Horst Klengel

Horst Klengel (born January 6, 1933 in Torgau ; † December 25, 2019 in Berlin ) was a German ancient orientalist .

Horst Klengel grew up in Hirschberg in the Giant Mountains between 1936 and 1945 . In 1951 he began studying history , specializing in ancient history and ancient oriental languages, at the Humboldt University in Berlin . He graduated in Ancient Oriental Studies ( state examination ) in 1955 . Until 1958 he worked as planned scientific aspirant at the Humboldt University of Berlin and was established in June 1958 at Heinrich Otten and Gerhard Rudolf Meyer with a thesis on Benjamin and Hanäer at the time of the kings of Mari doctorate . He then worked at the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin until 1964 . In 1963 Klengels habilitation ( history of Syria in the 2nd millennium BC ) took place at Humboldt University, where he then taught Assyriology until 1991 as a research assistant . From 1964 to 1991 he also worked at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , most recently as a working group leader and head of the Department of Ancient Orient at the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archeology . In 1976 Klengel was appointed honorary professor for Assyriology and Hittiteology . After the fall of the Wall, Klengel had been a research assistant at the Ancient Near Eastern Department of the Free University of Berlin since 1991 . At the end of 1996 he retired.

Klengel was a member of various organizations, such as the International Ebla Committee of the University of Rome . He was the long-time editor of the Orientalist literary newspaper and long-time co-editor of the ancient oriental research . He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . He has written numerous scientific and popular scientific publications on topics of ancient oriental history, which have been translated into several foreign languages. Its number of publications far exceeds 300; the German National Library alone has almost 50 entries. Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia in the 2nd millennium BC BC belonged to his main research interests. Horst Klengel was married to the Near Eastern archaeologist Evelyn Klengel-Brandt .

Publications (selection)

• History of Syria in the 2nd millennium BC (habilitation), Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1963.
• History and Culture of Ancient Syria. Koehler & Amelang (VOB), Leipzig 1967 and 1979; Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1980.
• with Evelyn Klengel: The Hittites and their Neighbors - A Cultural History of Asia Minor from Catal Hüyük to Alexander the Great . Koehler and Amelang (VOB), Leipzig 1970.
• Between tent and palace - the meeting of nomads and sedentary people in the ancient Near East. Koehler & Amelang (VOB), Leipzig 1971.
• Old Babylonian legal and economic documents. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1973 (Near Eastern writing monuments of the National Museums in Berlin, NF, H. 2 = H. 18).
• Hammurapi of Babylon and his time , Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1976.
• Trade and traders in the ancient Orient. Köhler & Amelang (VOB), Leipzig 1979.
• Old Babylonian texts from Babylon. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983 (Near Eastern writing monuments of the National Museums in Berlin, NF, H. 6 = H. 22).
• Syria between Alexander and Mohammed. Monuments from antiquity and early Christianity. Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1986 ISBN 3-7338-0002-8 .
• History of the Hittite Empire. Brill, Leiden-Boston-Cologne 1998 (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Dept. 1., The Near and Middle East, Vol. 34) ISBN 90-04-10201-9 .
• King Hammurabi and everyday life in Babylon. Artemis Verlag, Zurich 1991.
• (Ed.): Egypt, Western Asia, Turfan. Problems with the edition and processing of ancient oriental manuscripts. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1991 (writings on the history and culture of the ancient Orient, 23) ISBN 3-05-000922-5 .
• with Johannes Renger (Ed.): Agriculture in the Old Orient . Reimer, Berlin 1999 (Berlin contributions to the Middle East, Vol. 18) ISBN 3-496-02652-9 .
• Hattuschili and Ramses. Hittites and Egyptians - their long way to peace . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002 ( cultural history of the ancient world , vol. 95) ISBN 3-8053-2917-2 .

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. 347-348.

Web links

• Literature by and about Horst Klengel in the catalog of the German National Library