Leonie Zuntz

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Leonie Zuntz (born October 11, 1908 in Berlin , † December 14, 1942 in Oxford ) was a German Hittite scientist .

Life

After attending school, which she graduated from high school in Berlin in 1927, Zuntz studied Indo-European and Semitic studies in Berlin and Munich . Her dissertation was published in 1936. The work was recognized by specialist research primarily for its performance in demonstrating the archaic character of the Hittite in Indo-European.

In 1935, as a result of the persecution to which she was subjected after the National Socialists came to power - according to whose definition she was considered a Jew - Zuntz emigrated to Great Britain, where her brother Günther Zuntz had already moved. She found a job as a teacher unpaid for Hittite at Jesus College of the University of Oxford , where she at Somerville College was allowed to live, while she earned her living with private language lessons.

From 1938 Zuntz worked for Oxford University Press , for which she mainly read cuneiform corrections. In 1936 she also published a source edition of Hittite texts, the translation of which into Italian was arranged by Giacomo Devoto .

The National Socialist police officers classified Zuntz as an enemy of the state: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin put her on the special wanted list GB , a list of people who, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht, would be followed by special commands from the occupying forces SS should be located and arrested with special priority.

Zuntz died in Oxford in December 1942, according to some sources by suicide.

Fonts

  • The Hittite local adverbs arḫa, parā, piran as independent adverbs and in their connection with nouns and verbs , 1936.
  • Un testo ittita di Scongiuri , 1937.

Web links

  • Leonie Zuntz on the portal "Persecution and emigration of German-speaking linguists 1933-1945" at the University of Osnabrück

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The family has been denominationally Christian since Zuntz's grandfather converted to Christianity.
  2. ^ Entry on Zuntz on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London)
  3. ↑ Petra Umlauf: The female students at the University of Munich 1926 to 1945 , 2016, p. 255.
personal data
SURNAME Zuntz, Leonie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Hittite scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1942
Place of death Oxford