1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
In focus
ChristmasSyriaGerman election 2025
Latest audioLatest videos
Live TV
Religion

Faith Matters - Theologian, Archaeologist, Maverick - Dieter Vieweger

January 5, 2019

Dieter Vieweger is a Lutheran theologian and an archaeologist. He has been Director-General of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem since 2005. With his infectious enthusiasm for unravelling the past, Professor Vieweger succeeds in fascinating young and old with his exploration of the Holy Land’s 5000-year-old history.

https://p.dw.com/p/3B8kr

Dieter Vieweger was born in a city named after Karl Marx in the former Communist East Germany. In 1974, he was expelled from high school because he was critical of the regime. He took his university entrance exams at a church school. Subsequently, he became a Lutheran pastor, and finally, Theology professor at the prestigious Humbolt University in Berlin. Vieweger began studying Archaeology because he wanted to understand the Biblical texts in their historical context. With a double doctorate, he eventually became Director-General of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Author of numerous publications about the cultural history of the Middle East and professor at a private university in Wuppertal, Vieweger has also studied the contemporary political conflicts of the countries in which he has worked: Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Syria, Yemen and Jordan. We report on the life and passions of this fascinating German theologian, archaeologist and maverick.