August Hermann Francke (Tibetologist)

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August Hermann Francke (born November 5, 1870 in Gnadenfrei , Silesia ; † February 16, 1930 in Berlin ; often referred to as August Hermann Franke or Hermann Franke) was a German missionary , linguist and Tibetologist .

August Hermann Francke (1870–1930)

Life

Francke's parents were August Hermann Francke (1838–1898), businessman and owner of the J. Haag dye works in Gnadenfrei, and Charlotte Susanne Francke, née. Beyer (1842-1890).

Following the Latin school in Gnadenfrei, Francke attended the teachers' seminar of the Moravian Brethren in Niesky ( Upper Lusatia ), where he was trained to serve as a teacher and missionary. His unusual linguistic talent was already evident during his teaching years in Kleinwelka ( Saxony ). During this time he learned the Lower Sorbian language (Wendish), which was still alive there, and dealt with Sanskrit and Old Norse . The everyday life of the so-called '4. Stubengesellschaft 'of the Missionsknabenanstalt describes Francke in his autobiographical story' Die Vierte ', at the same time there are memories of his pupil at the time, Hans-Windekilde Jannasch .

After completing his studies at the Moravian Theological College in Fairfield / Manchester , he was ordained a 'deacon' in March 1896 and called to serve as a missionary in the western Himalayas . There he was active on the stations of the Brethren Church Mission in Leh (1896–1899), Khalatse (1899–1904) and Kyelang (1906–1908). In 1897 he married Anna Theodora "Dora" Weiz (1875–1945) in Amritsar . the daughter of a Moravian missionary doctor from South Africa. The couple's three children were all born in the Himalayas: August Hermann (1898-1984), Walter Dondrub (1900-1948) and Hilde Deskyid (1903-1999). Since his wife did not tolerate the mountain climate well, Francke spent longer periods (1904–05 and 1908–09) on home leave in Kleinwelka.

Family picture (approx. Summer 1905): AH Francke, August Hermann Francke (jun), Walter Dondrub Francke, Anna Theodora Francke b. Weiz, Hilde Deskyid Francke (from left to right)

Francke initially worked mainly on the translation of the Bible , initially into classical Tibetan . However, he also acquired extensive knowledge of the regional dialects and translated the Gospel of Mark into the Bunan , Manschad , Tinan , Dardi and Ladakh languages. In 1906 he was made an honorary member of the British and Foreign Biblical Society because of this work that occupied him for the rest of his life . As part of his missionary efforts, Francke also published the first newspaper in Tibetan language ( Ladakhi News ) printed on the Mission Press in Leh from 1904 onwards . However, during his entire time in Ladakh, he seems to have induced only one Tibetan to be baptized. He saw his main focus of work in language studies and translations, in addition he was interested in the history and culture of Ladakh, and collected and published written documents.

His archaeological and ethnological knowledge and interests led the British-Indian government from 1909 to 10, together with the photographer Babu Pindi Lal, to undertake a research trip to the border area between Indian Ladakh and Tibet, administered by China, to find above all historical testimonies and to secure inscriptions. In 1914 Francke traveled again to Central Asia and Tibet, this time on behalf of the Biblical Society and the Munich Ethnographic Museum . The route led via Moscow, Sarepta , Astrakhan , Baku , Samarkand , Tashkent , Kashgar , Yarkant , Khotan and the Karakorum Pass . The outbreak of the First World War , which Francke only learned of when the Italian explorer Filippo de Filippi crossed the border into the British mandate , led to his imprisonment as an enemy foreigner by the British, first in Srinagar and then in the Ahmednagar camp, and thus to an end of his work in Tibet. He used the imprisonment to expand his knowledge of Sanskrit.

In 1916 Francke returned to Germany from British internment. There he was drafted into the war and used as a medic and interpreter for Indian prisoners of war in Romania. In 1918 he was again taken prisoner in Serbia, from which he did not return until 1919. He settled in Gnadenberg (Silesia) . In addition to commissions from the British Museum and the Munich and Hamburg institutes, he initially mainly worked on the gZermyig manuscripts of the Berlin State Library and Tibetan manuscripts among the Turfan fragments . Already in 1911 the University of Breslau had given him an honorary doctorate. In 1922 Francke completed his habilitation at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. In 1925 he was appointed extraordinary (non-civil servant) professor. He can be regarded as one of the first representatives of the academic subject Tibetology in Germany.

Francke's health was damaged by the rigors of being a prisoner of war. He died on February 16, 1930 in Berlin. his grave was at Hallesches Tor until it was reburied in the course of an urban rededication of the cemetery area to the Rixdorf cemetery

plant

Francke's list of publications includes over 200 publications in German and English. His scientific interest was in two major topics: the history of Ladakh and the traces of Tibet's Buddhist religion (the so-called Bon religion ).

He contributed to the first field primarily through the collection and interpretation of previously unknown sources (rock inscriptions, oral traditions, Kashmiri historiography, Chinese annals). His History of Western Tibet (1907) prepares this material and also offers maps, photographs and illustrations. Also the Antiquities of Indian Tibet. Part II (1926) provide sources that are fundamental to the development of a chronology of the history of Western Tibet.

Francke tried to reconstruct the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet from a multitude of sources: on the one hand from living traditions, such as oral traditions of the Gesar saga, certain songs and hymns sung at weddings for the spring festival, but also from written sources such as a manuscript from Tagmacig and the biography of the gShen-rab , the so-called gZer-myig . Francke's work opens up a new field of research for Tibetology and safeguards highly endangered oral traditions. His far-reaching interpretations of the material, however, have not remained without contradiction. Among other things, Francke developed a new interpretation of the Om mani padme hum formula. It is understood by him as an invocation of Avalokiteshvara , who incarnates again in every Dalai Lama .

Francke worked as a Bible translator throughout his life, which resulted in his interest in the grammar of the Tibetan language and especially individual dialects, which was reflected in numerous publications and culminated in the extensive appendix to the third edition of the grammar of his predecessor Jäschke. Francke's contributions to the documentation of Tibetan music (melodies, texts) and individual literary traditions ( Fuchs epic ) as well as the ethnological description of ritual dances and plays are also noteworthy .

In some autobiographical writings Francke gave an account of his life as a missionary, historian and ethnologist. In addition, he collected numerous objects on behalf of ethnological collections that can be found today in Herrnhut , Leipzig , Munich and London . His handwritten estate is kept in the State Library in Berlin , the Leipzig University Library , the British Library and in the archives of the Brethren .

Fonts

  • Ladakhi songs. (5 deliveries) Leh 1899–1903.
  • The spring and winter myth of the Kesar legend. Contributions to the knowledge of the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet and Ladakh. (Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne XV) Helsingfors 1900, 1902, 1914 (reprint Osnabrück 1968).
  • Reynard the Fox in Ladakh . In: Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal . Calcutta 1902, pp. 76-79.
  • A Lower Ladakhi Version of the Kesar Saga. (Bibliotheca India Work No. 168) Calcutta 1905, 1914, 1941.
  • The fourth. An idyll. Sketches from the life of the institution in Kleinwelka. Bautzen 1905 (new editions: Kleinwelka 1908, Herrnhut 1920).
  • A History of Western Tibet, one of the Unknown Empires. With Maps and Illustrations. London 1907.
  • The history of Dogra - war . Based on your manuscript C of the Ladvags rgyalrabs. IN: Journal of the German Oriental Society (1910), pp. 537–552.
  • Tibetan historical research and what you can experience with it. Herrnhut 1911.
  • Antiquities of Indian Tibet, Part I: Personal Narrative. In: Of A Journey In 1910 From Simla To Srinagar; Through Kinnaur, Spiti And Ladakh. For The Express Purpose Of Investigating The Buddhist Antiquities. (Archeological Survey of India. New Imperial Series 38) Calcutta 1914 ( online ).
  • The meaning of the 'Om-Mani-Padme-Hum' formula. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , 1915, pp. 397-404.
  • Through Central Asia into Indian captivity. Herrnhut 1921.
  • Tibetan wedding songs, translated from Tag-ma-cig manuscripts. (Cultures of the earth. Material on the cultural and art history of all peoples. Dept. of text works) Hagen / Darmstadt 1923.
  • Two ant stories from the territory of the ancient kingdom of Western Tibet. A contribution to the question of the gold digging ants . In: Asia Major (1.1924), pp. 67-75.
  • gZer-Myig. A book of the Tibetan Bonpos. Tibetan text according to the Berlin manuscript . In: Asia Major (1.1924), pp. 243-346, (3.1926), pp. 321-339; (4.1927), pp. 161-239 and pp. 481-540; (5.1930), pp. 1-40; (6.1930), pp. 299-314; (NS 1.1949 / 50), pp. 163-188.
  • Spiritual life in Tibet. (General Mission Studies 2) C. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1925.
  • Antiquities of Indian Tibet, Part II: The Chronicles of Ladakh and Minor Chronicles of Indian Tibet. (Archeological Survey of India. New Imperial Series 50) Calcutta 1926 ( online ).
  • Heinrich August Jäschke: Tibetan Grammar. 3. Edition. Addenda by AH Francke. Assistance by W. Simon, Berlin 1929.

literature

  • Norman Driver: The Story of the Tibetan Bible . In: International Review of Mission Vol. 40, No. 158 (April) 1951, pp. 197-203.
  • Hans-Windekilde Jannasch: Franke, August Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , pp. 345f. ( online ).
  • Brother Franke. In: Hans-Windekilde Jannasch: Education for freedom. A life story. Göttingen 1970, pp. 103-112.
  • Michael Hahn: August Herman Francke (1870–1930) and his contribution to Tibetology. In: The missionary as a researcher. Edited by Johannes Triebel. Gütersloh 1988, ISBN 978-3-579-00241-5 , pp. 87-121.
  • Wolfgang Friedl: European researchers and travelers in the reports of the Moravian Mission. In: History of Science and Current Research in Northwest India. International colloquium from March 9th to 13th, 1987 in Herrnhut. Edited by Lydia Icke-Schwalbe and Gudrun Meier. Dresden 1990, pp. 80–85, here p. 83.
  • Erika Taube: AH Franckes Fuchsgeschichten in the context of the Central Asian oral tradition . In: History of Science and Current Research in Northwest India. International colloquium from March 9th to 13th, 1987 in Herrnhut. Edited by Lydia Icke-Schwalbe and Gudrun Meier. Dresden 1990, pp. 266-272.
  • Hartmut Walravens, Manfred Taube: August Hermann Francke and the West Himalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren. A bibliography of the location of Tibetan prints. With a contribution by Michael Hahn. (Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany. Supplement volume 34) Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-515-05833-8 .
  • Hartmut Walravens: The Moravian Mission and Its Research on the Language and Culture of Western Tibet. In: Oriens Extremus 35 1992, pp. 159-169, here pp. 160-167.
  • Prem Singh Jina: AH Francke's Contribution in the Cultural History of Ladakh. In the S. (Ed.): Recent Researches on the Himalaya . New Delhi, Indus Publishing 1997, pp. 43-52.
  • John Bray: AH Francke's Letters from Ladakh. 1896-1906. The Making of a Missionary Scholar. In: Studia Tibetica et Mongolica. (Festschrift for Manfred Taube) Edited by Helmut Eimer. Swisttal-Odendorf 1999. ISBN 3-923776-34-9 , pp. 17-36.
  • Peter van Ham: India's Tibet - Tibet's India. The cultural legacy of the Western Himalayas . Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7774-2221-3 .

Web links

Wikisource: August Hermann Francke (philologist)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This article was originally based on Hans-W. Jannasch:  Franke, August Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 345 f. ( Digitized version ). However, it has been considerably expanded.
  2. ↑ The Fourth. An idyll. Sketches from the life of the institution in Kleinwelka , Bautzen, 1905.
  3. ^ Hans-Windekilde Jannasch: Brother Franke . In: Education for Freedom. A life story . Göttingen 1970, p. 103-112 .
  4. ↑ Hartmut Walravens / Manfred Taube: August Hermann Francke and the West Himalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren . Stuttgart 1992, p. 21 .
  5. ↑ Hartmut Walravens / Manfred Taube: August Hermann Francke and the West Himalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren, p. 22
  6. ↑ Hartmut Walravens and Manfred Taube: August Hermann Francke and the West Hymalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren . Stuttgart 1992, p. 17 .
  7. ↑ Hans-W. Jannasch:  Franke, August Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 345 f. ( Digitized version ). speaks of "honorary citizenship".
  8. ↑ H. Louis Fader, Called from Obscurity: The Life and Times of a True Son of Tibet, God's Humble Servant from Poo, Gergan Dorje Tharchin. With Particular Attention Given to His Good Friend and Illustrious Co-laborer in the Gospel Sadhu Sundar Singh of India, Tibet Mirror Press, 2004, p. 247: “At its inception Francke's journalistic creation had been handwritten and then produced by lithographic means at the Moravians' Mission press at Leh in Ladakh and was doubtless disseminated by various means throughout the Little Tibet region where the Moravians had their Mission stations and where the predominant culture was Tibetan. "
  9. ↑ Hartmut Walravens / Manfred Taube :: August Hermann Francke and the West Himalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren . S. 238-239 .
  10. ↑ Hartmut Walravens / Manfred Taube :: August Hermann Francke and the West Himalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren . S. 239 : "It is with great joy that we report the baptism of the firstborn from Kalatse, Stobgyes carried out by Br. Francke in Leh on January 21, 1904. "
  11. ↑ See the exhibition in the Völkerkundemuseum Herrnhut 2012: "India's Tibet - Tibet's India". Retrieved March 4, 2019 .
  12. ↑ AH Francke: Antiquities of Indian Tibet . tape 1 . Calcutta 1914.
  13. ^ August Hermann Francke: Through Central Asia into Indian captivity . Herrnhut 1921.
  14. ↑ See the publications in the magazine Asia Major 1924–1950.
  15. ^ Toni Huber / Tina Niermann: Tibetan Studies at the Berlin University: A Brief Institutional History . In: TP. Maurer & P. ​​Schwieger (Ed.): Tibet Studies. Festschrift for Dieter Schuh on his 65th birthday. Bonn 2007, p. 95-122 , here pp. 104-106 .
  16. ↑ Hartmut Walravens / Manfred Taube: August Hermann Francke and the West Himalaya Mission of the Moravian Brethren . Stuttgart 1992, p. 39-92 .
  17. ^ At Hans-W. Jannasch:  Franke, August Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 345 f. ( Digitized version) .: "Kesar".
  18. ↑ AH Francke: The meaning of the 'Om-Mani-Padme-Hum' formula . In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society . 2015, p. 397-404 .
  19. ^ Heinrich August Jäschke: Tibetan Grammar . 3. Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1929.
personal data
SURNAME Francke, August Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Franke, August Hermann; Francke Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German missionary and linguist in Tibet
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Merciless , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1930
Place of death Berlin