Dietmar Rothermund

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Dietmar Otto Ernst Rothermund (born January 20, 1933 in Kassel ; † March 9, 2020 ) was a German historian and professor of the history of South Asia at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg .

life and work

Dietmar Rothermund studied history and philosophy in Marburg , Munich and Philadelphia . In the United States it was established in 1959 with a thesis on American social history doctorate . After graduating, he traveled to India in January 1960 and decided to devote his research to South Asia in the future . In 1963 he received an assistant position at the University of Heidelberg at the newly founded South Asia Institute in Heidelberg , which had been set up at the instigation of Werner Conze .

There he completed his habilitation in 1968 with what was then considered the standard work The political will formation in India, 1900–1960 . Shortly afterwards he received the professorship for the history of South Asia. His focus was on the history of political ideas in India, its agricultural system during colonial times, the person of Mahatma Gandhi and Indian economic history. From August 1, 1986, he was also Managing Director of the South Asia Institute. In 1991 he initiated the Heidelberg South Asia Talks , which made him known in Germany and the media, not least as an Indian expert. In 2001 Rothermund retired.

From 1997 to 2006 Rothermund was chairman of the European Association of South Asian Studies. Dietmar Rothermund was a member of the board of the German Society for Asian Studies and the Indo-German Consultative Group .

In 2011 Rothermund received the Federal Cross of Merit for his scientific work and in recognition of his commitment to the dissemination of knowledge of India and the same year the Rabindranath Tagore Culture Prize of the German-Indian Society, which is awarded every three years.

Rothermund's numerous writings on Indian history in German are constantly updated and expanded as reference works and - rarely for a German historian - have been translated into several, sometimes non-European languages, and reprinted several times.

Rothermund was married to an Indian woman. He died in March 2020 at the age of 87.

Honors

Fonts (selection)

Rothermund wrote 38 monographs and 20 anthologies as editor, such as the yearbook for non-European history Periplus . Some of his works are also available in Bengali , Telugu , Turkish and Chinese.

  • History of India. From the Middle Ages to the present. 4. revised u. actual Edition CH Beck, Munich 2018 (= Beck'sche Reihe , vol. 2194).
  • History of India. From the Indus culture to today (together with Hermann Kulke ). 3. update Ed. CH Beck, Munich 1982, 2nd verb. u. actual 1998 edition, 3rd edition 2018.
  • Gandhi and Nehru. Two faces of India (= Kohlhammer-Urban pocket books. Vol. 656, History, Political Science ). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-17-021342-5 .
  • India. Rise of an Asian World Power Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57067-4 (Licensed edition. (= Federal Agency for Political Education. Series of publications. Vol. 731). Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-89331 -900-8 ).
  • Mahatma Gandhi (= Beck series. Vol. 2322). Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48022-5 ; 3rd, updated Edition 2019 under the title: Gandhi. The Nonviolent Revolutionary , ISBN 978-3-406-73996-5 .
  • Cashmere hotspot. The conflict between the nuclear powers India and Pakistan (= Beck series. Vol. 1505). Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-49424-2 .
  • Indian history from ancient times to the present. Literature report on recent publications by Hermann Kulke, Horst-Joachim Leue, Jürgen Lütt and Dietmar Rothermund (= historical journal , special issue 10). Oldenbourg, Munich 1982.
  • Indian history in general . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1989, reprint of the 2nd through. u. exp. Ed. 1986 udT Basics of Indian History , 1976.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruperto Carola mourns the loss of university professor Dr. Dietmar Rothermund. (pdf, 20 kB) Heidelberg University, March 16, 2020, accessed on March 18, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Federal Cross of Merit for Prof. Dr. Dietmar Rothermund: Heidelberg researcher is honored for disseminating knowledge of Indian studies in Germany. In: uni-heidelberg.de. October 18, 2011, accessed March 19, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Tagore Culture Prize website .
personal data
SURNAME Rothermund, Dietmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rothermund, Dietmar Otto Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and Indologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 2020