IN MEMORIAM. Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg

21 April 1940 – 14 April 2025

Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg, Honorary Doctor of the University of Tartu and Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel, has passed away.

Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg, a descendant of a well-known Baltic noble family, was born during the difficult times of World War II. The family, who lived in Riga, relocated to Germany during the 1939 Umsiedlung of Baltic Germans, and Jürgen was born in Schneidemühl, now in present-day Poland, in April. Later, his father Baron Rolf Walter Arthur von Ungern-Sternberg served as a pastor in Munich, where Jürgen also completed gymnasium. This was followed by studies in history and classical languages at the universities of Munich and Freiburg, a doctorate with a dissertation on Roman law during the late Republic, and habilitation with a monograph on historiography during the Roman Republic. After shorter teaching periods at the universities of Berlin, Kiel and Essen, he was elected Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel in 1978. He worked in this position until his retirement as emeritus in 2007. Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg was an Honorary Doctor at the University of Upper Alsace, the University of Latvia, and the University of Tartu.

In his research, Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg focused largely on the history of the Roman Republic, but his interests were far from limited to this field. His exploration of the relationships between historical tradition, historiography, and historical truth led him to study the general rules of oral tradition. His areas of interest included the comparison of early legislation in the Middle East and Mediterranean countries, the comparison of Greek and Middle Eastern worldviews, and the study of Greek epigraphy. In addition to topics in ancient history, Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg also dedicated himself to later history, including the more distant and recent past of the Baltic states. He has also published a study on the history of the Ungern-Sternberg family.

Professor von Ungern-Sternberg is remembered as a broad-minded scholar, as well as a simple, warm, hospitable, and life-affirming person. His still active academic work was cut short by his sudden death during a leisure trip to Paris. Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg’s funeral ceremony will take place at the Church of the Redeemer in Munich-Schwabing, where his father once served as a pastor.