Wolfhart Westendorf

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Wolfhart Westendorf (2007)

Wolfhart Westendorf (born September 18, 1924 in Schwiebus , Brandenburg province , † February 23, 2018 in Göttingen ) was a German Egyptologist . He was one of the most important researchers of the Egyptian language and hieroglyphic writing . From 1967 to 1989 he was director of the seminar for Egyptology and Coptic Studies at the University of Göttingen .

life and work

After the Second World War, Westendorf began to study physics , but was soon recruited by Hermann Grapow to work on the Berlin “ Dictionary of the Egyptian Language ” and thus found his way to Egyptology. He received his doctorate in 1951 from the Humboldt University in Berlin with the thesis The use of the passive voice in the classical literature of the Egyptians . He then began working as a research assistant at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin . He completed his habilitation in 1961 with a thesis on the grammar of medical texts . For his habilitation thesis he worked with his teacher Hermann Grapow on the large-scale publication of the texts of the medical papyri ( outline of the medicine of the ancient Egyptians ) that have come down from ancient Egypt .

From 1962 to 1965 he was an assistant at the University of Munich and then became an adjunct professor there. From 1967 until his retirement in 1989 he was a full professor at the Department of Egyptology and Coptic Studies at the University of Göttingen, where he made a name for himself internationally in various fields of Egyptian religion and linguistics. Among other things, he wrote a dictionary of the Coptic language .

His special research interests were in the areas of ancient Egyptian grammar , Egyptian and Coptic lexicography , the medicine of Pharaonic Egypt, classical Egyptian literature and Egyptian religion .

As part of his scientific work, he was co-editor of the “ Lexikons der Ägyptologie ” and the scientific series “Göttinger Orientforschungen” as well as co-founder of the scientific journal Göttinger Miszellen .

Westendorf was a member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and the German Archaeological Institute .

Wolfhart Westendorf died in February 2018 at the age of 93.

Fonts (selection)

  • The use of the passive voice in Egyptian classical literature. Publications of the Institute for Orient Research No. 20, Berlin 1953.
  • Grammar of medical texts. In: Outline of the Medicine of the Ancient Egyptians Volume VIII, Berlin 1962.
  • Ancient Egyptian depictions of the course of the sun on the sloping celestial path. Munich Egyptological Studies 10, Berlin 1966.
  • Edwin Smith Papyrus . A medical textbook from ancient Egypt. Wound and trauma surgery. Magic spells against plagues, different recipes. Translated, commented and edited from the ancient Egyptian. Hubert's classics of medicine and natural sciences Volume 9, Bern / Stuttgart 1966.
    • This was preceded by: Hildegard von Deines, Hermann Grapow, Wolfhart Westendorf: Outline of the medicine of the ancient Egyptians. Volume 4.1: Translation of Medical Texts. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1958.
  • Ancient Egypt. Holle, Baden-Baden 1968.
  • Concise Coptic Dictionary. Heidelberg 1977.
  • Contributions to the ancient Egyptian nominal rate. News from the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen No. 3, 1981.
  • Awakening of the healing arts. Medicine in ancient Egypt. Zurich 1992.
  • Handbook of Ancient Egyptian Medicine. 2 volumes, Handbuch der Orientalistik 36, Leiden, Boston, Cologne 1998.

literature

  • Heike Behlmer (Ed.): Festgabe for Wolfhart Westendorf on his 70th birthday, presented by his students. Seminar for Egyptology and Coptic Studies, Göttingen 1994.
  • Carsten Peust (Ed.): Miscellanea in honorem Wolfhart Westendorf. Seminar for Egyptology and Coptology. Seminar for Egyptology and Coptic Studies at the University of Göttingen, Göttingen 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfhart Westendorf: Obituaries , Göttinger Tageblatt . March 3, 2018, accessed March 25, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Westendorf, Wolfhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Egyptologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwiebus
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 2018
Place of death Goettingen