Ulrich Wilcken (December 18, 1862 – December 10, 1944) was a German historian and

papyrologist Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

who was a native of Stettin.

Biography

Wilcken studied ancient history and Oriental studies in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

and

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 ...

. He was a disciple of historian

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...

(1817–1903), who encouraged Wilcken to take a position as cataloguer of papyri following graduation. Mommsen was also instrumental in Wilcken succeeding

Eduard Meyer Eduard Meyer (25 January 1855 – 31 August 1930) was a German historian. He was the brother of Celticist Kuno Meyer (1858–1919). Biography Meyer was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums and later at the univer ...

(1855–1930) as associate professor of ancient history at the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1889. Afterwards, he was a professor at the universities of

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

(from 1900), Halle (from 1903, where he was again a successor to Eduard Meyer), Leipzig (from 1906) and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

(from 1912), where he succeeded

Heinrich Nissen Heinrich Nissen (born 3 April 1839 in Hadersleben; died 29 February 1912 in Bonn) was a German professor of ancient history. Life Heinrich Nissen studied in Kiel under Karl Wilhelm Nitzsch and in Berlin under August Boeckh and Theodor Mommsen. A ...

(1839–1912). Later on, he served as a professor at

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(from 1915) and Berlin (from 1917), where he was successor to

Otto Hirschfeld Otto Hirschfeld (March 16, 1843 – March 27, 1922) was a German epigraphist and professor of ancient history who was a native of Königsberg. In 1863 received a doctorate from the University of Königsberg, and in 1869 became a professor at the ...

(1843–1922). Wilcken was a German pioneer of Greco-Roman

papyrology Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

, and is credited for amassing an extensive archive of

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter * Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

papyri documents and

ostraca An ostracon ( Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ...

. In 1906 he became a member of the

Saxon Society of Sciences The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

, and in 1921, he became a member of the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

Works

Among his written works was a 1931 book on

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

(''Alexander der Grosse''), being translated into English in 1932 with the title "Alexander the Great" (translated by G.C. Richards).WorldCat Titles
(publication) Other publications by Wilcken include: * ''Observationes ad historiam Aegypti provinciae Romanae depromptae e papyris Graecis Berolinensibus ineditis''. Haack, Berlin 1885. * ''Griechische Ostraka aus Aegypten und Nubien, Ein Beitrag zur antiken Wirtschaftsgeschichte''. (Greek ostracon of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

, Contribution of historical antiques) . two volumes.

Giesecke & Devrient Giesecke+Devrient, also known as (G+D), is a German company headquartered in Munich that provides banknote and securities printing, smart cards, and cash handling systems. History Founded in 1852 by Hermann Giesecke and Alphonse Devrient, th ...

, Leipzig 1899. reprinted Hakkert,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

1970. * ''Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde''. volume 1: Historical part (in two halves). Leipzig 1912. (volume 2: Legal part by Ludwig Mitteis 1859–1921). * ''Griechische Geschichte im Rahmen der Altertumsgeschichte''. (Greek history in the context of ancient history), Oldenbourg, München 1924; Ninth edition 1962 (revised by

Günther Klaffenbach Günther Klaffenbach (20 June 1890 – 3 March 1972) was a German epigraphist. He was an editor of ''Inscriptiones Graecae The ''Inscriptiones Graecae'' (IG), Latin for ''Greek inscriptions'', is an academic project originally begun by the Prussia ...

1890–1972). * ''Urkunden der Ptolemäerzeit (ältere Funde)''. (Proceedings of Ptolemaic era excavations, older findings); two volumes.

De Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

, Berlin 1927, reprinted 1977, . Abbreviated as UPZ in LSJ and other lexicons.

References

Sources

* ''This article is based on translations of equivalent articles at the French and German Wikipedia''.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcken, Ulrich 1862 births 1944 deaths Writers from Szczecin 19th-century German historians 20th-century German historians University of Breslau faculty University of Würzburg faculty University of Bonn faculty Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty Humboldt University of Berlin faculty University of Halle faculty Historians of antiquity People from the Province of Pomerania Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy 19th-century German male writers German papyrologists German male non-fiction writers