Hussein Bassir
Director of Antiquities Museum, Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Dr. Rainer Stadelmann has passed away on January 14, 2019. It is a great loss to the field of archaeology, Egyptology, and to us all in Egypt, Germany and the whole world. I first met with Dr. Rainer Stadelmann around twenty-five year ago when he used to come to visit Dr. Zahi Hawass at the Giza pyramids area. Dr. Stadelmann was a very modest man, great intellectual scholar and wonderful lover of Egypt and its antiquities. He helped Egypt a lot in terms of studying, saving its monuments, and helping and training Egyptian archaeologists when he was the director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. In brief, he was very gifted at all levels. At the personal level, in addition to Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Ali Radwan, he was one of the three of them who wrote letters of recommendation for me in order to study for my Ph.D. in Egyptology and Near Eastern archaeology at Johns Hopkins University in the USA back in 2002. With Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Mark Lehner, Dr. Rainer Stadelmann was one of the best scholars of the pyramids age.
Dr. Stadelmann had a long a career of studying and working in the archaeological field in Egypt. In terms of his personal biography, he was born on October 24 1933 in Oettingen in Bayern in Germany. He studied Egyptology, Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg, and received his Ph.D. degree from Heidelberg University in 1960. He first served as an assistant professor in Heidelberg and obtained his habilitation in 1967, then he was appointed deputy director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. Then he was the director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo from 1989 to 1998, one of the golden ages of the institute ever.
Dr. Stadelmann was an international and renowned scholar. He published widely on a wide range of Egyptological topics. His Ph.D. dissertation was on the veneration of Syro-Palestinian deities in Egypt, a standard study and analysis of the subject. Then he moved to the field work to work on the Theban temples archaeology, especially the royal funerary temples, particularly the temple of King Seti I at Gurna and the Temple of Millions of Years of King Amenhotep III at Kôm el-Hettan. He became the authority on this very interesting topic. However, the most important expertise of Dr. Stadelmann’s scholarly work is the archaeology, art and history of the Old Kingdom, especially the pyramids age. His work concentrated on the great pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty and their monuments. He contributed extensively to this topic through his fieldwork at Dahshur and his scholarly publications.
As the director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, Dr. Stadelmann further developed the overall profile of the institute to include many amazing and innovative projects. Through his post, he was among the most successful directors of the institute who largely deepened the co-operation with Egyptian archaeologists and stakeholders and supported Egyptian archaeologists to an unequal level ever.
Dr. Stadelmann received the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz), the Grand Officer of the order of the Republic of Egypt and the Egyptian Hathor-Medal in horning his huge achievements. Furthermore, Dr. Stadelmann was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in Paris and was also a Honorary Professor at Heidelberg university.
The death of Dr. Stadelmann represents a great shock to Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology everywhere. All scholars all over the world are very sad for the loss of a respected colleague, a highly appreciated friend and a wonderful human being.
The last time I have ever met with him was in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University when he and his great wife, Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, came and gave us a wonderful lecture about their excavations at the Temple of Amenhotep III at Kôm el-Hettan at West Thebes. Last year, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Antiquities Museum organized a huge exhibition about the work of Dr. Rainer Stadelmann and Dr. Hourig Sourouzian at Temple of Amenhotep III at Kôm el-Hettan, cerlabarting twenty years of their amazing achievements there, which was opened by Dr. Mostafa El Feki, Director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and which received a great success. Although Dr. Rainer Stadelmann was ill at that time and he was not able to make it, his spirit and achievements were among us during the celebration.
Farewell to Dr. Rainer Stadelmann. We all will miss you so much. All condolences to his great wife and scholar, Dr. Hourig Sourouzian.
Rainer Stadelmann
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