Michael Kühntopf
Michael Kühntopf (from 1987 to 2006: Michael Kühntopf-Gentz; born 11 August 1957 in Düsseldorf) is a German-born Swiss philologist, cultural scientist, scholar of religions (core theme: Judaism), author and journalist.
The biography compiled by him of the jewish thinker Nathan Birnbaum became basic for the other research on the person of Birnbaum and delivers an important contribution to the understanding of the formation of the National-Jewish movement in the time immediately before Herzl.
His Switzerland encyclopedia which made him noted in the German parts of Switzerland reflects beside dialectal aspects of the Swiss language above all the differences of both varieties of Standard German (considered as a pluricentric language: Standard German in Germany vs. Swiss Standard German). The articles of this encyclopedia comprise not only the common material and topics but also such subjects which are often neglected or sometimes suppressed (Swiss bank scandal, Secret files scandal, Switzerland during the time of nazism, Swiss Jews etc.).
The Jewish chronicle is a constantly expanding intriguing collection of facts and figures of the Jewish history from the beginnings till the present including thousands of biographies, an annotated bibliography and more (comparable to Salomon Winingers opus magnum).
Major works
- Nathan Birnbaum. Biographie, Tübingen 1990
- Schweiz-Lexikon. Sach- und Sprachlexikon zur Schweiz, Norderstedt 2008 (4th Edition)
- Juden, Juden, Juden. Jüdische Chronik zu Juden, Judentum, jüdischer Geschichte und Geschichte des Heiligen Landes, der Heiligen Schrift(en) sowie zur Geschichte Israels, des Antijudaismus, Antisemitismus, der Shoah und des Zionismus von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart, vermehrt um allerlei Wissenswertes und Kurioses aus der jüdischen (und nichtjüdischen) Welt – teilweise ergänzt um Angaben zu geschichtlichen Ereignissen von allgemeiner Bedeutung, Norderstedt 2008 (three volumes)
- Rabbiner und Rabbinerinnen - von den ältesten Zeiten bis in die Gegenwart, Norderstedt 2009
References
- Sitz ab! Helvetismen: Basler Zeitung, July 31, 2006
- Isabella Gyr, In der Schweiz wird das Poulet grilliert: Schweizer Familie 31, Zürich, August 3, 2006
- Friedrich Metge, Sitzab ist höflich gemeint: Goslarsche Zeitung, May 19, 2007
- Arnold Mader, Michael Kühntopf: Schweiz-Lexikon: Sprachspiegel 5, Lufingen, October, 2007
- Christoph Rüegger, Das Schweiz-Lexikon: Hieronymus, Bern, December, 2008
External links
- Official website
- Association Authors of Switzerland
- Profile of the author at Conbook publishing house
- Michael Kühntopf in the German National Library catalogue (German)
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