Giant of

EGYPTOLOGY
33rd of a Series

WILHELM LEESER

SPIEGELBERG (1870-1930)

by Thomas L. Gertzen

W
ilhelm Leeser Spiegelberg, born on June 25, 1870, was the second son
of Eduard Samuel Spiegelberg (1837–1910) and his wife Antonie (1846–
1902, née Dux). He and his three brothers grew up in the city of Han-
over in Lower Saxony. Both his father and mother came from banking
families. Spiegelberg attended the Royal Goethe Gymnasium, where he
developed a fondness for the works of the school’s namesake and an
interest in ancient Egypt, after reading the novels set in that place and
time by German Egyptologist Georg Ebers (1837–1898). In the year of
his birth, the Kingdom of Prussia, having just annexed the Dukedom of
Hanover, went to war with the French Empire ruled by Napoleon III.
The peace-treaty following Germany’s victory and the foundation of
the German Empire in 1871 asserted Germany’s claim to the region of
Alsace-Lorraine, which, thus, became German territory.
It was the imperial government’s intention to found a model uni-
versity at Strasbourg and to name it Kaiser Wilhelm University, after
Emperor Wilhelm I. At that time, oriental studies were considered high-
ly prestigious and so such a model institution must have a professor of
Egyptology. Johannes Dümichen (1833–1894), who had achieved some
notice for documenting the “palace-like” tomb (TT33) on the west bank
at Luxor of the prominent Saite (Twenty-sixth) Dynasty official Peta-
menophis, was appointed professor.
Spiegelberg enrolled and received a thorough education in Egyp-
tology and Semitic studies. During the winter semester 1889/90, he
went to Berlin to study at the university there under Adolf Erman (1854 –
1937), returning to Strasbourg to submit his doctoral thesis with the title
Studien und Materialien zum Rechtswesen des Pharaonenreiches der
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Wihelm L. Speigelberg Illustration: D. Forbes
Dynastien XVIII–XXI (Studies and Materials relating to the Ju-
ridical System of Pharaonic Egypt, Dynasties XVIII-XXI) in
1891. His research took him thereafter to London, Liverpool
and Paris, where he met Gaston Maspero (1846–1916), an en-
counter which proved significant for establishing a wide-reach-
ing international network. Maspero’s encouragement that he
study the papyri in Paris led to his choice of a topic for his Ha-
bilitation (a second dissertation necessary to qualify a scholar
as a university professor), which he completed in 1894. His in-
augural lecture dealt with Egyptian workers and the workers’
movement under the Ramesside kings; it documented the ef-
fort that characterized his entire career to communicate the re-
sults of Egyptological research to a general, non-specialist
audience.
After Spiegelberg married Elisabeth von Reckling-
hausen (1872–1948) in 1895, he undertook his first trip to
Egypt.
At the turn of the century he applied to the head of
the imperial administration for Alsace-Lorraine, Hermann
Prince Hohenlohe Langenburg (1832–1913), for funds to ac-
quire papyri on the antiquities market in Egypt. The govern-
ment proved willing to allot the staggering sum of 12,000
Marks — twice a professor’s annual salary! — for this pur-
pose, not least because the Germans wished to make amends
for the loss of books from Strasbourg’s university library dur-
ing the Franco-Prussian-War.
But fierce competition even within German-speaking
Egyptology meant that Spiegelberg had to compete with Otto
Rubensohn (1867–1964), a former fellow-student, who was
sent by Berlin to Egypt to acquire papyri in 1901. Since Lud-
wig Borchardt — appointed in 1899 the scholarly attaché at
the Imperial Consulate General in Cairo — was charged with
assisting all German collections and museums interested in ac-
quiring antiquities, a conflict of interests arose, accompanied
by commensurate sky-rocketing prices. To coordinate the ac-
quisition of papyri and their fair subsequent distribution
throughout the Reich, the German “Papyruskartell” was cre-
ated in 1902.
But this did not prevent Spiegelberg from devising
other means to enlarge the Strasbourg collections. For exam-
ple, in 1912/13, while acting as the traveling companion of the
emperor’s sixth son, Joachim of Prussia (1890–1920) in Egypt,
he convinced the young prince to purchase ostraca for the col-
lection.
With the outbreak of World War I, things begin to
change. Most of Spiegelberg’s students were conscripted, while
he himself was judged physically unfit for military service and
was sent to work in a field library. The end of the war brought
the end of Spiegelberg’s career in Strasbourg. Thanks to the
intervention of the Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart (1877–
1947), the victorious allies granted Spiegelberg permission to
take his private library with him when he and his family were
evicted from their home.
Photos of Wilhelm Spiegelberg at different stages in his life: Top, as
a younger man, aged 29; Center, with his wife, Elisabeth, c. 1900;
Bottom, A studio portrait dating to the late 1920s.

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 After a short stay in Hanover, Spiegelberg’s home
town, the family took up residence in Heidelberg. Despite long-
ing for the “lost paradise” of Strasbourg, Spiegelberg adapted
quite well to the new environment, not least because his friend
and colleague Friedrich Preisigke (1856–1924) had establish-
ed in Heidelberg an institute for papyrology in 1918.
Spiegelberg approached Adolf Erman with the re-
quest that he use his influence with the newly appointed pro-
fessor of Egyptology in Heidelberg, Hermann Ranke (1878–
1953), to take up the challenge of building a new institute of
Egyptology at the University of Frankfurt. But the plan for
Spiegelberg to replace Ranke, should he be induced to move
to Frankfurt, was unsuccessful; instead, in 1920 Spiegelberg
was awarded simply an honorary professorship in Heidelberg.
But he made the best of it, compiling a concise dic-
tionary of the Coptic language (Koptisches Handwörterbuch,
1919) and writing a Demotic grammar (Demotische Gram-
matik, 1925), while continuing his search for an appointment
as full professor elsewhere. In point of fact, he had not too
long to wait before new opportunities turned up. Years before,
in 1906, he had turned down the offer of a professorship in Vi-
enna. In 1921 it was proposed that he become Erman’s succes-
sor in Berlin; but Erman was not enthusiastic, since he favored
his own student, Kurt Sethe (1869–1934).
The professorship in Göttingen — now vacant with
Sethe’s departure for Berlin — was demoted to the status of a
so-called extraordinary professorship (associate professorship)
and then given to Hermann Kees (1886–1964). In the mean-
time, however, in 1923, Spiegelberg was appointed professor
in Munich, as the successor of Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von
Bissing (1873–1956).
The situation in Munich proved rather difficult for
Spiegelberg. His predecessor von Bissing had given his courses
in the so-called Palais Bissing, his private quarters, using his
own collection of Egyptian antiquities, his personal photographs
and library. Before von Bissing left, he sold some objects in
his collection and took others with him to the Netherlands,
where he had been appointed professor in Utrecht; still other
items in his possession he donated to the Munich collection of
Egyptian antiquities, stipulating that the objects must not be
published without his permission. Spiegelberg was faced with
the challenge of building up an entirely new Institute of Egyp-
tology.
Initially, the University provided Spiegelberg with
two rooms for the Institute, one of them a refurbished former
men’s room. Luckily he could rely on his family connections
which enabled him to establish good relations with the upper
crust of Munich society. Donating his private library and once
again building up a papyrus collection worthy of note, Spie-
gelberg integrated himself into Bavarian academia. The office
of Privy Council (Geheimrat) was bestowed upon him and in
1924, he was elected a “regular” member of the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences and the Humanities. In a letter to Erman
a year later he wrote: “It might interest you that in these days I
have finally moved into the two pretty new rooms of my Semi-
nar. I am content now that I could achieve what my predeces-
sor had neglected to do. It was no easy task without an assis-
tant and with only modest means. This is the second institute
which I built up – hopefully not once more for the benefit of a
conquering power! In any case, Egyptology is now well estab-
lished in Munich and my successor will find a well-equipped
institute.”
Wilhelm Spiegelberg died unexpectedly on Decem-
ber 23, 1930, in Munich. He had been incorrectly diagnosed
with cystitis; but instead, it was cancer. The operation went
well; but, a few days afterwards, he suffered an embolism,
which resulted in his death. Although no one had anticipated
this outcome, he had himself composed a little poem shortly
before he died. In it he mentioned his preference for a sudden
death, without prolonged suffering. It would seem his wish was
granted. His passing was mourned by German and internation-
al colleagues alike. His papers went to his pupil, William Ed-
gerton (1893–1970) at Chicago’s Oriental Institute, where they
provided an important basis for the Chicago Demotic Diction-
ary Project.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Spiegelberg was Jewish by birth but was himself not notice-
ably religious; in fact, shortly after his father’s death in 1910,
he converted to Protestant Christianity. His Jewish heritage
nevertheless influenced his entire career — positively as well
as negatively. This fate was not his alone, for it was shared
with other German Egyptologists who were either Jewish —
like Ludwig Borchardt and Otto Rubensohn —or of Jewish
descent — like Georg Ebers and Adolf Erman — to mention
only a few prominent individuals.
In 1894, when Spiegelberg asked for the hand in mar-
riage of the daughter of the renowned Strasbourg pathologist
Friedrich von Recklinghausen (1833–1910), his future father-
in-law made him wait a year for a positive response, because
of reservations about the scholar’s Jewish background. This
should not necessarily be attributed, however, to anti-Semi-
tism. Von Recklinghausen himself had wed a Jewess and, when
once questioned about his own old family-traditions, he mock-
ed his interlocutor, answering that, although they were revered,
“… my wife’s family is much older, descended from one of the
sons of Jacob.” Rather, von Recklinghausen feared that his
daughter and her children might suffer social disadvantages
from her marrying a Jew.
When Spiegelberg stayed on in Egypt to assist British
archaeologists who were not as proficient as he in the ancient
Egyptian language, his modesty won him many friends. Will-
iam Mathew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) commented: “He is
the pleasantest German I know… for absence of their usual
bumptiousness.” And, when Petrie discovered the monumen-
tal stela of the Nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh Merneptah (reign-
ed c. 1224–1204 BC), he asked Spiegelberg to provide a preli-
minary translation of the text. Obliging his British colleague,
Spiegelberg came upon the name of a foreign country that the
Egyptian king claimed to have conquered, for which he provid-
ed the transcription “Ysirar.” This prompted Petrie to exclaim,
“Why, that is Israel!” In agreement Spiegelberg commented,
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 With the Munich ap-
pointment in 1923, he not only
faced some practical difficulties
regarding the establishment of
an Egyptological institute but
also anti-Semitism. He over-
came the former problem with
the help of his family connec-
tions. His maternal uncle, Au-
gust Dux (1849–1902), had al-
ready furthered Egyptological
research by donating objects to
the Roemer and Pelizaeus Mu-
seum in Hildesheim in 1894
and 1899. Within these “bank-
ing-circles” Spiegelberg also
encountered James Loeb (1867–
1933), who bought the papyri
for the newly established col- F. W. v. Bissing
lection in Munich in 1927.
But these family ties and associated defamatorily per-
ceived “Jewish” networks also fueled the long-standing tradi-
tion of anti-Semitism within German academia. When Spiegel-
berg was appointed professor in Munich, his predecessor Biss-
ing supported a hate campaign instigated by the national-so-
cialist student leader Heinrich Kersken (1894–1960), criticiz-
ing the university’s choice and stating that German students
would have to be protected from “alien’” university teachers.
Bissing himself published an article in a fascist news-
paper describing Spiegelberg as “… a dubious scholar of Jew-
ish descent and of most Jewish mind.” Bissing had a reputa-
tion as an anti-Semite at least as early as the beginning of the
Twentieth Century: in 1925 he joined the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). But even so, publication of
such a comment was unprecedented in German-speaking Egyp-
tology. By the beginning of the
1920s scholars with Jewish
backgrounds came under pres-
The Merneptah Victory Stela (sometimes called the Israel Stela), to- sure from the Nazis. Kersken
day in the Cairo Egyptian Museum, the text of which Spiegelberg was actually reprimanded by
translated for discoverer Flinders Petrie, recognizing the first men- the University administration –
tion of Israel (Ysirar) on an Egyptian monument. Kmt archives not however for his anti-Semi-
“So it is and won’t the reverends be pleased.” tism, but rather for disrespect-
This was not the only instance when Spiegelberg con- ing the University’s authority.
tributed research into the interrelationship between pharaonic Fortunately, at least
Egypt and the Old Testament. Although interest in the Bible some were sceptical of the new
was a significant factor propelling the development of Anglo- “folkish” (ethnic) Zeitgeist.
American Egyptology well into the Twentieth Century, Ger- When Spiegelberg had estab-
man Egyptologists — the adherents of Erman’s “Berlin School” lished himself in Munich soci-
in particular — were not so influenced by such considerations. ety, he was approached by the
Spiegelberg, by contrast, had published popular books dealing novelist Thomas Mann (1875–
with this subject; in 1904 both his Aegyptologische Randglos- 1955), who intended to use the
sen zum Alten Testament” (Egyptological Marginalia on the Joseph episodes in Genesis 37–
Old Testament) and Der Aufenthalt Israels in Aegypten im 50 as the basis of a monumen-
Lichte der aegyptischen Monumente (The Sojourn of Israel in tal tetralogy. Because Mann
Egypt in the Light of [ancient] Egyptian Monuments) appeared. wished to situate his story in T. Mann

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the time of Amenhotep IV/ criticised the book, refuting
Akhenaten (reigned c. 1364– in particular Spengler’s as-
1336 BC), he asked Spiegel- sertions about Late Period
berg if that would be appro- sculpture. Apparently Mann
priate from an Egyptological and Spiegelberg stood shoul-
standpoint. Spiegelberg re- der to shoulder against the
plied that at least there was anti-democratic nationalist
no evidence against this dat- enemies of the first German
ing for the biblical account. Republic – to no avail as we
(Recent archival research by now know.
Susanne Voss suggests that Spiegelberg’s death in 1930
Mann also conferred with spared him racist persecution
Heinrich Schäfer (1868 – by the Nazis. He had stipu-
1957) who was then director lated that his funeral be kept
of Berlin’s Egyptian Muse- informal and modest; regard-
um). less, it was attended by rep-
Spiegelberg exercis- resentatives of all the academ-
ed a decisive influence on Berlin Green Head O. Spengler ic bodies of which he had
Mann, and his use of Bildzitate, a term coined by the Egypto- been a member, even though this assembly foreshadowed to a
logical art historian Hilde Zaloscer (1903–1999). With regard certain degree the future. Albert Rehm (1871–1949), president
to Mann’s work, it referred to descriptive passages that he bas- of the University in Munich, would relinquish the editorship
ed on certain ancient Egyptian works of art. He was particu- of the periodical Philologus in 1937, when contributions by
larly impressed by statuary of the Late Period, the era of Spie- Jewish colleagues were no longer accepted. Albert Fraenkel,
gelberg’s expertise. Mann’s choice of the so-called Green MD (1864–1938), who represented the University of Heidel-
Head — a masterpiece of Late Period sculpture in Berlin’s berg at the obsequies, would be stripped of his professorship
Egyptian Museum (ÄM 12500) — to characterize the physi- and loose his license to practice medicine because of his Jew-
ognomy of the high-priest of Amen, Bekenchons in his novel, ish ancestry.
thereby ridiculing the right-wing opposition to the Weimar Re- Spiegelberg’s colleagues suffered similar fates: Adolf
public as represented by Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), au- Erman was excluded from the faculty at the University of Ber-
thor of the infamous Decline of the West (Untergang des Abend- lin; Ludwig Borchardt died in exile, after being deprived of his
landes), published in 1918. Spiegelberg himself had severely German citizenship; Otto Rubensohn went into exile in Swit-
zerland, reliant on financial support of his colleagues; and Hil-
de Zaloscer survived the Shoah in Egypt. The contributions of
these and many other men and women to German Egyptology
fell victim to damnatio memoriae.

Acknowledgements The conclusions presented here are some re-

sults of an on-going research project funded by the Deutsche For-
schungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The author also wishes to express his
sincere gratitude for valuable advice and background information to
Isolde Lehnert, at the Library of the German Archaeological Institute,
Cairo; to Richard Jasnow, professor in the Department of Near East-
ern Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; and es-
pecially to Richard Spiegelberg, who has recently published a short
biography of his great-uncle.

About the Author Thomas Lambert Gertzen studied Egyptology,

Book plate of Wilhelm Spiegelberg
Classical Archaeology and Assyriology in Muenster, Berlin and Ox-
ford, earning his MA in 2008 with a thesis on Sir William Mathew
Flinders Petrie. In 2013 he was awarded a PhD in history at Berlin’s
Humboldt University, submitting a dissertation on the Berlin School
of Egyptology. He has published extensively on the disciplinary his-
tory of Egyptology and is currently involved in research at the Moses
Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam, about
the role of religion in the history of German Egyptology at the turn of
the Twentieth Century.
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