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{{Short description|Austrian Sinologist, historian, and traveler (1894–1969)}}
{{Refimprove|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen
| native_name = Otto Mänchen-Helfen
| native_name_lang = de
| image = Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen.jpg
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date |1894|7|26|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Vienna]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date = {{death date and age |1969|1|29 |1894|7|26|mf=yes}}
| death_place = [[Berkeley, California]]
| nationality =
| fields = [[Historiography]]<br>[[Sinology]]
| workplaces = [[University of California, Berkeley]]
| alma_mater =
| thesis_title = 
| thesis_url = 
| thesis_year = 
| doctoral_advisor = 
| doctoral_students =
| known_for =
| awards =
}}
'''Otto John Maenchen-Helfen''' ([[German language|German]]: '''Otto Mänchen-Helfen'''; July 26, 1894 – January 29, 1969) was an [[Austria]]n academic, [[sinologist]], historian, author, and traveler.

From 1927 to 1930, he worked at the [[Marx-Engels Institute]] in [[Moscow]], and from 1930 to 1933 in [[Berlin]]. When the [[Nazi Party]] came to power in Germany, he returned to Austria, and after the [[Anschluss]] in 1938 he emigrated to the [[United States]], eventually becoming a professor at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. He was the author of several oft-cited books, including a history of the [[Hun]]s.

He was the first non-Russian to travel and report on [[Tuvan People's Republic|Tannu Tuva]]. He obtained permission to travel there and study its inhabitants in 1929.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wiedler.ch/felix/books/story/11 |title=Mänchen-helfen: Reise ins asiatische Tuwa |website=wiedler.ch |access-date=2017-05-23}}</ref> He later published his experiences in a book, ''Reise ins asiatische Tuwa'' (Travels in Asiatic Tuva).

==Selected list of works==
* Mänchen-Helfen, Otto (1931). ''Reise ins asiatische Tuwa.'' Berlin: Der Bücherkreis. Translated into English in 1992 (''see'' below).
* Mänchen-Helfen, Otto (1932). ''Rußland und der Sozialismus. Von der Arbeitermacht zum Staatskapitalismus''. Berlin: Dietz.
* [[Boris Nicolaevsky|Nicolaevsky, Boris]] (author), and Maenchen-Helfen, Otto (translator) (1936). ''Karl Marx: Man and Fighter.'' (First published 1933 in German. Many English editions; some of them restore the notes, appendices, and bibliography omitted from the first English edition.)
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1944-45a). <nowiki>''Huns and Hsiung-Nu.''</nowiki> ''Byzantion'', vol. 17, pp. 222–243.
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1944-45b). <nowiki>''The Legend of the Origin of the Huns."</nowiki> ''Byzantion'', vol. 17, pp. 244–251.
* Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1945). <nowiki>"The Yueh-chih Problem Re-examined."</nowiki> ''Journal of the American Oriental Society,'' vol. 65, p. 71–81.
* Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1951). <nowiki>"Manichaeans in Siberia."</nowiki> ''Semitic and Oriental Studies Presented to William Popper,'' ed. by Walter J. Fischel. University of California Publications in Semitic Philology, vol. 9. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1973). ''The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture.'' Ed. by Max Knight. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-01596-7}}. (Edited and enlarged in a 1978 German translation; ''see'' below.)
* Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1978). ''Die Welt der Hunnen: Eine Analyse ihrer historischen Dimension.'' Vienna, Cologne, and Graz: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.
* Mänchen-Helfen, Otto (1992). ''Journey to Tuva.''; Trans. and annotated by Alan Leighton, with an introduction by Anna Maenchen. Ethnographics Press Monographs Series, edited by Gary Seaman, no. 5. Los Angeles: Univ. of Southern California Ethnographics Press. {{ISBN|1-878986-04-X}}.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000063017/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=BIC&xid=97f45457 |title=Otto John Maenchen |date=1998 |website=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |access-date=June 12, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|Contemporary Authors}} }}
* {{cite book |year=1973 |chapter=Maenchen, Otto J. |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9OEpAQAAMAAJ |volume=54 |publisher=[[James T. White & Co.]] |page=550 }}
* {{cite news |date=February 2, 1969 |title=Maenchen, Otto J. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/458191882/ |url-access=subscription |work=[[The San Francisco Examiner]] |page=B, 8 |access-date=June 12, 2020 |via=Newspapers.com}}
* {{cite news |date=February 2, 1969 |title=Otto J. Maenchen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/458225195/ |url-access=subscription |work=[[The San Francisco Examiner]] |page=45 |access-date=June 12, 2020 |via=Newspapers.com}}
* {{cite news |date=February 6, 1969 |title=Dr. Otto J. Maenchen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/478022349/ |url-access=subscription |work=[[Oakland Tribune]] |page=22 |access-date=June 12, 2020 |via=Newspapers.com}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maenchen-Helfen, Otto}}
[[Category:20th-century Austrian historians]]
[[Category:Austrian sinologists]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty]]
[[Category:Writers from Vienna]]
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in Germany]]

Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen - Revision history

imported>Derim Hunt at 13:00, 4 February 2025