Helmut Martin (Sinologist)

Helmut Martin (born March 5, 1940 in Kassel ; † June 8, 1999 ) was a German sinologist . His focus was on modern Chinese literature, including most recently Taiwan's literature . In this field he published several hundred writings; He was also the editor of several series of publications on China.

Martin studied Sinology and Slavic Studies in Munich, Belgrade, Paris and Heidelberg. In 1966 he received his doctorate from Wolfgang Bauer on Li Yu ("Li Li-weng on the theater"). With a post-doctoral scholarship, he then went to Taiwan State University , where, among other things, he edited a 15-volume complete edition of Li Yu's works published in 1970. After a stopover in Kyoto , he returned to Germany in the early 1970s and was initially a China consultant at the Institute for Asian Studies in Hamburg. There he edited the magazine China aktuell and published the Langenscheidt dictionary Chinese-German vocabulary together with his wife Tienchi Martin-Liao in 1977 . Politics and economy of the PRC .

In 1977 he completed his habilitation with Wolfgang Franke with the script Chinese language planning .

Since 1979 Martin has taught as a professor at the chair for Chinese language and literature at the Ruhr University in Bochum , and he has also taught as a visiting professor at universities in East Asia and the USA. The State Language Institute of North Rhine-Westphalia and the founding of the Richard Wilhelm Translation Center at the Ruhr University in 1993, one of three translation centers for Chinese literature worldwide , also go back to his initiative . Since 1990 he has been involved in the German Association for Chinese Studies (DVCS) and was its chairman until his death in 1995.

tomb

Since 1974, when Martin translated and edited Mao Zedong's unpublished writings , his relationship with the People's Republic was marked by tension. Because of his scholarly and critical relationship with the Chinese leadership, his sympathy for socially critical Chinese writers and intellectuals, and his clear position on the violent termination of the demonstrations on Tian'anmen in June 1989 , the People's Republic imposed an entry ban on the scientist.

Martin committed suicide on June 8, 1999 at the age of 59. He was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hall 4 in O).

Web links

• Literature by and about Helmut Martin in the catalog of the German National Library

literature

• China in its biographical dimensions. Commemorative letter for Helmut Martin. Edited by Christina Neder, Heiner Roetz, Ines-Susanne Schilling. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz-Verlag , 2001. ISBN 3-447-04492-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Obituary for “Taiwan today”, taiwanheute.nat.gov.tw ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ ^{a b} European Association of Chinese Studies, Newsletter January 2000, In Memoriam: Professor Helmut Martin (Ma Hanmao 1940–1999) ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ DVCS-Rundbrief 2/1999 with a detailed obituary for Helmut Martin ( memento of the original from September 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ China from a biographical perspective: memorial for Helmut Martin on uni-protocol.de