Hans Wehr

Hans Bodo Wehr (; 5 July 190924 May 1981) was a German Arabist. He is best known for his work on A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, originally published in German as in 1952. The system of transliteration used in the dictionary has become known as Hans Wehr transliteration.

Life Wehr was born in Leipzig on 5 July 1909. He attended a gymnasium in Halle, and then studied at universities in Halle, Berlin, and Leipzig. He received his doctorate in 1935 and his habilitation in 1939.

He joined the Nazi Party in 1940, and wrote an essay arguing that Germany should ally with the Arabs against Great Britain and France. He had begun work on an ArabicGerman dictionary, and the project received funding from the German government, which intended to use make use of the dictionary in translating Mein Kampf into Arabic. For a time, Wehr was assisted in his project by Hedwig Klein.

His dictionary, entitled , was eventually published in 1952. An English version, edited by J Milton Cowan and entitled A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, was published in 1961. The dictionary used a new system of transliteration, which is today known as Hans Wehr transliteration.

Wehr was a professor at the University of Münster from 1957 until his retirement in 1974. He died in Münster on 24 May 1981.