The library acquisitions of both seminars were – as they continue to be – integrated into a common resource. Students met with ideal conditions in close contact with teaching staff and one another as well as a well-equipped library. The building and intellectual environment provided ample room for research and teaching as well as for visiting scholars. Ein Beitrag zur Ethnographie des alten Kleinasiens") to the Faculty of Ancient Near Eastern Philology of the Freie Universität. One year later, Einar von Schular, who had followed Friedrich to Berlin from Leipzig in 1950, completed his dissertation on "Hittite Instructions for Court and State Officials" ("Hethitische Dienstanweisungen für höhere Hof- und Staatsbeamte." In 1961, after a period as lecturer in Münster under Wolfram von Soden, von Schuler submitted his habilitation in Ancient Near Eastern Philology, on the "Kashkaeans: A Contribution to the Ethnography of Ancient Asia Minor" ("Die Kaškäer. Later editions were revised and edited by his student Wolgang Röllig, who earned his PhD in Berlin in January of 1960 with a dissertation on "Studies on Selected Phoenician and Punic Inscriptions."įriedrich's first PhD student in Berlin was Rolf Grobe, who completed his dissertation in 1953 on "Hittite Solar Songs and Their Akkadian Parallels" ("Hethitische Sonnenlieder und ihre akkadischen Parallelen"). Friedrich's pioneering studies on Northwest Semitic languages are evidenced in his Phoenician-Punic Grammar (Rome 1951). In 1960, he published his "Hethitisches Keilschrift-Lesebuch", aided by the talents of his then student assistant, Rainer-Michael Boehmer, as a draughtsman, who would later go on to become professor and director of the Baghdad Section of the German Archeological Institute. His most important publications include a Hittite grammar (1940, with later editions), a Hittite dictionary, and an edition of the Hittite treaties (19). The Institute for Indo-European Studies occupied the second floor.įriedrich focused his research and teaching on Hittitology, Hurrian and Urartian Studies, and Northwest Semitic epigraphy. 45 and then, in the summer semester of 1957, to a parterre of a small villa in Faradayweg 15 (the villa of Erna Berger) in Berlin-Dahlem. In the winter semester of 1954/55, Ancient Near Eastern Studies moved first to a villa in the Garystr. 3 on the second floor, with Near Eastern Archeology on the fourth. Ancient Near Eastern Philology, together with Semitics and Arabic Studies, formed a part of the Oriental Institute, located first in the Boltzmannstr.
Wolfram von Soden took over the lexical notes which Bruno Meissner had compiled for a planned Akkadian dictionary. He had bequeathed his research collection to the Inner Mission of the Evangelical Church, which had in turn donated the library to the Seminar for Ancient Near Eastern Philology and Near Eastern Archeology.
The basis for the library in the newly founded seminar at the Freie Universität was provided by private collection of Bruno Meissner, purchased in 1952, who had passed away in Mittenwalde near Berlin in 1947. He had previously taught at the Universität Leipzig, where he had also been rector in 1948/49. The Freie Universität appointed the philologist and Hittitologist Johannes Friedrich (–) to the newly established chair of the Oriental Institute in 1950.