Walter Sommerfeld

Walter Sommerfeld (* 1951 in Biebesheim am Rhein ) is a German ancient orientalist and professor at the University of Marburg .

After graduating from high school in Marl , Sommerfeld studied chemistry at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg from 1970 to 1971 , then from 1971 to 1979 ancient oriental studies, semitic and religious studies at the universities of Würzburg, Marburg and Münster . In 1979 he received his doctorate in the subject of Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Münster , which was followed by work as a research assistant there. In 1987 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the old Akkadian language . In 1989 Walter Sommerfeld was appointed university lecturer; in the same year he accepted a professorship at the University of Marburg, which he has held since then.

He performed various tasks in the university administration, as dean (1991–1992 and 1999–2000), convent member (1992–1997), member of the standing committee for teaching and study matters (1998–2001) and deputy senate member (2001–2004) . From 2006 to 2010 Sommerfeld was the coordinator of the newly founded Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies , from 2010 to 2012 its managing director and from 2012 to 2013 deputy managing director. He retired in 2017

Sommerfeld's work focuses on the history of religion and culture as well as the formation of states in Sumerian and Babylonian Mesopotamia as well as the early Semitic evidence of the Ancient Near East . He was repeatedly in Iraq for research purposes and dug in the local city of Isin . Walter Sommerfeld is editor of the IMGULA series . In addition, together with Karl Hecker and Hans Neumann, he publishes the series SANTAG - Works and Studies on Cuneiform Writing.

Publications (selection)

• The rise of Marduk. Marduk's position in the Babylonian religion of the second millennium BC Chr. (= Old Orient and Old Testament. Volume 213). Butzon and Bercker, Kevelaer 1982 (also dissertation, University of Münster 1979).
• Investigations into the Old Akkadian. Habilitation thesis, Münster 1987.
• The texts of the Akkade period. Volume 1: The Dijala area: Tutub (= IMGULA. Volume 3 / I). Rhema, Münster 1999.

Honors

• 2010: Honorary doctorate from the Arab Association of Historians in Baghdad .
• 2019: Carsten Niebuhr Prize for international cultural exchange of the German-Arab Society

Web links

• Employee site at the University of Marburg
• List of publications (PDF) on the University of Marburg's website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This year's Carsten Niebuhr Prize for international cultural exchange of the German-Arab Society went to the oriental scholar Walter Sommerfeld. Press release on lifepr.de, accessed on June 28, 2019.