Jan Assmann (born Johann Christoph Assmann; born 7 July 1938) is a German

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Life and works

Assmann studied Egyptology and classical archaeology in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. In 1966–67, he was a fellow of the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, where he continued as an independent scholar from 1967 to 1971. After completing his habilitation in 1971, he was named a professor of

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...

at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in 1976, where he taught until his retirement in 2003. He was then named an ''Honorary Professor of Cultural Studies'' at the University of Constance, where he is today. In the 1990s, Assmann and his wife

Aleida Assmann Aleida Assmann (born Aleida Bornkamm, 22 March 1947) is a German professor of English and Literary Studies, who studied Egyptology and whose work has focused on cultural anthropology and Cultural and Communicative Memory. Life Born Aleida Bornk ...

developed a theory of cultural and communicative memory that has received much international attention. He is also known beyond Egyptology circles for his interpretation of the origins of

monotheism Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxfo ...

, which he considers as a break from earlier

cosmotheism {{cleanup, date=November 2022, reason=Is more like an orphan article. Need to merged or deleted. "Cosmotheism" is an old term for pantheism and it is associated with the beliefs which were adhered to by many people, including: * Norman Lowell, t ...

, first with

Atenism Atenism, the Aten religion, the Amarna religion, or the "Amarna heresy" was a religion and the religious changes associated with the ancient Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The religion centered on the cult of the god Aten, depi ...

and later with the

Exodus from Egypt The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely Ex ...

of the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

Writings on Egyptian and other religions

Assmann suggests that the ancient Egyptian religion had a more significant influence on

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

than is generally acknowledged. He used the term "normative inversion" to suggest that some aspects of Judaism were formulated in direct reaction to Egyptian practices and theology. He ascribed the principle of normative inversion to a principle established by Manetho which was used by

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...

in his references to the

Sabians The Sabians, sometimes also spelled Sabaeans or Sabeans, are a mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the Quran (as , in later sources ), where it is implied that they belonged to the 'People of the Book' (). Their original ident ...

. His book ''The Price of Monotheism'' received some criticism for his notion of ''The Mosaic Distinction''. He too no longer holds this theory, at least not in its original form (specifically, the mosaic aspect).

Awards

* 1996 Max Planck Award for Research * 1998 German Historians’ Prize * 1998 Honorary Doctorate in Theology from the Theology Faculty, Munster * 2004 Soc.Sc.D. (honoris causa),

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

* 2005 Ph.D. (honoris causa), Hebrew University of Jerusalem * 2006

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

, First Class * 2006 Alfried Krupp Prize for Scholarship * 2011 Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste * 2016

Sigmund Freud Prize The Sigmund Freud Prize or Sigmund Freud Prize for Academic Prose (German ''Sigmund Freud-Preis für wissenschaftliche Prosa'') is a German literary award named after Sigmund Freud and awarded by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Ge ...

* 2017 Balzan Prize for Collective Memory together with his wife

* 2018 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade together with his wife Aleida Assmann * 2020 Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts together with his wife Aleida Assmann

Publications

* ''Re und Amun: Die Krise des polytheistischen Weltbilds im Ägypten der 18.-20. Dynastie'' (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 51). Fribourg and Göttingen 1983. * ''Ägypten: Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur'' (Urban-Bücherei, vol.366, Stuttgart 1984). * ''The Search for God in Ancient Egypt'' trans. David Lorton (2001) * "Maât: l'Égypte pharaonique et l'idée de justice sociale" in: ''Conférences, essais et leçons du Collège de France''. Paris: Julliard, 1989. :German: ''Ma`at: Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im alten Ägypten''. Munich 1990 (Arabic Translation 1996). * ''Stein und Zeit: Mensch und Gesellschaft im Alten Ägypten''. Munich 1991. * ''Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen''. Munich 1992. ASIN B001C84TR4 : trans.: ''Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination''. Cambridge University Press, 2011. , * ''Monotheismus und Kosmotheismus'' (1993) * ''Egyptian Solar Religion'' (Studies in Egyptology) (1995) * ''Ägypten: Eine Sinngeschichte'' (Munich: Hanser 1996; Frankfurt: Fischer, 1999); trans. ''The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs'' (New York : Metropolitan Books, 2002; Harvard University Press, 2003). * ''Moses der Ägypter: Entzifferung einer Gedächtnisspur''. Munich 1998. : ''Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997; 1998) * ''Weisheit und Mysterium: Das Bild der Griechen von Ägypten''. Munich 2000. * ''Herrschaft und Heil: Politische Theologie in Altägypten, Israel und Europa''. Munich 2000. * ''Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis: Zehn Studien'' (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2000). : ''Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies'' (Cultural Memory in the Present) trans. Rodney Livingstone, SUP (2005) * ''Der Tod als Thema der Kulturtheorie'' (2000) * ''Tod und Jenseits im Alten Ägypten'' (Munich 2001). : ''Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt'', trans. David Lorton (2006) * ''Altägyptische Totenliturgien'', Bd.1, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten (2002) * ''Die Mosaische Unterscheidung oder der Preis des Monotheismus''. Munich 2003. : trans. Robert Savage: ''The Mosaic Distinction or The Price of Monotheism'' (SUP, 2009) * ''Ägyptische Geheimnisse'' (2003) * ''Theologie und Weisheit im alten Ägypten'' (2005) * ''Die Zauberflöte'' (2005) * ''Thomas Mann und Ägypten: Mythos und Monotheismus in den Josephsromanen'' (Munich 2006). * ''Monotheismus und die Sprache der Gewalt'' (2006) * ''Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism'' (

University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and p ...

, 2008) *''From Akhenaten to Moses. Ancient Egypt and religious change'' (The American University in Cairo Press 2014). * ''Exodus: Die Revolution der Alten Welt'' (Munich 2015) ;Books in English * ''Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom'', trans. Anthony Alcock (1994) * ''Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism'' (Harvard University 1997) * ''The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs'', trans. Andrew Jenkins (2003) * ''Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism'' (2008) * ''Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination'' (Mũnchen 1992; Cambridge University 2011) * ''From Akhenaten to Moses: Ancient Egypt and Religious Change'' (American University in Cairo 2016) *

References

External links

*
Short biography
at litrix.de, German Literature Online *

at the University of Constance
Profile
at the

's Institute for Egyptology {{DEFAULTSORT:Assmann, Jan 1938 births Living people German Egyptologists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German male non-fiction writers Heidelberg University faculty University of Konstanz faculty German expatriates in France German expatriates in Egypt