Rudolf Anthes’s Nachkriegstagebuch

Abstract

From October 1945 until early August 1950 when Rudolf Anthes was in charge of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, he recorded his day-to-day activities in a diary - his so-called Nachkriegstagebuch. These “jottings,” which have hitherto attracted little attention, furnish information relevant to the history of Egyptology in Germany during the initial years of the post-WW II era, and of the museum in particular, with its location in the Soviet Sector of the former German capital. The intention is to inspire some enterprising individual to undertake a thorough study of the nuanced glimpse Anthes’s diary provides of the conditions endured and the individuals encountered.