Walter Windfuhr

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Walter Windfuhr (born May 6, 1878 in Hamburg ; † May 22, 1970 ibid) was a German theologian and Judaist .

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Walter Windfuhr was born in Hamburg as the son of a businessman. During his youth he worked as a cabin boy and reached Chile on a sailing ship . After graduating from the Matthias-Claudius-Gymnasium in 1899 , he studied Protestant theology and Semitic languages. He took the theological exams in 1903 and 1905. In 1907 he received a pastor's position at the main church Sankt Katharinen in Hamburg. His sphere of activity included the church in Hammerbrook named after Stephan Kempe .

In 1914 Windfuhr traveled to the Orient for a long period of time for research purposes. In the area of ​​scientific work, he dealt with Judaism and the Old Testament and was quickly considered a renowned expert on rabbinical and medieval Jewish history. Experts regarded him as one of the best scholars on the Talmud . Windfuhr dealt in particular with philology and wrote critical editions and commentaries and translated several treatises from the Mishnah .

Windfuhr, who had been an honorary doctorate from the University of Heidelberg since 1924 , taught theology in the Old Testament from 1920 and was a lecturer at the University of Hamburg from 1925 , from which he was appointed honorary professor in 1929. In 1926/27 he gave lectures at the Institutum Judaicum in Berlin - but he did not receive a call from the institution. Since he refused close collaboration between the Church and the National Socialists , Windfuhr asked at the end of 1933 to be retired as a pastor. He continued to teach at Hamburg University, initially until 1941, and later from 1951 to 1958.

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personal data
SURNAME Windfuhr, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and Judaist
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1970
Place of death Hamburg