Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen

Otto Maenchen - Help (also: Maenchen - Help; born July 26, 1894 in Vienna, † January 29, 1969 in Berkeley ) was an Austrian historian and sinologist.

Life

Mänchen - Help studied at the universities of Vienna, Leipzig, Gothenburg and the subjects Chinese Studies, archeology, ethnography and art history. After receiving his doctorate in 1923, he lived for some time as a private scholar, before being appointed in 1927 to the Marx- Engels Institute in Moscow. 1929 toured the Mongolia, Nepal, Kashmir and Afghanistan. He habilitated While in Berlin in 1933, but shortly afterwards emigrated to Vienna, where he habilitated again and eventually emigrated to the United States. Here at Mills College in 1939 he was Professor of Oriental Studies. From 1947 until his retirement he worked at the University of Berkeley.

Because of its broad language skills - among other things he had mastered Greek, Latin, Russian, Chinese and Japanese - he could do philological comparative studies. He made important fundamental work on the history of the Huns, which now, however, are partly obsolete, were partly revised.

Publications

• The later books of the Shan hai king. Dissertation in 1924.
• Journey into Asian Tuva. In 1931. ( Publishing House of the Book Club, Berlin).
• Third of mankind. An East Asia book. In 1932.
• Karl Marx. A Biography. Hannover, 1963 ( German translation of the English edition of 1936).
• The World of the Huns. Wiesbaden 1997 ( Erstaufl. 1978).