Viktor Christian

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Viktor Christian (born March 30, 1885 in Vienna ; † May 28, 1963 in Walchsee ) was an Austrian ancient orientalist .

Life

Viktor Christian, the son of an Auditor-Council, studied linguistics , oriental studies and geography at the University of Vienna and was on 12 July 1910 sub auspiciis Imperatoris Dr. phil. PhD . During his studies he became a member of the Teutonia Vienna fraternity . He then deepened his studies at Berlin University with Friedrich Delitzsch , Hugo Winckler and Felix von Luschan . From 1911 he worked as a scientific official in the ethnographic department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. From 1915 he took part in the First World War as a volunteer and went to Constantinople with the German-Austrian Orient Corps . After a short imprisonment, he returned to Vienna in 1919.

In 1920 Christian was appointed head of the ethnographic department. In addition, he did his habilitation at the University of Vienna with Rudolf Geyer , which he achieved on January 23, 1923 with the venia legendi for Semitic with special attention to cuneiform scripts.

On April 1, 1924, Christian accepted a position as associate professor for ancient Semitic philology and oriental archeology at the University of Vienna (as successor to Maximilian Bittner ). On November 1, 1930 he was promoted to full professor.

Like Geyer, he was a member of the influential anti-Semitic professors' group “ Bärenhöhle ”, which operated in secret and tried to prevent habilitations and appointments from Jewish or left-wing scientists through interventions and agreements. In 1933 Christian joined the NSDAP , which was banned shortly afterwards in Austria. As a result, Christian was temporarily retired in September 1934. He took this as an opportunity for a long-planned research trip to the Orient, which he paid for a book on art history with the fee from Propylaea Verlag . In March 1936 he was reactivated as a professor.

After the annexation of Austria , Christian's career gained momentum: in September 1938 he was appointed a corresponding member and in May 1939 a real member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . He was involved in university politics, serving as acting dean of the Faculty of Philosophy from 1939 and as prorector of the university from 1943 . At the academy he was a member or board member of several commissions, such as the United North and South Arabic Commission and the Commission of Old South Arabic Dictionary . As an SS leader , Christian also participated in the German Ahnenerbe Research Association and used his connections to Nazi functionaries to acquire book collections for the Oriental Institute through this research association. This involved confiscated holdings from the emigrated researchers Ludwig Feuchtwanger and Samuel Krauss and from the Jewish communities in Kittsee , Lackenbach and Frauenkirchen . The holdings were not provided with signatures, but only with a stamp "Loan Ahnenerbe". After the Second World War they were restituted . Christian was co-editor of the Race Studies magazine . Within the SS, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer in 1945 .

After the end of the Second World War, Christian was dismissed as a full professor in the spring of 1945. He objected to the dismissal and eventually achieved his regular retirement, with full service credited. On July 12, 1960, the University of Vienna renewed his doctoral degree.

Fonts (selection)

  • The names of the Assyrian-Babylonian cuneiform characters . Leipzig 1913
  • with Heinrich Balcz , Karl Beth a . a .: The religions of the earth in individual representations . Vienna 1929
  • The linguistic position of Sumerian . Paris 1932
  • Antiquity of the Mesopotamia . Volume 1 in 4 deliveries, Leipzig 1938–1940 (no longer published)
  • Investigations into the theory of sounds and forms in Hebrew . Vienna 1953
  • Contributions to Sumerian grammar . Vienna 1957
  • The origin of the Sumerians . Vienna 1961

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Doctoral act in the archive of the University of Vienna, PH RA 2599 .
  2. ^ Directory of the old men of the German fraternity. Überlingen am Bodensee 1920, p. 257.
  3. ^ Archive of the University of Vienna, Philosophical Faculty: PH S 34.11 .
  4. ^ Kurt Ehrenberg: Othenio Abel's life path, using autobiographical records. Kurt Ehrenberg, Vienna 1975, p. 85 f., Evaluated by Klaus Taschwer: Secret thing Bärenhöhle. How an anti-Semitic professor cartel from the University of Vienna expelled Jewish and left-wing researchers after 1918. In: Regina Fritz, Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, Jana Starek (Ed.): Alma mater antisemitica: Academic milieu, Jews and anti-Semitism at the universities of Europe between 1918 and 1939. Volume 3, new academic press, Vienna 2016, p. 221– 242, here p. 230 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Stefan Alker, Christina Köstner: Acquisition Policy at the University Library of Vienna during the Nazi era - Report on provenance research . In: Journal of Librarianship and Bibliography. Special volume: Nazi looted property in libraries: search, results, perspectives . Vienna 2008, p. 102f.
  6. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 92.
  7. ↑ Viktor Christian's personal file , archive of the University of Vienna, Philosophical Faculty, PH PA 1034 .
personal data
SURNAME Christian, Viktor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ancient orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1963
Place of death Walchsee