31 Facts About Carl Rathjens

Carl Rathjens made several visits to Yemen, in the years 1927,1931,1934 and 1938.

Carl Rathjens is considered the greatest scholar of Yemeni research in the 20th century.

Carl Rathjens contributed more than any other in conducting scientific and ethnographic research, resulting in a wide range of findings, and he has left over 2500 ethnographical items and some 4000 positive and negative photographs from South Arabia.

Carl Rathjens nurtured a good relationship with the Prime Minister, Abdallah al Amri.

Carl Rathjens had a good rapport with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Ragib, with whom he communicated in French.

Carl Rathjens assumed that in Yemen, archaeology was in its nascent stages and that it should be encouraged and expanded.

Carl Rathjens reasoned that the research should be done in a professional way, employing scientific methods.

Carl Rathjens suggested that the Imam should invite from Germany a team consisting of an archaeologist and philologist for ancient Semitic languages in order to inspect the excavations, as well as to document their findings and do the deciphering of the inscriptions, by using strict scientific methods as those used in Europe.

Carl Rathjens himself taught a locally educated judge how to copy the inscription and to document the items.

Carl Rathjens pressed for the reopening of the archaeological museum in Sana'a.

Carl Rathjens saw that merchants at the markets openly sold to tourists precious antiquities.

Carl Rathjens was convinced that such trade in antiquities must be stopped and that all findings or discoveries should be documented and kept under national inspection in the country.

Carl Rathjens started by drawing a plan of the building, but he himself had to look for wood in the remote outlying districts of Sanaa and to bring the material into the capital.

Carl Rathjens ordered straw from the region of Hodeida for covering the roof.

The Wetter Dienst station in Hamburg donated many measuring instruments and which Carl Rathjens brought to Yemen.

Carl Rathjens' plan was that the work at the station would continue for a long period.

Carl Rathjens was instrumental in helping to improve Yemen's postal and communication services.

The Imam instructed the director-general of the post office of Sana'a to assist him in these endeavors, while Carl Rathjens went to Berlin to order new stamps that would be recognized outside of Yemen.

The Imam was fond of Carl Rathjens and trusted him.

Carl Rathjens saw in Rathjens a good ambassador for Yemen in Europe.

Carl Rathjens was very interested in Rathjens working for him as a consultant for buying weapons in Europe, as well as other industrial commodities to help in the modernization of his country.

Carl Rathjens was very interested in Germany developing friendly relations with Yemen and that the two countries would expand their commercial exchanges.

In Yemen, Carl Rathjens studied the political and juridical system of the courtiers, including the demographic structure of the nation, and informed his readers about minority groups living in the country, their social and legal status.

Carl Rathjens devotes a special review on the Jewish community in Yemen, in a book entitled, Jewish Domestic Architecture in San'a, Yemen, a book detailing their recent history and culture, with documentation of the crafts and the material culture of the Jews in Sana'a.

Carl Rathjens was avant-garde in systematically processing the flora of South Arabia, which he saw there in 1927 and 1928, and added considerably to knowledge in this field.

Carl Rathjens took a personal interest in the Jews of Yemen, photographing them and writing about the Jewish Quarter and its architecture.

Carl Rathjens offered Mrs Hadassa Calvari-Rosenblit of the Jewish Agency in Palestine to buy from him the duplicates.

Carl Rathjens forwarded his offer to the Hebrew University, which bought from him almost 2,000 Items.

Carl Rathjens contributed much to preserve the Yemenite culture among the Yemenite Jews in Palestine.

Carl Rathjens loaded these on approximately 100 camels and had them transferred to Hodeida where they were shipped to Hamburg.

Carl Rathjens visited the Aden British Protectorate and purchased antiquities from there worth thousands of pounds.