Karl Süssheim

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Karl Süssheim even Süßheim (* 21st January 1878 in Nuremberg ; † 13. January 1947 in Istanbul , Turkey ) was a German historian and orientalist Jewish descent, Professor of History of Islamic nations as well as Turkish , Persian (Farsi) and Arabic .

Life

Information sheet on Karl Süssheim in the Evangelical Lutheran parish church of St. Johannes in Munich

He was the son of the hop trader Sigmund Süßheim from Kronach , who moved to Nuremberg in 1870, and his wife Clara. On his mother's side, he was a grandson of the Bavarian state politician David Morgenstern . After attending the old grammar school and the new grammar school in Nuremberg, Süssheim studied history , philosophy and natural sciences at the universities of Jena , Munich , Erlangen and Berlin from 1896 . There he studied at the Seminar for Oriental Languages with Martin Hartmann . On March 5, 1902 , he received his doctorate in history in Berlin with a dissertation Prussian annexation aspirations in Franconia 1791 - 1797, a contribution to Hardenberg's biography (1901). He then stayed in Istanbul for study purposes until 1906. During the Young Turkish Revolution , he went to Cairo in 1908 . In 1911 he completed his habilitation in Munich with his work Prolegomena on an edition of the Chronicle of the Seljuk Empire kept in the British Museum in London and initially became a private lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . Under Fritz Hommel and Gotthelf Bergsträsser he taught the languages ​​Arabic, Persian and Turkish at the University of Munich. From 1919 until his discharge from the Bavarian civil service by the National Socialists on June 27, 1933, he was an associate professor there. His students included u. a. the later historian and medievalist Ernst Kantorowicz , the Jewish religious historian Gershom Scholem and the orientalist Franz Babinger .

From 1934 until his escape, Süssheim lived with his family at Preysingstrasse 12 in Munich. After the pogrom of November 9, 1938 , he was sent to Dachau concentration camp for a short time . In 1941, with the help of Turkish friends, he managed to emigrate to Istanbul with his wife and daughters at the last moment . Parts of his private library were then incorporated into the Bavarian State Library . The Turkish friends helped him get a temporary job at the Istanbul University there . Süssheim died of kidney disease in 1947 and is buried in the Jewish Ashkenazen cemetery in the Ortaköy district.

During his years in Istanbul Süssheim had collected a large number of original manuscripts, which he was able to hold together later during his emigration despite the most difficult living conditions. The Bavarian State Library acquired a large part of this collection in 1960. Süssheim also wrote his own texts, often handwritten in Ottoman and Arabic. He even wrote his own diary from 1908 to 1940 in Turkish since 1908 and in Arabic from 1936. After publication, it was compared with Victor Klemperer's diaries .

The eloquent orientalist was employed in Istanbul as an interpreter at the German embassy, ​​but was also asked to attend diplomatic meetings in Germany as an interpreter. On April 30, 1917, he interpreted during the visit of the Grand Vizier Talât Pascha , with whom he had corresponded since his stay in Istanbul.

Süssheim is described as a humble and reserved but important scholar. He was the younger brother of the Bavarian Judicial Council and SPD member of the state parliament Max Süssheim .

literature

  • Barbara Fleming: On her 100th birthday June 21, 1878/1978. Karl Süssheim 1878–1947. In: Der Islam , Volume 56, Issue 1 (1979), pp. 1–8, DOI: 10.1515 / islm.1979.56.1.1 .
  • Barbara Flemming, Jan Schmidt: The diary of Karl Süssheim (1878-1947). Orientalist between Munich and Istanbul. Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-07573-9 ( digitized extracts ).
  • Salomon Wininger: Large Jewish National Biography , Volume 6 (St – Z). Orient Verlag, Czernowitz 1930, p. 62 ( excerpt )
  • Süssheim, Karl , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 361

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Some sources erroneously state 1950 as the year of death.
  2. ^ Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933-1945 , page 533, Verlag Deux mondes, 2006, ISBN 3932662113 ( excerpt )
  3. ↑ Chronik für das Finanzjahr , Volumes 14-16, p. 36, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 1901
  4. ↑ Ludmilla Hanisch: The successors of the exegetes. German-language exploration of the Middle East in the first half of the 20th century , page 209, Verlag O. Harrassowitz, 2003, ISBN 3447047585 ( excerpt )
  5. ↑ Preysingplatz on muenchen.de
  6. ↑ His daughters lived in Canada and the United States in the 1960s.
  7. ↑ Ural-Altaic year books , volumes 42–43, Verlag O. Harrassowitz, 1970 ( excerpt )
  8. ^ Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes , Volume 93, Oriental Institute of the University of Vienna (ed.), Verlag A. Hölder, 2003
  9. ^ Journal of the German Oriental Society, Volume 139, page 238, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (ed.), Verlag Franz Steiner, 1989, ISBN 3515049614 ( excerpt )
  10. ↑ Horst Widmann: Exile and educational aid. German-speaking academic emigration to Turkey after 1933 , Verlag Herbert Lang, 1973, p. 114 ( excerpt )
personal data
SURNAME Süssheim, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sussheim, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1947
Place of death Istanbul