Hans Gustav Güterbock

Hans Gustav Güterbock (May 27, 1908 – March 29, 2000) was a German-American Hittitologist. Born and trained in Germany, his career was ended with the rise of the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage, and he was forced to resettle in Turkey. After the Second World War, he immigrated to the United States and spent the rest of his career at the University of Chicago.

Early life Born in Berlin to a father of Jewish heritage who served as the secretary of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, Güterbock spent a year studying the Hittite language with Hans Ehelolf before moving on to Leipzig University. There he continued his Hittite studies and took up Assyriology, studying under Johannes Friedrich and Benno Landsberger and earning a doctorate. With private funding, Güterbock managed to spend three years in Bogazköy as an epigrapher on a German team (while also employed by the Berlin Museum from 1933 to 1935),

Chicago career In 1948, he left Turkey to be a guest lecturer for a year in Sweden's University of Uppsala, and in 1949 he was invited to settle at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute by Thorkild Jacobsen In 1976, he joined forces with fellow Chicago professor Harry Hoffner to found and co-edit the Chicago Hittite Dictionary.

Personal life In Istanbul Güterbock married in 1940 Franziska Hellmann (1919–2014), the daughter of Karl Hellmann and Rosy, née Herzfelder. With his wife Frances he had two children: Thomas Martin and Walter Michael. His ashes are interred in the crypt of First Unitarian Church of Chicago where he was a member.

Works

(edited with Harry A. Hoffner)

(edited by Harry A. Hoffner)