father, a banker, had remarried after the death of the first wife. From 1942 to 1945 the son attended a commercial high school in Freital near Dresden, then switched to a secondary school in Dresden-Süd, where he graduated from high school in 1948.

Education

Donner studied Protestant theology from 1949 as a pupil of Albrecht Alt at the University of Leipzig, and from 1952 he also studied ancient oriental studies . He also attended lectures by the Egyptologist Siegfried Morenz .

He received his doctorate there in 1957 with a thesis on the constitutional and administrative history of the Iron Age small states of Israel and Judah. theol. and in 1958 with a thesis on the cuneiform economic and administrative documents of the northern Syrian city-state of Alalach ( Tell Açana ) for Dr. phil. In the same year he left the German Democratic Republic . His mentor Albrecht Alt died shortly before Donner's doctorate, which meant that his future career at Leipzig University was uncertain. Through his acquaintance with Walther Zimmerli , he hoped to find a job as a Hebrew lecturer at the University of Göttingen.

Herbert Donner taught Hebrew at the University of Göttingen and wrote his habilitation thesis on the position of the prophets of the 8th century on the foreign policy of the kings of Israel and Judah, which he submitted in 1960.

Teaching

From 1963 Herbert Donner was Professor of Old Testament and Palestine Studies at the University of Göttingen . In 1968 he followed a call to the University of Tübingen . From 1980 until his retirement he taught at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel. Donner's research areas were the Old Testament, the history of the Ancient Orient, and Palestine studies. He wrote numerous essays and monographs on this topic, some of which were published collectively ( essays on the Old Testament from four decades , Berlin / New York 1994). He is known as the author of the two-volume standard work History of the People of Israel and its Neighbors in Fundamentals , the fourth edition of which was published until 2008.

One focus of his work in Kiel from 1983 was the management of the Gesenius research center. She worked on the update of the 18th edition of the Hebrew and Aramaic Concise Dictionary on the Old Testament by Wilhelm Gesenius , which was published in seven editions until 2013 and finally as a one-volume edition.

Memberships and honors

Donner was a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (1973 full member, from 1980 to 2016 corresponding member), the Scientific Society at the University of Frankfurt am Main (1976 corresponding member), the South African Academy for Science and Art (1979 corresponding member) and the German Archaeological Institute (1987 corresponding member).

To raise funds for the restoration of the Madaba mosaic map (1965, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation ), Herbert Donner, together with the restorers, was appointed "Knight of the Order of the Orthodox Cross Bearers of the Holy Sepulcher" by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

On June 28, 2000 he received an honorary doctorate from the theological faculty of Leipzig University.

Donner died in April 2016 at the age of 86. His grave is in the Eichhof park cemetery .

literature

• Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar. Bio-bibliographical directory of contemporary German-speaking scientists. Volume 1: A - H. 21st edition. Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-598-23616-7 , p. 648.

Web links

• Literature by and about Herbert Donner in the catalog of the German National Library
• University of Kiel: Obituary for Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. hc Herbert Donner (1930–2016)
• University of Kiel: Those who teach there will shine like heaven's shine (Dan 12: 3). Herbert Donner. An academic appreciation.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.kn-trauer.de/trauerbeispiel/herbert-donner/46886644
2. ↑ http://www.kn-trauer.de/trauerbeispiel/herbert-donner/46886628