Baron Max von Oppenheim (15 July 1860 – 17 November 1946) was a German lawyer, diplomat, ancient historian, pan-Islamist and archaeologist.

[1] This was destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II; however, most of the findings were recently restored and have been exhibited again at Berlin and Bonn.

In fact, he engaged in anti-Allied propaganda, which was aimed at stirring up the Muslim populations of the Allied-controlled territories against their colonial masters.

[2]: 16, 23  Returning by way of India and Deutsch Ostafrika to Germany, in 1895 Max von Oppenheim wrote his two volume travelogue Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf, which made him famous on publication in 1899/1900.

[2]: 23 Interested in politics and diplomacy, Oppenheim tried to join the diplomatic corps but he was first rejected by Herbert von Bismarck and then Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office)[4] due to the Jewish background of his father.

[2]: 23  Using well-connected friends — including Paul Graf von Hatzfeldt[3]: 21  — Oppenheim succeeded in being accepted as an attaché (which did not bestow diplomatic status) at the German General Consulate in Cairo.

Not issued with any specific instructions, he made use of his freedom to engage in freelance activities, sending reports of his impressions to his superiors in Berlin (over the years totaling around 500).

[2]: 23–24  For example, when tensions were later heightened by the Aqaba border crisis,1906, British and French papers accused Oppenheim of acting in ways to incite pan-Islamic jihadi massacres of Europeans and of plotting with anti-French Algerian, and anti-Italian Tripolitan, rebels.

[3]: 26 [5]: 333–341 On one of several trips he made while stationed at Cairo, in 1899 Oppenheim travelled via Aleppo to Damascus and northern Mesopotamia on behalf of Deutsche Bank, working on establishing a route for the Baghdad Railway.

On 19 November, he discovered the archaeological site of Tell Halaf, following up on tales told to him by local villagers of stone idols buried beneath the sand.

[2]: 16, 24, 63 According to noted archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld, he had urged Oppenheim in 1907 to excavate Tell Halaf and they made some initial plans towards this goal at that time.

In August 1910, Herzfeld wrote a letter calling on Oppenheim to explore the site and had it circulated to several leading archaeologists like Theodor Noldeke or Ignaz Goldziher to sign.

Armed with this letter, Max von Oppenheim was now able to ask for his dismissal from the service (which he did on 24 October 1910) while being able to call on financing from his father for the excavation.

[2]: 48–49 With a team of five archaeologists, and additionally recruiting more than 500 residents to assist with the excavations,[6] Oppenheim planned a digging campaign that began on 5 August 1911.

During the excavations Oppenheim found the ruins of the Aramaean town of Guzana (or Gozan), which flourished at the turn of the 2nd/1st millennium BC.

Significant finds included the large statues and reliefs of the so-called "Western Palace" built by King Kapara, as well as a cult room and tombs.

[2]: 25, 48–49, 64–66  A statue of a seated figure referred to as "Venus" as well as orthostats which decorated the exterior of the palace were also found, they were made out of basalt and dated back to the Neo-Hittite period.

The result was his Denkschrift betreffend die Revolutionierung der islamischen Gebiete unserer Feinde ("Memorandum on revolutionizing the Islamic territories of our enemies") of October 1914.

The memo argued for enlisting the Sultan to call on the world's Muslims to engage in a Holy War against the colonial powers, France and Great Britain.

[2]: 16, 25 In late 1915, British High Commissioner in Cairo Henry McMahon claimed in a report that Oppenheim had been making speeches in mosques approving of the massacre of Armenians initiated by the Young Turk government earlier that year.

[9] Oppenheim was credited with being the one who came up with the dual approach to fighting the British and French: through regular troops and by encouraging uprisings by the masses.

Artillery fire exchanged between Ottoman and French troops in the final days of the war had severely damaged the building and the archaeological findings had to be dug out of the rubble.

Although the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin took care of the remains, months passed before all of the pieces had been recovered and they were further damaged by frost and summer heat.

Having lost virtually all his possessions, Oppenheim moved to Schloss Ammerland [de] in Bavaria, where he stayed with his sister.

Oppenheim and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft the Vorderasiatisches Museum engaged in its largest-scale restoration project since the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate.