Scientific background knowledge and research transfer as exemplified by the Egyptologist Georg Steindorff (1861-1951)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dietrich Raue
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 233145017

In 2011, the heir of Georg Steindorff handed over his private correspondence to the Egyptological Institute/Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig, thereby making it possible to exploit a hitherto largely unknown archive in order to gain insights into the history of an academic discipline. No less than 6800 documents written over a period of 60 years (letters received and annotated by Steindorff as well as drafts of his own letters) shed light on the activities of one of the central figures in Egyptology, not only as a scholar but also as an academic policy-maker whose influence in the first three decades of the 20th century can hardly be underestimated. Steindorffs influence was to a considerable extent the result of his decade-long membership in the so-called Wörterbuchkommission, which was made up of representatives of the four German academies. Within this academic organ, which was also in charge of supervising the Imperial German Institute for Egyptian Archaeology in Cairo, Steindorff wielded the greatest influence along with the leading figure, Adolf Erman. His profound insight into all matters related to the upcoming field of German Egyptology enabled him to become Ermans most important adviser and to succeed him as the most influential authority in German Egyptology. His various editorships also placed him in direct contact with the large publishing houses.The significance of the material that has now become accessible lies in its texture, density, and quality as well as in its astonishing chronological scope of more than 60 years. The unembellished frankness of the private correspondence affords insights into the meta level of a humanistic discipline. Thus, for instance, the recently uncovered discourse on the participation of German Egyptologists in the internationally waged scientific contest of cultures (Emperor William II) is illustrated in the most qualitative manner. A first perusal reveals the complex meshwork of interactions in the research transfer that was taking place within the academic world as well as between the academic discourse and the public at large. The documents of the archive that awaits thorough examination bear explicit testimony to the interactions and to the true motives of the acting persons. This leads to a second level of understanding: (1) from a synchronous perspective, under which the international research networks and the transdisciplinary influencing of research under the respective national constraints become apparent, and (2) from a diachronic perspective, under which the mechanisms of knowledge/information transfer and the processes that gave rise to scholarly schools appear in a new light and reveal the direct lines of tradition that ran from the Wilhelmine age to the post-World War II period. The actors involved in the production of knowledge and in research transfer thus become portrayable in a manner that extends far beyond their anecdotically reconstructable networks.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Tonio Sebastian Richter