Helga Picht

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Helga Picht (born January 4, 1934 in Schwedt / Oder ) is a German Koreanist. She held the first German professorship for Korean Studies, headed the Institute for Korean Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin until 1992 and was the most influential Koreanist in the German Democratic Republic .

biography

Helga Picht is the daughter of Willi Schult and Hedwig Schult (née Wenzel). She attended the Hohenzollern grammar school in Schwedt, where she passed the Abitur in 1952, and her best grades were in English , Russian and Latin .

Picht studied Sinology at the Humboldt University in Berlin . a. with Eduard Erkes and chose Korean as the second East Asian language besides Chinese . a. learned from Heinrich Juncker . From 1955 to 1956 she did an internship at the GDR embassy in Pyongyang . After her return to Berlin, she continued learning Korean with Ch'oe Chonghu , Japanese with Herbert Zachert as well as classical Chinese , Russian, German literature , law and international law . From 1956 she taught Korean and from December 1957 she accompanied delegations from North Korea . In 1959 she was the first German to graduate in Korean studies and Japanese studies .

She got a position as research assistant at Juncker and worked on modern Korean literature . From 1960 to 1961 she studied at the Kim-Il-sung University in Pyongyang a. a. Korean literature from An Hamgwang . From 1962 she worked as an interpreter for Korean. From 1968 to 1970 she worked as a culture and science attaché at the embassy of the GDR in Pyongyang. There and later in Berlin she wrote numerous (partly internal) reports and analyzes on the ideology of the Korean party and state leadership and the development of social sciences in North Korea. She interpreted on state visits and a. for Erich Honecker and Kim Il Sung .

In 1974 Picht completed her dissertation on questions of the history of the Labor Party of Korea , and in 1978 she completed her habilitation with a thesis on Marxism-Leninism in Korea.

In 1980, Picht took over the management of the Korea Department at Humboldt University from Reta Pensionner . In 1986 Picht became the first full professor of Korean studies in Germany (GDR and FRG ).

After German reunification , Picht said she was attacked as a “representative of GDR interests” and retired in 1992. She continued to teach as a visiting professor until 1996, concentrating primarily on translations of modern Korean literature into German.

From 1990 to 2000 Picht was vice chair of the International Society for Korean Studies (국제 고려 학회) based in Osaka .

Articles and posts

  • Song Jŏng on his concerns as a writer. In: Scientific journal of the Humboldt University in Berlin: Mathematical-natural science series , Vol. 14 (1956), pp. 439–441.
  • The Policy of the Party of Labor of Korea for the Development of the Material, Technical and Social Basis of Socialism. In: Asia, Africa, Latin America 5 (1976), pp. 692-701.
  • On the significance of the October Revolution for the spread of Marxism-Leninism in East Asia. In: Horst Bartel (ed.): The Great October Socialist Revolution and the Revolutionary World Process . Academy, Berlin 1978.
  • On the Origin of Modern Korean Literature. In: Scientific journal of the Humboldt University in Berlin. Social and Linguistic Series , 21 (1972), pp. 267-275.
  • Asia. Paths to Marx and Lenin . Dietz, Berlin 1984.
  • Modern Korean Literature in China. New territory for Korean research. In: Albrecht Huwe (ed.): Building bridges. Festschrift for Hanbiol Kih-Seong Kuh . Sin'gu, Seoul 1992, pp. 173-182.
  • The trauma of the Korean War. In comparison: “Land” (2) by Li Ki-yong and “Market and War” by Pak Kyongni. In: KoreaForum , Vol. 11, No. 2 (2001), pp. 39-41.
  • Return to your own strength. The national culture. In: Christoph Moeskes (Ed.): North Korea. Insights into an enigmatic country . Ch.links, Berlin 2004.
  • At the end of time. Pendragon, Bielefeld 1999.

Translations

  • Pak Wanso : The Family Register . Volk & Welt, Berlin 1994.
  • Jun Tschongmo : My mother was a "Korean hooker" . KiRo, Schönermark 1995.
  • Pak Kyongni : Market and War . Secolo, Osnabrück 2002.
  • Pak Kyongni: land. A Korean family saga . 4 volumes. Secolo, Osnabrück 2000-2014.

literature

  • Korean Studies. Festschrift for Prof. Dr. sc. Ingeborg Göthel and Prof. Dr. sc. Helga Picht on the occasion of her 60th birthday . Center "St. Petersburg Oriental Studies ”, St. Petersburg 1995.
  • Chung Young-soon: Life and Works of Helga Picht. In: The Review of Korean Studies , Vol. 7, No. 4 (November 2004), pp. 123–146 (interview with Helga Picht, PDF download ).
  • Katharina Borchardt: “I could allow myself to criticize” . In: taz , July 7, 2012.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Borchardt 2012.
  2. ↑ Chung Young-soon: Life and Works of Helga Picht. In: The Review of Korean Studies , Vol. 7, No. 4 (November 2004), pp. 123–146 (interview with Helga Picht, PDF download ).
personal data
SURNAME Picht, Helga
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Koreanist
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwedt / Oder