The Passion of Max von Oppenheim: Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hider. By LIONEL GOSSMAN.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Book review

The Passion of Max von Oppenheim: Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler. By LIONEL GOSSMAN. Cambridge: OPEN BOOK PUBLISHERS, 2013. Pp. xxvi + 388, illus. [pounds sterling] 15.95 (paper).

One of the most interesting characters involved in early archaeological research into the cultures of the ancient Near East was surely Max Freiherr von Oppenheim (1860-1946). The book under review presents a very readable account of his multifarious activities, situating them clearly within the political and intellectual contexts of Europe and the Middle East during the first half of the twentieth century.

Scion of a Cologne banking family whose previous generation had almost all converted from their ancestral Judaism to Christianity, young Max von Oppenheim was nonetheless barred by anti-Semitism from realizing his dream of a career in the Imperial German foreign service. Rather, he had to settle for an irregular position as Legationsrat, or attache, in the Cairo mission (1896-1909), where he utilized his private fortune to hold lavish receptions and soon became known to his colleagues in the diplomatic community as "the Kaiser's spy."

Oppenheim travelled widely throughout the Ottoman realms, largely in connection with planning for the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad railway. In 1899 he came upon the ancient ruin mound of Tell Halaf in the Habur River triangle of northern Syria and in the course of unauthorized digging there uncovered impressive remains of ancient statuary. Apparently despairing of ever receiving a regular diplomatic appointment, he eventually resigned his post as attache and in August 1911 began the excavation of Tell Halaf, for which he had in the meantime personally secured a finnan from the Imperial Ottoman Museums. Work at the site continued through August 1913 and was scheduled to resume the following year, but these plans were scuttled by the outbreak of World War 1.

Oppenheim ultimately returned to dig at Tell Halaf in 1927 and 1929 and was then allowed by the French mandate authorities to export his share of the finds to Berlin. This was only possible because Oppenheim had received his excavation permit as an individual, not as a representative of a German archaeological institution. Indeed, he had invested the estimated equivalent of 7-8 million euros of his own funds in the project (p. 126).

Confronting the world economic downturn with a diminished fortune, Oppenheim hoped to sell his artifacts...