Wahrmund, Adolf

Orientalist

born: 10.06.1827 in Wiesbaden

died: 15.05.1913 in Vienna

Wahrmund obtained his university entrance qualification in Weilburg. From 1845, he studied theology and classical and oriental philology in Göttingen and Vienna. He worked as a tutor for several years before moving to the Vienna Court Library in 1853.

From 1862, he worked as a lecturer in oriental linguistics at the University of Vienna, which appointed him a full professor in 1874. From 1871 to 1900, he taught at the Oriental Academy in Vienna, of which he was director between 1885 and 1897. He also served as director of the Institute for Oriental Languages in Vienna.

He also dealt with questions of cultural history. With his 1887 book "Das Gesetz des Nomadenthums und die heutige Judenherrschaft" (The Law of Nomadism and Today's Jewish Rule), in which he argued for measures against the Jewish population, ranging from the social and economic exclusion of Jews from Christian society to their expulsion, he became a pioneer of anti-Semitism in the 20th century.