It is with profound sorrow that we bid farewell to Prof. Dr. Mamoun Fansa — Syrian-German archaeologist, museum director, and passionate guardian of Aleppo's cultural heritage. With his passing, the international museum and academic world loses an extraordinary figure who devoted his life to intercultural dialogue and the preservation of historical memory.

Mamoun Fansa was born in 1946 in Aleppo — one of the oldest cities in the world and, for centuries, a centre of Islamic art, scholarship, and cultural diversity. The old city of Aleppo, its mosques, caravanserais, bazaars, and residential quarters shaped his childhood and became the spiritual foundation of his life's work. After leaving Syria in 1967, he continued his academic career in Germany, establishing himself as an internationally recognised prehistorian and museum specialist.

From 1995 to 2011, Mamoun Fansa served as Director of the State Museum of Nature and Man in Oldenburg and as an honorary professor. He published numerous academic works and engaged tirelessly — far beyond the boundaries of his own discipline — in fostering cultural exchange between Europe and the Middle East.

During the years of the Syrian civil war in particular, his voice became one of the most important advocates against the destruction of cultural heritage. With deep personal anguish, he wrote against the devastation of Aleppo and other UNESCO World Heritage Sites. His books, lectures, and international initiatives made clear that with every destroyed building, a part of human memory, identity, and dignity is lost as well.

Mamoun Fansa was bound in a very special way to the Friends of the Museum for Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum e.V., of which he was a founding member. He regarded the collections of Islamic art and the testimonies of Aleppan culture not merely as historical objects, but as living bridges between peoples, religions, and eras. He understood museums as places of encounter, learning, and shared responsibility for the cultural heritage of humanity.

With Prof. Dr. Mamoun Fansa, Aleppo loses a most singular son, archaeology loses a distinguished scholar, and the museum world loses a dedicated mediator between cultures. His legacy endures.

Our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and all his companions and colleagues in Syria, Germany, and beyond.

“Culture is memory — and memory is the foundation of every future.”