Ricardo Eichmann | |
---|---|
Born | Ricardo Francisco Eichmann November 2, 1955 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Occupation | Archaeologist |
Children | 2 |
Parent | Adolf Eichmann (father) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Heidelberg University |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Near Eastern archaeology |
Institutions | University of Tübingen German Archaeological Institute |
Ricardo Francisco Eichmann (born November 2, 1955) is an Argentine-born German archaeologist. He was the director of the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute between 1996 and 2020 and previously a professor of Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Tübingen.
Ricardo Francisco Eichmann was born on November 2, 1955 in Buenos Aires.[1][2] He is the youngest son of Adolf Eichmann and Vera Eichmann (née Liebl).[3][4] He has three older brothers.[5] Eichmann was five years old when his father was captured and taken from Argentina to Israel by Mossad.[6] As a teenager, Eichmann learned of his father's history from books. He rejected the Nazi ideology of his father and accepted that his execution was justified.[5]
From 1977, Eichmann studied prehistory and protohistory, classical archaeology and Egyptology at Heidelberg University. His 1984 dissertation was titled Prehistoric Aspects of Floor Plans in the Middle East.[7]
Eichmann is an archaeologist. From 1984 to 1994, he worked first as a scientific consultant and later as a research assistant in the Baghdad department of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin.[8] Eichmann was then briefly Professor of Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Tübingen from 1995 to 1996.[3] From 1996 to 2019 he was the first director of the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, being succeeded by Margarete van Ess in 2020.[9] His research interests include music archaeology in the Near East and Egypt.[10]
In 1995, he met Zvi Aharoni, the Mossad agent who was chiefly responsible for his father's capture.[6] Eichmann declines most requests for interviews. He has two sons.[5]