Edouard Huber

Eduard Huber, photo from 1913

Édouard Huber , actually Eduard Huber (born August 12, 1879 in Grosswangen , Switzerland ; † January 6, 1914 in Vĩnh Long , Vietnam ), was a Swiss language scholar, archaeologist, sinologist and Indochina researcher. He was a professor of Indochinese philology and temporarily taught at the Sorbonne in Paris .

Life

Eduard Huber was born in Grosswangen on August 12, 1879. His father, Anton Huber, was the owner of the brickworks and host of the Krone restaurant , and his mother was single, Mathilde Vogel. Eduard Huber lost his left arm in an accident in the brickworks at a young age. He attended primary and secondary school in Grosswangen, secondary school in Willisau and then the canton school in Solothurn , where he received the best high school diploma of his year at the age of 17 . At this time he already had knowledge of Hebrew , Chaldean and Sanskrit , which had been imparted to him by Canon Schibenegg.

Huber then enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris for four years, where he attended lectures in Sanskrit, Zend ( Old Persian ), Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Hindu and Buddhist literary history. During this time he stood out as a talented translator and became a close collaborator of Professors Lévy and Chavannes.

From a professional point of view, Huber could have filled a professorship for Chinese language or Buddhist literature at the age of 22, but he decided to work as a research assistant at the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Saigon (from 1902 in Hanoi ). From 1901 to 1905 he was responsible for the training of the classical Buddhist languages, the construction of the library and for excavations. On July 20, 1905, Huber was appointed director of the China and Indochina Department, which later secured him a professorship at the Sorbonne.

In the twelve years in Indochina he undertook major research trips that took him to Cambodia , Laos , Thailand , Burma , China , Korea and Japan . On these trips he conducted field research, carried out excavations and also bought art treasures and books for the library.

In addition to the already mentioned and common European languages, he also acquired Arabic, Burmese, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Pali and various dialects. After all, Huber spoke more than 30 different languages.

Because of this multilingualism, Huber was ideally qualified for his field of comparative Buddhist literary history. His standard translations of important Buddhist texts, which he completed within five years, would have the scope of a life's work. Huber left such translations as well as other collected materials to the Sorbonne, which among other things became the second most important center of Buddhism research after Kyoto .

From 1912 Huber took over the teaching activities of his professor in Paris for some time before he traveled to the Far East again in 1913. Eduard Huber died in 1914 in the hospital in Vĩnh Long as a result of a “vicious attack of fever”.

literature

• Markus Lischer: Eduard Huber. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Casimir Schnyder: Eduard Huber, a Swiss language scholar, Sinologist and Indochina researcher . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1920.
• André Kunz: Eduard Huber - a brilliant researcher and scholar . In: Grosswangen . 1993, pp. 289-294.
• Alois Häfliger: Professor Eduard Huber von Grosswangen 1879–1914 - linguist, archaeologist, Sinologist, Indochina researcher . 1978 (= local history of the Wiggertal, issue 1978).

Web links

• Édouard Huber Brief portrait at the École française d'Extrême-Orient (French)