Manfried Dietrich

Manfried Dietrich (born November 6, 1935 in Yüankiang , China ) is a German Ugaritist .

Manfried Dietrich was born in China in 1935 and grew up there until he was 13. The family did not return to Germany until 1949. From 1954 to 1958 he studied theology and Semitic studies at the University of Tübingen . He finished his studies with a doctorate , the subject of the dissertation was investigations into Mandaean vocabulary . In 1959/60 he studied Hebrew studies with Paul Kahle at the University of Oxford . In April 1963 Dietrich moved to Wolfram von Soden at the University of Münster , and married a year later. In 1968, together with Oswald Loretz and Kurt Bergerhof, he founded the series Alter Orient and Old Testament as well as the yearbook Ugarit research . In February 1969 , Dietrich completed his habilitation with the thesis The Arameans of South Babylonia in the Sargonid Period (700-648) at the University of Hamburg . There he was appointed lecturer on April 1, 1970. Four years later, he was appointed Scientific Councilor and Professor at the University of Münster, where he was responsible for setting up the University's Ugarit research center . In 1988, he and Oswald Loretz founded Ugarit-Verlag , which has since developed into a central place of publication in ancient studies. From 1991 to 1993 Dietrich was Dean of Faculty 14, Ancient and Non-European Languages ​​and Cultures , and from 1993 to 1995 Vice Dean . In 1992 he founded the series of publications on Antiquity of the Middle East . In 1993 he became chairman of the German Society for the History of Religions, of the yearbook Communications for Anthropology and the History of Religion and the series Research on Anthropology and History of Religion . He retired on February 28, 2001. On December 1, 2002, the Theological Faculty of the University of Tartu awarded him the honorary doctorate of Dr. theol. hc

Manfried Dietrich was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of Ugarit research in Germany. He worked on texts from the environment of the Old Testament and co-founded the Studia Mesopotamica . Thomas Richard Kämmerer is one of his academic students .

Web links

• Employee biography on the website of the University of Münster