Menges was born in
Frankfurt, where he was educated at the
Lessing Gymnasium. He studied in
Frankfurt and
Munich and earned his doctorate at the
University of Berlin in 1932. Politically identifying as a
Catholic centrist, he resisted the
Nazi regime, distributing leaflets. In 1936 he was arrested by the
Gestapo and interrogated for five hours; on a tip-off from a classmate, after being released pending trial he fled to
Czechoslovakia, after the annexation of the
Sudetenland moving on to
Turkey. Over his career, he taught at a total of 13 institutions in seven countries. At the age of 19, Menges was one of the first
Westerners to visit the
Volga region and the
Caucasus within the
Soviet Union. He published numerous articles and 15 books; His articles, as well as his teaching, were characteristically interdisciplinary, and in addition to Altaic, he made important contributions to Slavic,
Turkic,
Tungusic, and
Dravidian language studies. A complete thematically organized index of his publications appeared in 2006. == References ==