The (, ''German Oriental Society''), abbreviated DMG, is a scholarly organization dedicated to Oriental studies, that is, to the study of the languages and cultures of the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

and the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

, the broader

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The DMG was established on 2 October 1845 in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

by leading Oriental scholars from Germany, as well as members of other Orientalist societies such as the Asiatic Societies in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(the Société Asiatique),

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

(the Royal Asiatic Society), and

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(the Asiatic Society). It was founded "to promote all aspects of the knowledge of Asia and of the countries closely related to it in every aspect, and to propagate participation of this in wider circles. Hence the Society will deal not only with oriental literature (''morgenländische Literatur'') but also with the history of these countries and the research of their situation both earlier and more recent times." The DMG has traditionally concentrated on the "knowledge of languages, literatures, history, religions and philosophies, forms of law and society, archaeology, and the art and material culture of the people living in these areas". In recent years, its scope has expanded to include sociology and political science as well. The academic disciplines represented in the DMG include the following: Ancient Near Eastern studies,

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

, Jewish studies, Arabic studies,

Islamic studies Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...

, the study of Oriental Christianity, Persian studies and

Iranian studies Iranian studies ( '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It is a part of the wider field ...

, Indology, Turkish studies, Central Asian studies,

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...

, Mongolian studies, Tibetan studies, Sinology,

Japanese studies , sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, history, culture, litera ...

, Southeast Asian studies, and

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's History of Africa, history (pre-colonial, Colonisation of Af ...

. The publishing program of the DMG consists of its internationally renowned journal, the

Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft The ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft'' () is a peer-reviewed academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relatin ...

(ZDMG), published since 1847, and its monograph series, ''Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes'' (AKM), published since 1857, as well as the ''Beiruter Texte und Studien'' (BTS), which have been published since 1964. In 1870 on the occasion of their 25th anniversary they commissioned a medal to honour their first secretarys of the DMG Hermann Brockhaus, Emil Rödiger, Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer and

August Friedrich Pott August Friedrich Pott (14 November 1802 in Nettelrede, Electorate of Hanover, Hanover5 July 1887 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle) was a German pioneer in linguistics. Life Pott was a theology student at the University of Göttingen, where he be ...

. The frontside shows an image in a neo-classical style designed by Theodor Grosse. Beginning in 1921, every three to five years the DMG has organized the "Deutschen Orientalistentag" (DOT), a congress of Oriental studies open to all German and foreign specialists in the field. The DMG has been based since 2006 in

Halle (Saale) Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (), is the second largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is the sixth-most populous city in the area of former East Germany after (East Berlin, East) Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Chem ...

. It maintains a research library there with more than 66,000 titles and a photographic collection. The Lidzbarski Gold Medal for Semitic Philology is awarded annually by the German Oriental Society for work in Semitic studies and named in after Mark Lidzbarski.

Some members

* Johannes Benzing (1913–2001) *

Carl Brockelmann Carl Brockelmann (17 September 1868 – 6 May 1956) German Semitic studies, Semiticist, was the foremost Orientalism, orientalist of his generation. He was a professor at the universities in University of Wrocław, Breslau, Berlin and, from 1903, ...

(1886–1956) * Hermann Brockhaus (1806–1877) * Gustav Droysen (1838–1908) * Heinrich Ewald (1803–1875) * Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (1801–1888) * Johann Fück (1894–1974) * Hans Conon von der Gabelentz (1807–1874) * Herrmann Jungraithmayr (* 1931) * Angelika Neuwirth (* 1943) * Justus Olshausen (1800–1882) * Richard Pischel (1849–1908) *

(1802–1887) * Emil Rödiger (1801–1874) * Friedrich Schrader (1865–1922) * Hans Stumme (1864–1936)

References

* Holger Preissler:
Die Anfänge der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft
'. In:

145/2, Hubert, Göttingen 1995.

External links

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft Learned societies of Germany Oriental studies Ancient Near East organizations