Otto John Maenchen-Helfen (
German
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* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
: Otto Mänchen-Helfen; July 26, 1894 – January 29, 1969) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n academic,
sinologist
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
, historian, author, and traveler.
From 1927 to 1930, he worked at the
Marx-Engels Institute in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, and from 1930 to 1933 in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. When the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
came to power in Germany, he returned to Austria, and after the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
in 1938 he emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, eventually becoming a professor at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. He was the author of several oft-cited books, including a history of the
Huns.
He was the first non-Russian to travel and report on
Tannu Tuva
The Tuvan People's Republic (TPR; tyv, Тыва Арат Республик, translit=Tywa Arat Respublik; Yanalif: ''Tьʙа Arat Respuʙlik'', ),) and abbreviated TAR. known as the Tannu Tuva People's Republic until 1926, was a partially rec ...
. He obtained permission to travel there and study its inhabitants in 1929.
He later published his experiences in a book, ''Reise ins asiatische Tuwa'' (Travels in Asiatic Tuva).
Selected list of works
* Mänchen-Helfen, Otto (1931). ''Reise ins asiatische Tuwa.'' Berlin: Der Bücherkreis. Translated into English in 1992 (''see'' below).
* Mänchen-Helfen, Otto (1932). ''Rußland und der Sozialismus. Von der Arbeitermacht zum Staatskapitalismus''. Berlin: Dietz.
*
Nicolaevsky, Boris (author), and Maenchen-Helfen, Otto (translator) (1936). ''Karl Marx: Man and Fighter.'' (First published 1933 in German. Many English editions; some of them restore the notes, appendices, and bibliography omitted from the first English edition.)
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1944-45a).
''Huns and Hsiung-Nu.'' ''Byzantion'', vol. 17, pp. 222–243.
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1944-45b).
''The Legend of the Origin of the Huns." ''Byzantion'', vol. 17, pp. 244–251.
* Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1945).
"The Yueh-chih Problem Re-examined." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society,'' vol. 65, p. 71–81.
* Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1951).
"Manichaeans in Siberia." ''Semitic and Oriental Studies Presented to William Popper,'' ed. by Walter J. Fischel. University of California Publications in Semitic Philology, vol. 9. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1973). ''The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture.'' Ed. by Max Knight. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. . (Edited and enlarged in a 1978 German translation; ''see'' below.)
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1978). ''Die Welt der Hunnen: Eine Analyse ihrer historischen Dimension.'' Vienna, Cologne, and Graz: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.
* Mänchen-Helfen, Otto (1992). ''Journey to Tuva.''; Trans. and annotated by Alan Leighton, with an introduction by Anna Maenchen. Ethnographics Press Monographs Series, edited by Gary Seaman, no. 5. Los Angeles: Univ. of Southern California Ethnographics Press. .
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maenchen-Helfen, Otto
20th-century Austrian historians
Austrian sinologists
University of California, Berkeley faculty
Writers from Vienna
1894 births
1969 deaths
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Austrian expatriates in the Soviet Union
Austrian expatriates in Germany