Heinrich Lüders (orientalist)

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Heinrich Lüders (born June 25, 1869 in Lübeck , † May 7, 1943 in Badenweiler ) was a German orientalist and Indologist .

Life

Heinrich Lüders grew up as the son of Friedrich and Hedwig Lüders (née Heym) in Lübeck, where he left the Katharineum at Easter 1888 with the school leaving certificate to study German at the University of Munich and later Indology at the University of Göttingen. He received his doctorate in 1894 under Franz Kielhorn with a dissertation on vyāsaśkṣā . In 1943 Lüders died in a sanatorium in Badenweiler and was cremated in a small circle of his family in Freiburg; a memorial can be found at the Waldfriedhof Berlin-Dahlem.

Lüders was married to the Indologist Else Lüders (1880–1945).

Professional background

From 1895 to 1899 Lüders worked at the Indian Institute at Oxford University, where he met Max Müller , whose contributions to mythology he translated from English. In 1898 the University of Göttingen granted him the license to teach as a private lecturer . In the same year he completed his habilitation with a work on the Grantharecension des Mahābhārata. The University of Rostock appointed Lüders as associate professor in 1903. From 1905 to 1908 he held the chair for Indian philology in Rostock as a full professor . In 1908 he moved in the same capacity to a professorship at the University of Kiel, where he only worked for half a year. In 1909, Lüders was offered a professorship at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin , where he held a chair for ancient Indian language and literature for more than three decades. During the First World War, Lüders advocated far-reaching territorial annexations and against a mutual agreement. After the war he joined the German National People's Party (DNVP). In 1927/1928 he went on a study and lecture trip to India with his wife. In 1931/32 he was rector of the Berlin University.

Lüders was a foreign or corresponding member of numerous academies. He retired in 1935 and devoted himself mainly to research, as he was denied teaching for political reasons. Bernhard Breloer was appointed as his successor .

Scientific work and impact

The focus of Heinrich Lüders' scientific work was the development of Buddhist literature written in Pali and Sanskrit, based on a rich fund of old Buddhist stories (Jakata). As a supplementary component of his text analyzes, he used the 'language of monuments', which resulted in direct reference points to Indian archeology.

After his appointment to the Berlin University, Lüders played a decisive role in the evaluation of the handwritten finds of the "Turfan Expeditions", which had been brought to the State Museum of Ethnology under the direction of Albert Grünwedel and Albert von Le Coq .

His special achievements also include the results of linguistic research with the help of Indian prisoners of war and the copying of old Indian manuscripts.

Heinrich Lüders has documented his extensive scientific work in many publications. The work he started on the Turfan manuscripts was continued by his wife until her death.

Lüders' work owes countless scientific contributions to epigraphy. Two important works on the Mathurā (1961) and the Bhārhut (1963) inscriptions were published posthumously.

Memberships and honors

In 1907 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . On July 15, 1909, Lüders was appointed a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1915 he became part of the “Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission”, whose aim was to record the 250 languages ​​spoken among internees in the German POW camps. From 1920 to 1938 he held the function of secretary of the philosophical-historical class within the academy. From 1922 Lüders was deputy chairman of the German Oriental Society . In December 1924 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences .

In 1924 Lüders was made a knight of the Pour le Mérite order for science and the arts. In 1931 he became Vice Chancellor of the Order. In 1932 he received the Goethe Medal for Art and Science. Since 1919 Lüders was an honorary member of the University of Rostock, since 1928 an honorary member of the Kern Institute in Leiden and since 1931 an honorary member of the Société asiatique in Paris. In 1931 he also became an honorary member of the American Oriental Society and in 1932 an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society in London. In 1941 he was accepted as an honorary member of the German Oriental Society.

Publications

  • Philologica Indica: selected small writings by Heinrich Lüders . Commemoration for the seventieth birthday on June 25, 1939 offered by colleagues, friends and students. Goettingen 1940.
  • Mathura inscriptions . Unpubl. papers ed. by Klaus L. Janert. Göttingen 1961. Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Philol.-hist. Class 3rd episode.
  • Observations on the language of the ancient Buddhist canon . From d. Estate ed. by Ernst Waldschmidt. Berlin 1954. Treatises of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Language, Literature and Art Class.

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm:  Lüders, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , pp. 453 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ernst Waldschmidt: Heinrich Lüders . In: Researches and Advances. News bulletin of the German Science and Technology, organ of the Reich Research Council . Volume 19, No. 23/24 . Leipzig 1943, p. 250-252 .
  • Ludwig Alsdorf : The Indology in Berlin from 1821-1945 . In: H. Leussink, E. Neumann, G. Kotowski (eds.): Studium Berolinense. Essays and contributions to problems of science and the history of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . Berlin 1960, p. 567-580 (commemorative publication of the West German Rectors' Conference and the Free University of Berlin on the 150th anniversary of the founding year of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin). Also in Albrecht Wezler (ed.): Ludwig Alsdorf . Small fonts . Franz Steiner Verlag , Wiesbaden 1974, p. 723–736 ( excerpts online from the former Institute for the Languages ​​and Cultures of South Asia in the Department of History and Cultural Studies at the Free University of Berlin , accessed on September 17, 2015).
  • Heinrich Lüders . In: Journal of the German Oriental Society , Volume 97, p. 157 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Genzken: The Abitur graduates of the Katharineum zu Lübeck (grammar school and secondary school) from Easter 1807 to 1907. Borchers, Lübeck 1907. (Supplement to the school program 1907), No. 900.
  2. ↑ Contradicting information, 1894 according to Waldschmidt and 1895 according to Wilhelm.
  3. ↑ Waldschmidt 1943, 250.
  4. ↑ Michael Grüttner u. a., The Berlin University between the World Wars 1918-1945, Berlin 2012 (History of the University of Unter den Linden, Vol. 2), pp. 21 ff. and 146.
  5. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 156.
  6. ↑ Jürgen-K. Mahrenholz: South Asian speech and music recordings in the sound archive of the Humboldt University in Berlin . In: MIDA Archival Reflexicon . 2020, p. 3 ( projekt-mida.de ).
  7. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Heinrich Lüders. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 2, 2015 (Russian).
personal data
SURNAME Lüders, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German orientalist and indologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck , Schleswig-Holstein Province , Kingdom of Prussia
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1943
Place of death Badenweiler , Baden , German Empire