Max von Oppenheim

Max Freiherr von Oppenheim (July 15, 1860, Köln - November 17, 1946, Landshut) was a German ancient historian, and archaeologist, "the last of the great amateur archaeological explorers of the Near East.".^[1]

He was a son of Albert Freiherr von Oppenheim. Abandoning his career in diplomacy, 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. From his works in archaeology, he personally owned a large portion of the finds, as was then the custom, and he hoped that the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, would acquire the material which included some of the most important Neo-Hittite sculptural reliefs. Disappointed in his negotiations, he opened his own museum in an abandoned factory in Berlin in 1930.; consequently, when measures were taken to protect the national collections during World War II, his Halafian material was not included: it was obliterated in a bombing raid in November 1943. Some fragments preserved in East German museum basements were reassembled after the reunification of Germany.

In more recent years new evidence of Oppenheim's role in the East during World War I has surfaced. In examining the recently translated journals discovered in Southern Tehran in 1981, a clearer picture begins to emerge regarding the importance of claiming a pure link to ‘Western’ identity by imperial powers and the implied authority that position awarded them in authority over the East.^[2] Oppenheim's activity as an agitator to create subversive resistance to the British rule in India aided through creating claims of lost cultural greatness at the hands of the dominant colonial masters in the East, conveniently Germany could make such an argument as the result of their declining status as an imperial power. Oppenheim used his background as an archaeologist to lend credence and authority to his assertions about "understanding the oriental" and their cultural logic.^[3]

According to the journals, Oppenheim was greatly influenced by the works of Herodotus, the first historian, Aeschylus and Philostratus in his approach to dealing with the East.

"…When after riding nearly twenty five hours on the back of a camel, it became very clear to me that…[Herodo]tus was speaking to me. To the future. He clearly understood the nature of Greeks (and thus their inheritors) and their inevitable role as the leaders of freedom in the face of a larger imperial threat... The isolationism of the Greeks as the sole dissenting voices against the Eastern menace truly can be understood by the modern German, following the signing of the Entente Cordiale…” ^[4]

References to Herodotus and other classical works permeate the journals as he intricately links the kismet of Germany with that of the Dorian Greeks and the Ionian Athenians, those who stand against external threats.

“[missing]…these simple creatures! They are pawns of their masters...[the] British! They do not see that if they stood against their masters they could depose this tyrant! I feel I have made some success in Persia and Afghanistan in fostering subversion, but this exotic and sensual country is cowed by notions of loyalty to their master. They are like the Medized Ionians, too cowardly to act in their own best interests while their King is across a pontoon bridge. [missing] …tainted by luxuries and frivolities... fallen upon we real ‘Greeks’ to show them the way to the manifest nature of their destiny and towards Enduring Freedom”^[5]

In 2005, Barnes and Jones ^[6] challenged Zola's findings, as they appeared to overly reflect the modern political climate of the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. What Barnes and Jones argue is not the fundamental narrative of the translation, but Zola's intentional imbedding of highly political anti-American sentiments.^[7] Zola is quoted defending his interpretation of Oppenheim's journals,{I stand by my translation. One can never be entirely divorced of the political or historical circumstances they exist within. It is less a reflection of my intent, and perhaps mirroring American scholars feeling anxiety about their countries aggression towards the East.}^{citation needed}

Notes

1. ^ Gary Beckman, reviewing Nadia Cholidis and Lutz Martin, Der Tell Halaf und sein Ausgräber Max Freiherr von Oppenheim: Kopf hoch! Mut hoch! und Humor hoch! (Mainz) 2002, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 123.1 (January 2003), p. 253.
2. ^ Dr.Steve Rogers Journal of the American Oriental Society.Vol.123 [Oct. 2001]
3. ^ Dr. Steve Rogers pg. 120
4. ^ Max Oppenheimer. Das Max Freiherr von Oppenheimer zapft. Trans and ed, Armin Zola. Vol. 2,(Berlin) 2001: 78.
5. ^ Armin Zola pg.109
6. ^ James Barnes and Rick Jones, Understanding the Role of Espionage: Archaeology and Owning a Cultures' Past. California: Mazda Publishers Inc, 2000.
7. ^ Barnes and Jones, pg 12.

Publications

• Vom Mittelmeer zum persischen Golf durch den Haurän, die syrsche 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)

See also

External links

• Bibliothek der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim Stiftung at www.uni-koeln.de
• Max von Oppenheim in the German National Library catalogue (German)