DELITZSCH, FRIEDRICH

(1850–1922)

   German Assyriologist. He was one of the first Germans to obtain the habilitation in the subject in 1874 in Leipzig, where he subsequently taught and was made professor in 1885. He had studied Indo-European linguistics at Leipzig, and his work on Akkadian grammar and lexicography was instrumental in shaping the academic discipline of Assyriology (Assyrische Grammatik, 1889; Assyrisches Handworterbuch, 1896). He trained generations of scholars in Leipzig, Breslau, and Berlin, co-founded the German Oriental Society, and was in charge of the Near Eastern Department of the Royal Museums in Berlin.