Germany

Contact addresses

DAVO: Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient

DMG: Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft

Survey of scholars (1998)

In 1997 there were 258 orientalists in permanent employment, including younger researchers who have completed their theses. Of these, 180 were members of DAVO (the German Association for Contemporary Research and Documentation in the Middle East). DAVO has a total of 480 members mainly comprising university lecturers, students, journalists and 48 non-German lecturers who are resident in Germany. The most important areas of research are Islamic studies (62), political sciences (38), Arab studies (32), geography (30), history (13), economics (10) and Iranian studies (8). Some sectors are divided internally - for example, Islamic, Arabic, Turkish and Iranian Studies may form part of linguistics and history. There are 24 centres which have a minimum of 5 researchers, based in 17 different cities. It is worth noting that Berlin has five separate centres, while Hamburg and Mainz each have two. The other principal institutions are based in Bamberg, Freiburg, Tubingen, Munich and Bonn. There is also the German Institute of the Near Orient which is based in Beirut.