Otto Weber (orientalist)

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Otto Weber (born July 28, 1877 in Polsingen , † July 29, 1928 in Friesing near Rosenheim ) was a German Assyriologist . He was the second director of the Near Eastern Department of the Berlin museums .

Education and early career

Otto Weber studied at the University of Munich with Fritz Hommel . As a philologist, he initially dealt with Old South Arabic and Assyrian texts. With Erik J. Knudtzon and Erich Ebeling , he made an early contribution to the edition of the Amarna archive . After graduating, he went to the archives service and worked as an archive clerk in Landshut . After the death of Leopold Messerschmidt , the first custodian of the Near Eastern Department, in 1911, the Egyptologist Hermann Ranke was initially planned as his successor , and after he refused, the ancient historian Hugo Prinz . But in 1912, after being rejected by Ranke and probably also by Prince Weber, the position was appointed. Last but not least, the decisive factor was that he was seen as capable of counterbalancing the part-time director of the department, Friedrich Delitzsch , who was only interested in the language monuments. Weber, who was actually also a philologist, was trusted to pay more attention to the archaeological finds. His friend Hugo Winckler in particular campaigned for Weber's vocation and had a certain influence on the vocation because of the excavations he carried out in Boğazköy , the Hittite capital Hattuša , during which many linguistic monuments were found. Delitzsch also seems to have finally supported an appointment, later Weber was to dedicate his work on Old Oriental Seal Images to him and thank him there for his appointment to Berlin. Even Wilhelm von Bode as director of museums, primarily on the history of art was interested in the appointment supported a directed not only to the study of written records scientist.

Curator and director of the Middle East Department

On April 1, 1912, the beginning of the new financial year, Weber was appointed custodian of the Near Eastern Department with the same remuneration as his predecessor. Unlike Messerschmidt, Weber was also appointed professor, which on the one hand strengthened his position vis-à-vis Delitzsch and on the other hand anticipated a department head by a full-time director. At first he had a good relationship with the excavators around Robert Koldewey and Walter Andrae . He consulted the latter in the summer of 1912 when he was at home because of the plans for the new museum building, during which the Middle East Department was to be presented for the first time in an appropriate setting in Berlin. In the period that followed, Weber was distinguished by his diplomatic skill in contacts with the excavators and their interests as well as in contact with the German Orient Society . He also always managed to pursue his own goals by combining them with those of other researchers. By 1913 at the latest, he was highly regarded by Bode in particular, whom he was able to interest for the first time in the interests and concerns of the Near Eastern Department. After Winkler died in 1913, Weber pursued the continuation of the excavations in Boğazköy and was able to win Bode for it. Delitzsch left this field of work entirely to Weber, which started a division of labor between the two researchers that was to continue until Delitzsch's death. While the director worked on the Mesopotamian linguistic monuments, his deputy devoted himself to the other remains of archaeological nature and the linguistic monuments from the other ancient oriental regions , especially the Hittite. Between May and June 1913 Weber also stayed in Constantinople for the first time , where he wanted to make personal contacts with representatives of the Ottoman Museum and to negotiate the division of the finds from Aššur and Babylon . He was able to positively impress both the employees on the Turkish side and the leading German archaeologist in the region, Theodor Wiegand . Negotiations with Halil Bey about the division of the find and further excavations went well. Weber saw himself as head of the excavations in Boğazköy, but they could no longer be accepted because of the outbreak of World War I. Another trip took him to Mesopotamia in late 1913 / early 1914 . He spent Christmas 1913 in Aššur, in February 1914 he visited Babylon. Shortly before the outbreak of war he was back in Berlin.

During the next few years Weber devoted himself to restoring, processing and publishing the Boğazköy tablets . He was the editor of several scientific publications dealing with this topic, including from 1916 the cuneiform texts from Boghazköi , from 1917 the Boghazköi studies and from 1921 the cuneiform documents from Boghazköi . In 1916 the department was officially divided due to the different interests of Delitzsch and Weber. With the division came Weber's approval to hold the title of director since April 24, 1916 . This development not only reflected the conflict of interests between Delitzsch and Weber, which was thus avoided, but also Weber's ambition. As early as 1914 he had tried to transfer the representation of the Near Eastern Department to himself and not to Wiegand. While his reputation in Berlin was very high, it has not been very high among excavation archaeologists in the Orient at least since his trip to Mesopotamia. The excavations in Babylon at the time were problematic and the continuation uncertain. Eduard Meyer in particular criticized the slow publication of the excavation results. Weber was Meyer's partisan on this issue. After returning from Mesopotamia, he and Heinrich Schäfer and Hans Gustav Güterbock became a member of a commission that was supposed to assign publication topics to the members of the Babylon excavation. He stood against Koldewey, who emphasized that this would not promote further work, but would hinder it. After a year, however, the commission was disbanded due to unsuccessfulness. The problems with Andrae in particular remained, however, even after he and Weber had to work together in the museum after the war. More and more archaeological research moved into the center. He was in opposition to Delitzsch and Messerschmidt, who only devoted themselves to cuneiform texts. He also intensified the department's public relations work. After Delitzsch resigned as a part-time director on September 30, 1918, Weber initially became his successor and also remained custodian. On April 1, 1919, he finally became the first full-time director and remained so until his death.

Appreciation

As director of the museum, Weber is very much overshadowed by his predecessor Delitzsch and his successor Andrae in the public eye. But he played a major role in the organization of the museum in an important phase and in the professionalization of both the museum administration and public relations. In addition, he also made great contributions to the edition of ancient oriental language monuments.

Others

As a student, Otto Weber was one of the founding members of the Christian student union Munich Wingolf in 1896 and also became a member of the Erlanger Wingolf a year later .

literature

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ according to: Wolfgang Leesch : The German archivists 1500–1945. Volume 2: Biographical Lexicon. Saur, Munich a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-598-10605-X , (via World Biographical Information System Online ). however Berlin according to: German biographical yearbook. Vol. 10, 1928, ZDB -ID 541850-1 , (via World Biographical Information System Online ).
  2. ↑ in The Ancient Orient 17/18 (1920)
  3. ↑ 4,100 Reichsmarks and 1,300 marks housing benefit per year.
  4. ↑ August Winkler: Vademekum Wingolfitikum , Wingolfsverlag, Wolfratshausen 1925, p. 66.


personal data
SURNAME Weber, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Assyriologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Pole singing
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 1928
Place of death Friesing near Rosenheim