Leopold Messerschmidt

Leopold Messerschmidt (around 1910)

Heinrich Leopold Benno Messerschmidt (born August 29, 1870 in Berlin , † March 11, 1911 in Charlottenburg ) was a German ancient orientalist .

Leopold Messerschmidt first studied ancient languages ​​and theology. Among other things, he spoke Arabic and Hebrew . In 1893 he passed the second state examination in theology. After that, however, he concentrated on Assyriology and on August 8, 1896, he was the last doctoral student under Eberhard Schrader with the thesis Tabula Babylonica VATh. Museum Berolinensis Primum Editur Commemtarique Instruitur , a work on a clay tablet from the collection of the Near Eastern Department of the Berlin Museums . Since October 1899 Messerschmidt was the first unskilled worker in the Middle East Department. He had been a member of the German Orient Society (DOG) since 1901 at the latest and was a member of the board as a representative of the museums since the following year. At his death he was secretary of the DOG. In 1902 he officially became head of the German excavations in Aššur , and the excavation license from 1905 was issued in his name. But Messerschmidt was never there because of his poor health. In October 1903 his position in the museum was transformed into that of a director's assistant. Between 1906 and 1908 he stayed several times for long periods in Constantinople , where he negotiated the findings from Aššur and Fara ( Šuruppak ) for the museums and cataloged them for the Ottoman Museum . He was very successful in the negotiations for the division of the find . Together with 14 other such positions at the Berlin museums, his position as assistant director was converted into that of curator in July 1909 . In 1909 he was awarded the fourth order of the crown for his achievements in the negotiations for the finds in Constantinople. Messerschmidt died at the age of only 40 from a heart disease that had been handicapping him for a long time and which had already forced him to take a long break from work in 1904. The ultimately fatal heart muscle inflammation he contracted after his marriage to Helene Gertrud Funke in June 1910 on his return from his honeymoon at the house of his in-laws in Aschersleben . His successor was Otto Weber .

Messerschmidt did a great job of organizing the Middle Eastern Collection in Berlin. The main part of the organizational museum work he had to do instead of the director Friedrich Delitzsch , who was often busy with other things . He maintained good connections to the excavators Walter Andrae , Robert Koldewey , Oscar Reuther , but also to the representatives of the DOG and the Berlin museum landscape. Messerschmidt often had to act as a middleman here. Since his stay in Constantinople, he had a friendship especially with Theodor Wiegand . Through his mediation, Messerschmidt could have become an assyriologist at the Ottoman Museum, but Eckhard Unger mediated on the spot. Because of his poor health, he could never accept Koldewey's invitations to the excavations in Babylon and never visit Mesopotamia . Only during his stay in Constantinople was he able to come into direct contact with the ancient oriental monuments.

Messerschmidt rarely came to scientific work. But he published several popular scientific publications, especially in the field of museum public relations. Here Messerschmidt felt that his superior Delitzsch was too short. His most important work, cuneiform texts from Aššur historical content, Book I appeared only posthumously. In general, there was obviously a tense relationship between Delitzsch and his most important museum employee. Messerschmidt's most important field of work was the ancient oriental written finds, but he was also interested in archaeological artifacts. Messerschmidt's work was of decisive importance for the early days of the collection.

literature

• Nicola Crüsemann : From Mesopotamia to the Kupfergraben. Prehistory and years of origin (1899–1918) of the Near Eastern Department of the Berlin museums against technical and cultural-political backgrounds . Mann, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-7861-2403-5 (Yearbook of the Berlin Museums. Supplement to Volume 42 (2000)), pp. 164–169.

Web links

• Literature by and about Leopold Messerschmidt in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death register StA Charlottenburg I, No. 177/1911