Ziegler, Ruprecht

Ancient historian and numismatist

Ruprecht Ziegler (*1945 in Carinthia) is a retired ancient historian and numismatist whose research activities focus on the history of the Eastern Roman provinces and ancient numismatics. He studied History, Latin Philology and Geography in Cologne. Immediately after he obtained the Master’s degree in 1974, he became the academic assistant of Dietmar Kienast at the newly founded Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and completed his doctorate in 1976. At the same university, he, together with D. Kienast and O. von Vacano, then built the Ancient History’s collection of coins and plaster casts. 

In 1990, he qualified as a professor in Düsseldorf with the work entitled “Kaiser, Heer und städtisches Geld. Untersuchungen zur Münzprägung von Anazarbos und anderer ostkilikischer Städte”. In 1992, this work was awarded the Prize of the Association of Friends and Patrons of the Heinrich-Heine-University. In the same year, in a second habilitation process at the University of Salzburg, he was granted the Austrian venia docendi (teaching authority) for Ancient History and Classical Studies. This curious procedure became necessary because, prior to the entry into the EU, Austria did not recognize the German habilitation when applying for the position of an associate professor. Being an Austrian citizen, Ruprecht Ziegler wanted to make sure that he could become a professor in either country. 

In 1995, Ruprecht Ziegler was appointed to the position of Professor for Ancient History at the University of Duisburg (today: Duisburg-Essen). Until his retirement in 2010, he conducted research and taught at this university, most recently at the Campus Essen. When the University of Klagenfurt offered him a professorship in 1998, he rejected.

Together with the archaeologist Marion Meyer, he was in charge of a DFG research project on cultural encounter and acculturation in the eastern Mediterranean area for two years. He analyzed treasure finds and published monographs on the coinage and the circulation of money in the Gallic Empire, Cilician coins in smaller German collections. In the context of the series Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Germany he published the coins of Isauria and Cilicia (Pfälzer Privatsammlungen, vol. 6) in 2001. Together with other authors, he wrote a publication on the coinage of the Cilician city of Anemurion (Samnmlung Köhler/Osbahr, vol. III/3) in 2008.

As of late, Ruprecht Ziegler has also become engaged in the local history of the ‘long nineteenth century’. In 2015, together with Wolfgang Vetters, he published a book on the middle-class summer holidays at Velden am Wörthersee. As sources he used the diaries of a young lady from Vienna and drawings by Karl Ludwig Libay. To numismatics, he remains faithful. 

More information about Ruprecht Ziegler can be found in his Wikipedia entry and on the pages of the University of Duisburg-Essen.

If you want to contact Ruprecht Ziegler, you can do so here.

Here you can find a selection of his publications on ancient history and numismatics.

His work on the Coins of Cilicia in smaller German collections was published by C.H. Beck.

Information on Ruprecht Ziegler’s latest publications is available here and here.

And here you can visit the Numismatic Collection of the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf.