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Heinrich Johannes Hermann Ranke (August 5, 1878 – April 22, 1953) was a German
Heinrich Johannes Hermann Ranke (August 5, 1878 – April 22, 1953) was a German Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
who worked at the University of Heidelberg
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Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...
. He was forced to leave during the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
as his wife had Jewish ancestors. He worked during period at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
.
Ranke was born in Balgheim
Balgheim is a municipality in the district of Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
Geography
Balgheim lies in a basin on the edge of the Baar at the foot of the Swabian Jura and the Dreifaltigkeitsberg (Holy Trinity Mountain). The Eur ...
(Möttingen) to Leopold Friedrich Ranke and his second wife Julie née von Bever (1850–1924). He grew up and studied in Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
where his father was a Lutheran pastor. He initially studied theology at Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
and Greifswald
Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostoc ...
from 1897 but on joining the University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...
in 1899, he studied oriental languages and Egyptology. After a doctorate in 1902 with studies on the Hammurabi dynasty and the formation of semitic names he went to the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Germany in 1905 and worked at the Egyptian department of the Museum in Berlin with Alan H. Gardiner. He became a teacher of Egyptology at Heidelberg University in 1910 and took part in several expeditions to Egypt for excavations including the one in which the bust of Queen Nefertiti was found. During World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
he served in the 4th Infantry Battalion to protect Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of G ...
. In 1932 he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
.
Ranke married Marie Stein in 1906, who was half Jewish and when Nazi rules were applied in 1937 he resigned and moved to the US where he taught at various universities and held a position as Professor of Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1938. He was also expelled from the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences
The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: ''Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften''), established in 1909 in Heidelberg, Germany, is an assembly of scholars and scientists in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The Academ ...
in 1939. He returned in 1942 to Europe, spending time in Sweden and moved to Germany in 1945, taking an emeritus position in Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg. He published several books including a translation of James H. Breasted's ''History of Egypt'' in 1911. He died at Freiburg.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranke, Hermann 1878 births 1953 deaths German Egyptologists German expatriates in the United States Academic staff of Heidelberg University University of Pennsylvania faculty