# Wolfram von Soden

Wolfram Theodor Hermann Freiherr von Soden (19 June 1908 in Berlin – 6 October 1996 in Muenster) was a German Assyriologist during the Nazi era and Second World War.

## Life and Work

Born in Berlin, Wolfram von Soden studied ancient Semitic languages with Benno Landsberger at Leipzig, receiving his doctorate in 1931 at the age of 23. His dissertation was titled Der hymnisch-epische Dialekt des Akkadischen (The Hymnic-Epic Dialect of Akkadian). In 1936, he was appointed Professor of Assyriology and Arabic studies at the University of Goettingen. After Benno Benno Landsberger was forced to leave Germany due to the racial policy of Nazi Germany, von Soden joined the Sturmabteilung in 1934. He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1937.
From 1939 to 1945, von Soden served in the military, primarily as a translator. In 1940, this work prevented him from accepting a professorship in Ancient Near Eastern studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University. Von Soden published works that supported the Nazi cultural and racial policy.
Following Second World War, von Soden's Nazi Party membership initially prevented him from resuming his teaching career. However, with a recommendation from Benno Landsberger, he was appointed to an academic position at the University of Vienna in 1954. In 1961, he accepted a professorship at Muenster, where he directed the Oriental Seminar until his retirement in 1976. After his death in 1996, his library was bequeathed to the newly revived Institute for Near Eastern Studies at the University of Leipzig, where he had earned his doctorate.

## Scholarship

After World War II, von Soden specialized in ancient Semitic languages, contributing to the field. As a member of the "History of Religions" (Religionsgeschichte) school at the University of Goettingen, he challenged the interpretation that the Babylonians regarded their creator god, Marduk, as a "dying and rising god," arguing that texts supporting this view were polemical works created by the Assyrians to criticize the chief god of their rival state.
Von Soden's philological works, particularly the Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHW), developed with assistance from Rykle Borger, provided a foundation for the philological contributions later compiled in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. His Grundriss Akkadischer Grammatik (GAG) and the AHW are considered foundational texts in Assyriology.

## Scholarly Controversy

Von Soden's work has been alleged to support Nazi ideology. His early works, especially Der Aufstieg des Assyrreiches als geschichtliches Problem (1937), appear to promote "racist concepts of Aryan superiority" over Semitic culture.
For example, in Leistung und Grenze sumerischer und babylonischer Wissenschaft (1936), the 1965 edition (page 122) concludes: “that science in the strict sense of the word could only take shape under the special conditions given by the Indo-European Greeks and Indians. In the 1936 edition (page 556), the conclusion is: “that science in the strict sense of the word is something that could only be created by the Indo-Europeans determined by the Nordic race.
His Einführung in die Altorientalistik (1985) discusses the skin color of ancient Near Eastern inhabitants, mentioning "the presumably always light-skinned inhabitants of the Near East during the Copper Age" (p. 14).

## Works (partial)

* Das akkadische Syllabar (1948, rev. 1967, 1976, 1991, ISBN 88-7653-257-9)
* Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik (1952, ISBN 88-7653-258-7)
* Das Gilgamesch-Epos (1958, with Albert Schott; ISBN 3-15-007235-2)
* Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (1965–1981, 3 vols; ISBN 3-447-01471-7)
* Das akkadisch-hethitische Vokabular KBo I 44+KBo XIII 1 (1968, with Heinrich Otten)
* Einführung in die Altorientalistik (1985; ISBN 0-8028-0142-0); translated (by Donald G. Schley) into English as The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.