“Ich zweifle nicht, dass man hier für die Bauforschung sorgen könnte.” Nyt lys på H.O. Langes kamp for et dansk videnskabeligt institut i Egypten 1938-39

Abstract

Lars Schreiber Pedersen: “Ich zweifle nicht, dass man hier für die Bauforschung sorgen könnte.” [“I do not doubt that one could take care of construction research here.”] New light shed on H. O. Lange’s struggle for a Danish scientific institute in Egypt 1938–39

Fund og Forskning 46 from 2007 contained an article about the Egyptologist and head librarian at The Royal Library from 1901–1924, H. O. Lange’s attempt to help his long-time friend, the German-Jewish Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt and his wife Emilie to acquire Danish citizenship and at the same time ensure Denmark and Copenhagen University a scientific institute in Cairo in Egypt. As early as 2007, it was clear that parts of the initial correspondence were missing between Ludwig Borchardt and later, after Ludwig Borchardt’s death on 12 August 1938, his wife Emilie Borchardt and H. O. Lange. Lange quoted diligently from these letters when he promoted Ludwig and Emilie Borchardt’s case in the summer and autumn of 1938 to several Danish ministries and at Copenhagen University.
Part of the supposedly lost correspondence, including 14 letters from Ludwig and Emilie Borchardt to H. O. Lange, as well as three response drafts from H. O. Lange showed up a few years ago at Copenhagen University and constitute the focal point of this article. The letters provide new and detailed insight into H. O. Lange’s efforts to ensure the Danish state and Copenhagen University the scientific institute in Egypt. An institute, which could help highlight the leadership of Danish Egyptology in the Nordic countries. The rediscovered letters also document how tight a grip Ludwig and Emilie Borchardt had on the institute, and how unwilling the couple really were to entrust the institute and its corresponding assets to the Danish State. The letters leave the impression of a married couple, who did not hesitate to play close friends and peers (George Reisner, Allan H. Gardiner and H. O. Lange) against one another based on a supposed risk that the institution and its assets could be seized by National Socialist Germany.
However, the foundation created by the couple using private funds in the district of Zamalek in Cairo, was never close to ending up in Danish, English or American hands. Since the alleged risk of seizing the institute and its corresponding assets in the late summer of 1938 had blown over, Emilie Borchardt gradually retracted the feelers she had put out. In the three countries, which participated in the battle to take over the institute, namely USA, England and Denmark, civil servants and politicians were in the end not willing to pay the price presented by the Borchardts for the scientific institute, plus the granting of citizenship. Today, the institute bears the name Schweizerisches Institut für Ägyptische Bauforschung und Altertumskunde (Swiss Institute for Architectural and Archaeological Research on Ancient Egypt) and continues to be financed by the foundation created by Ludwig and Emilie Borchardt.