Biography of Jan Assmann

Jan Assmann (born 7 July 1938 in Langelsheim; died 19 February 2024 in Konstanz) was a German Egyptologist, cultural scholar and historian of religion. He connected the study of ancient Egypt with questions of memory, religion, identity and political community.

Studies and Egyptology

Assmann grew up in Lübeck and Heidelberg and studied Egyptology, classical archaeology and Greek studies in Munich, Heidelberg, Paris and Göttingen. After a travel fellowship from the German Archaeological Institute, he worked in Cairo and carried out epigraphic and archaeological fieldwork in Thebes-West from the late 1960s onward. He completed his habilitation in 1971.

Professor in Heidelberg

From 1976 to 2003 Assmann taught as professor of Egyptology at Heidelberg University. His work dealt with ancient Egyptian religion, literature, art, history and writing culture. He stayed close to texts, rituals and images while opening his subjects to cultural theory and the history of religion.

Cultural memory

Assmann received international attention for his theory of cultural memory, which he developed in dialogue with Aleida Assmann. The model asks how societies preserve, order and transmit memory. It was taken up in history, literary studies, religious studies and political cultures of remembrance.

Religion and memory

In books such as Moses the Egyptian, The Mosaic Distinction and Exodus, Assmann examined how monotheism, distinction and religious identity are narrated and remembered historically. His theses prompted broad debates because they linked philological precision with present-day questions about violence, tolerance and truth.

Awards and death

After his retirement Assmann was honorary professor at the University of Konstanz. Together with Aleida Assmann he received the 2017 Balzan Prize for Collective Memory and, on 14 October 2018, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He died in Konstanz on 19 February 2024. His memory remains connected with scholarship that took ancient texts seriously and drew from them questions for the present.