Hermann Michael Niemann

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Hermann Michael Niemann (born October 19, 1948 in Rostock ) is a German Protestant theologian and professor for the Old Testament and Biblical Archeology at the University of Rostock .

To the biography

After studying at the University of Rostock and the Humboldt University in Berlin (1967-72), Niemann was first a temporary, then permanent assistant in the Old Testament research department at the University of Rostock and lecturer in Hebrew.

In 1980 he was with the work "Studies on the origin and history of the tribe of Dan" in Rostock Dr. theol. PhD. In 1991 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on socio-cultural development in monarchical Israel at the theological faculty in Rostock.

In 1993, Niemann took on a teaching position at the University of Hamburg and has been a full professor of the Old Testament and Biblical Archeology at the University of Rostock since July 1, 1993. In 2000 and 2002 he gave lectures as a guest at the Benedictine abbey Hagia Maria Sion ( Dormitio Mariae ) in Jerusalem. Niemann has remained loyal to Rostock University despite a call to Heidelberg University . He has been retired since 2014 .

He has been a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Literature (Helsinki) since 2000 and of the Evangelical Research Academy (Hanover) since 2009 . Niemann belongs to the Evangelical Michael Brotherhood and has been a member of the board of the Rostock local association of the German University Association for several electoral terms and was chairman of the local association from 2004-2006. In 2013 he was re-elected to this honorary position.

From 2006 to 2011, Niemann was a member of the XIV Regional Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mecklenburg and from 2011 to 2012 also a member of the Constituent Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany . In 2014 he was appointed to the church district synod of the Mecklenburg church district. He has been a member of the board of the German Association for the Exploration of Palestine since 2008 .

Research interests

Niemann's main research area is the history and archeology of Palestine in biblical times. If his dissertation on the history of the Dan tribe is still entirely in the tradition of a history of Israel based primarily on traditional work on Old Testament texts, as found in Martin Noth's “History of Israel” , for example, it has emerged From his habilitation onwards, Niemann turned to an approach based on sociological and archaeological observations and historically evaluating the texts in their light.

Since 1995 he has been regularly undertaking third-party funded excavation projects with international teams in Israel and (2005) also in Turkey. In the years 1998–2000, Niemann's participation in the excavation of Tel Aviv University (Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin and Baruch Halpern) in Megiddo was one focus, and another was the exploration of the southern coastal plain of Palestine, where he and Gunnar Lehmann ( Ben-Gurion -University of the Negev , Be'er Scheva ) in 1995 in the area of ​​the biblical Zora and Eschtaol and 2001-2003 on Tell el-Fara (south), carried out an archaeological survey in the dunes between Ashkelon and Ashdod in 2006 and in Started a project in Qubûr al-Walayidah in 2007 . This location is already on the eastern edge of the coastal plain at the transition to the steppe.

The research is expected to provide information about the exchange between the inhabitants of the coastal plain (“ Philistines ”), the Schefela and the Jewish mountainous region and the northern Negev. In addition, the aim is to ask about differences between town and country within the culture of the coastal plain. This is further insofar as only urban centers have been excavated and extensively researched in the coastal plain, while little is known about the rural settlements.

Bibliography (selection)

  • The Danites . Studies on the history of an ancient Israelite tribe, FRLANT 135, Göttingen 1985, ISBN 978-3-525-53808-1 .
  • Rule, kingship and state . Sketches on the socio-cultural development in monarchical Israel, FAT 6, Tübingen 1993, ISBN 978-3-16-146059-3 .
  • History of Ancient Israel, Archeology, and Bible. Collected essays. History of Israel, Archeology and the Bible. Collected essays . (Old Orient and Old Testament, Volume 418). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2015, ISBN 978-3-86835-117-0 .
  • Qubur al-Walayidah: Were the Philistines warriors or farmers? In: World and Environment of the Bible , Volume 17, No. 64, 2012, 64–65 (PDF on academia.edu)
  • Qubur al-Walayidah, Israel 2008 . In: World and Environment of the Bible, Volume 13, No. 47, 2008, 66–67 (PDF on academia.edu)

In addition, numerous essays and articles on the history and archeology of Palestine and extensive review and editing work.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. G. Lehmann / HM Niemann, Qubûr al-Walâyidah, landmark of the turning point, in: “World and Environment of the Bible” 1/2008, p. 66f.
personal data
SURNAME Niemann, Hermann Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and Old Testament scholar
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Rostock