Max von Oppenheim

Max Freiherr von Oppenheim (July 15, 1860 - November 17, 1946) was a German ancient historian, and archaeologist. He has been called "the last of the great amateur archaeological explorers of the Near East.".

Born in Cologne, Germany, a son of Albert Freiherr von Oppenheim, he was originally a diplomat. Abandoning his career, however, he financed his own excavations at Tell Halaf in 1911-13 and 1929. During World War I, Oppenheim led the Intelligence Bureau for the East and was closely associated with German plans to initiate and support a rebellion in India and in Egypt.

Oppenheim personally owned a large portion of his archaeological finds, as was then the custom. He had hoped the Staatliche Museen in Berlin would acquire it, as it included some of the most important Neo-Hittite sculptural reliefs. Disappointed in his negotiations, he opened his own museum in 1930 in an abandoned Berlin factory. Unfortunately, when measures were taken to protect the national collections during World War II, Oppenheim's Halafian relics were not included. His museum was obliterated in a bombing raid in November 1943. After German reunification, some fragments preserved in East German museum basements were recovered and reassembled.

Max von Oppenheim died in Landshut in 1946 at the age of 86.

Publications

• Vom Mittelmeer zum persischen Golf durch den Haurän, die syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien, 2 vols., 1899
• Rabeh und Tschadseegebiet, 1902
• Max von Oppenheim: Der Tell Halaf und die verschleierte Göttin. Leipzig: Hinrichs 1908.
• Max von Oppenheim: Die Revolutionierung der islamischen Gebiete unserer Feinde. 1914.
• Max von Oppenheim: Der Tell Halaf: Eine neue Kultur im ältesten Mesopotamien. F.A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1931.
• Tell Halaf I, 1943 (with Hubert Schmidt)
• Tell Halaf II, 1950 (with R. Naumann)

External links

• Bibliothek der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim Stiftung at www.uni-koeln.de
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