Hans Ueberschaar

Johannes "Hans" Ueberschaar (born March 4, 1885 in Meißen ; † January 21, 1965 in Kobe ) was a German Japanologist and the first German professor of Japanese studies at the University of Leipzig .

Life

Otto Georg Johannes Ueberschaar grew up in a Protestant-Lutheran family in Meißen. After attending primary school and high school, he began studying history and East Asian languages at the University of Leipzig . After completing his studies, he traveled to Japan and worked from 1911 to 1914 as a German lecturer at Osaka University . During this time he published an article on Prussian and Japanese constitutional law in the journal of the German Society for Natural and Ethnic Customers of East Asia (OAG). He studied history at Karl Lamprecht and East Asian languages ended Ueberschaar then in 1913 with the promotion of Dr. phil. in Japanese constitutional law at the University of Leipzig with the dissertation The constitutional position of the emperor in Japan. Constitutional-historical sketch . Already during this time he dealt intensively with German publications about Japan and in 1913 wrote a positive review on Karl Haushofer's book "Dai Nihon". However, he assessed the content of the publication as tendentious and wrote that Karl Haushofer thus excluded himself from scientific Japanese studies.

With the outbreak of the First World War , Hans Ueberschaar reported as a volunteer in Tsingtau , in accordance with the mobilization requests . Here he was used in August 1914 as a first lieutenant in the reserve in the communications department of the governor of Kiautschou's staff as an interpreter. In this department he got to know Friedrich Hack , who was coming from the South Manchurian Railway and who worked as an interpreter for the chief of staff, Captain Waldemar Vollerthun . After the siege of Tsingtau in November 1914, both fell into Japanese captivity , Ueberschaar was interned in the Tokyo-Asakusen prison camp with prisoner number 276. In 1915 he was transferred to the Narashino prison camp, where he met Friedrich Hack again. During the last months of the stay in the camp, both were temporarily employed as lecturers at Navashino University. His discharge took place in December 1919 with the option to work at the Medical Academy in Osaka .

The call for Hans Ueberschaar to Osaka came from the Rector of the Aihiko Sata Medical School there. Sata had studied at the universities of Berlin and Freiburg at the turn of the century and was an admirer of Karl Lambrecht. Immediately after the war he tried to revive the scientific and cultural relations between Japan and Germany. In December 1921 he founded a German-Japanese association, the main organizational work of which was in the hands of Hans Ueberschaar. The next step was the publication of a scientific journal, which appeared in 1923 under the title "Japanese-German Journal for Science and Technology". The publisher was GC Hirschfeld in Kobe and its editor was Aihiko Sata. The editing of the magazine was in the hands of Hans Ueberschaar and the physician Fritz Härtel. André Wedemeyer, assistant at the University of Leipzig, was responsible for the German side. Ueberschaar traveled to Germany several times in order to recruit good authors for the magazine and also to build up a suitable scientific network in Germany. So he stayed in Munich in 1923 , where he tried to establish personal contact with Karl Haushofer , who from 1924 co-edited the “ Zeitschrift für Geoppolitik ” in Germany . Ueberschaar had carefully read the first issues of "Geopolitics" and expressed his wishes for success in a letter to Haushofer. One of his interlocutors as future authors was the physician Leopold Langstein .

In 1925, Hans Uberschaar published the publication “Die Eigenart der Japan Staatskultur. An introduction to the thinking of the Japanese ”published by Theodor Weiche Verlag, Leipzig. In the same year Karl Haushofer wrote a review on the publication mentioned. In this monograph, Uberschaar equated the social psyche of his teacher Karl Lamprechts with the 'spiritual life of a nation' or 'the national disposition'. According to him, so Ueberschaar, the great political deeds of the nation, which of course allow a conclusion to be drawn as to the inner abilities of the people, most certainly to those who represent the spiritual and moral force for war and expansion. From 1925 to 1932, Hans Ueberschaar then taught as a private lecturer at the Imperial University of Kyoto . From October 1928, the "Japanese-German magazine for science and technology" was now published by de Gruyer in Osaka, with a changed layout and under the title "Japanese-German magazine" to promote scientific-technical, political-scientific and cultural relations Published until June 1930. In the first issue of the magazine, Hans Ueberschaar published his article about the "Bongali". From 1930 he signed working relationships with the German Japanese researcher Friedrich Max Tautz , who was studying in Kyoto during this time. His aim was to deepen his research on the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho on site.

On April 1, 1932, Hans Ueberschar received a call to Leipzig. Here he was appointed associate professor for "Language and Culture of Modern Japan" and headed the Japan Institute at Leipzig University , which opened on February 25, 1933 . The Japan Institute was founded with the help of a foundation from the editor of several major Japanese daily newspapers, Motoyama Hikoichi. The choice of the Leipzig location was related to Ueberschaar's longstanding activity from Japan to Germany. In October 1932 Ueberschaar joined the NSDAP . A year later, in November 1933, he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler . He also showed in his outward sentiment in several events that “prepare the German people for the XII. Olympic Games 1940 ”in Tokyo , a systemic attitude. In 1935 he took up his contacts and scientific orientations from his time in Japan. His publication “Basho (1644–1694) and his diary 'Oku no hosomi'” was published by OAG-Verlag. But already in the following year Hans Ueberschaar caught up with the reality of everyday life under the Nazi regime in Germany with full force. Accusations and abuse were raised against him in public because of an alleged homosexual disposition. Because of this, he left Leipzig in 1936. In April 1937, Übersaar was removed from office for alleged offenses under Section 175 of the Criminal Code, which made homosexuality a criminal offense. He resigned from the NSDAP and went back to Japan. Hans Ueberschaar did not return to Germany despite his later rehabilitation . His Leipzig chair for “Languages ​​and Culture of Modern Japan” initially remained vacant.

It is documented for the years from 1953 that Hans Ueberschaar had his residence in Kobe. He died there on January 21, 1965, shortly before his 80th birthday.

Scientific publications

• Prussian and Japanese constitutional law, in MOAG No. 14, Tokyo 1912
• The constitutional position of the emperor in Japan - constitutional-historical sketch, University of Leipzig 1913
• The peculiarity of the Japanese state culture. An introduction to the thinking of the Japanese, Leipzig Verlag Theodor Weicher, 1925
• Bongali. With the Malays in the mountains of the southern Formosa, Japanese-German magazine, Gruyer Verlag, 1928/1929
• Basho (1644–1694) and his diary “Ok uno hosomi”, OAG Volume XXIX, Part A Tokyo, 1935

literature

• The peculiarity of the peoples , Leipzig 1923
• German-Japanese cultural relations in the recent past and present , Deutsche Akademie Munich 1937
• Hans Joachim Bieler, SS and Samurei, German-Japanese Cultural Relations, German Institute for Japanese Studies, 2016

Web links

• Hans Ueberschaar in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
• The Japan Institute 1933–1945 , website of the East Asian Institute of the University of Leipzig

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Ueberschaar: Prussian and Japanese constitutional law , MOAG issue 14
2. ↑ Johannes Ueberschaar, book review, OAG Mitteilungen, Volume XIV (1911–1913) Part 3. pp. 273 ff. And Karl Haushofer: Johannes Ueberschaar - Dai Nihon, Volume XIV (1911–1913), Part 3, pp. 285 ff. In : https://oag.jp/books/band-xiv-1911-1913-theil-3/
3. ↑ Biographical information on Ueberschaar and Hack in www.tsingtau.info
4. ↑ Hans-Joachim Bieber: SS and Samurai. German-Japanese cultural relations 1933–1945, German Institute for Japanese Studies, 2016, pp. 83 ff
5. ↑ Japanese-German magazine, No. 1, year 1928/1929, de Gruyer Verlag