Karl Garbers (orientalist)

Karl Garbers (born May 16, 1898 in Hamburg , † July 9, 1990 in Bad Neuenahr ) was a German orientalist and science historian (focus on mathematics , medicine and natural sciences ).

Life

Garbers studied mathematics, physics, philosophy and Semitic languages in Hamburg and Göttingen from 1919 to 1926. From 1926 to 1937 he worked as a private teacher and educator. 1936 Garbers was in Hamburg. with the dissertation Ein Werk Tābit b. Qurra's on flat sundials .

On May 1, 1937, Garbers became a member of the NSDAP (membership number 4,357,507). From 1937 Garbers worked at the Prussian Academy of Sciences , where he was involved with Julius Ruska and Alfred Siggel until 1938 as part of the Oriental Commission in the compilation of the catalog of Arabic alchemical manuscripts. During the same period he was also an employee at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science . In 1940 he completed his habilitation in Berlin. He worked as a lecturer in Leipzig. During the Second World War Garbers was employed as a research assistant in the Foreign Office (AA). In 1943 he became a member of the German Oriental Society . In the same year he was entrusted with the management of the Sarajevo branch of the German Scientific Institute (DWI) Zagreb (established by the AA) through the Rosenberg office , the party chancellery , the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education and the AA . At the same time he was head of the German Islamic Studies Institute in Sarajevo until the end of the war.

On the part of the Rosenberg office, it was said in the selection process for the DWI-Zagreb branch in Sarajevo that Garbers was "Head of the Foreign Office of the Lecturer in Leipzig", which gives him "special experience in dealing with foreigners and for the position of the German scientist in the Work abroad ”. Garbers has also shown himself to be a “politically active personality and has shown great willingness to work for years.” His scientific qualifications and organizational skills were praised, and Garbers was also “a pronounced soldiery personality”, he “appeared unreservedly for the party National Socialist Weltanschauung ”and know how to“ skillfully place the foreign academic, military and National Socialist attitude [...] at the service of his work ”.

In 1947 Garbers completed his habilitation at the University of Hamburg and worked there until 1950 as a lecturer in the history of mathematics and the natural sciences. From 1950 to 1954 he was a language teacher at the Church University Hamburg and until 1963 teacher . From his retirement until 1980 he taught at the Institute for Natural Sciences and Technology at the University of Hamburg. In 1977 he was appointed professor.

His works of the post-war period include the translation of al-Kindīs Kitāb kimiyā al-ʿitr wat-tas ʿidat (= book on the chemistry of perfume and distillations , 1948) and Isḥāq ibn ʿImrāns Maqāla fī-ʾl-mālīḫūliyā (= treatise on the Melancholie , 1977), which he published in a comparative, critical Arabic-Latin parallel edition with the translation made by Constantine the African . Together with Jost Weyer , he published a historical reading book on the chemistry and alchemy of the Arabs in the Middle Ages (Hamburg 1980).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ludmila Hanisch: The successors of the exegetes. German-language exploration of the Middle East in the first half of the 20th century . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 186.
^ ^A ^b Menso Folkerts, Christoph J. Scriba, Hans Wussing: Germany . In: Joseph W. Dauben and Christoph J. Scriba: (Eds.) Writing the History of Mathematics: Its Historical Development . Birkhäuser, Basel et al. 2002, p. 133.
↑ Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 37.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux Mondes Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 481.
↑ Ludmila Hanisch: The successors of the exegetes. German-language exploration of the Middle East in the first half of the 20th century . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 186, gives the period from 1938 to 1943; Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 481, gives the period 1941 to 1946 for this.
↑ Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 191.
↑ Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, pp. 239f .; Ellinger quotes here from a letter from Amt Rosenberg employee Wolfgang Erxleben to Wolfgang Bechtold from the party chancellery dated February 1, 1943 (IfZ, MA 141/9, p. 0351233) and a memo Erxleben for the head of the main science office Rosenberg Office of November 3, 1942 (IfZ, MA 141/9, Bl. 0351235f).

personal data
SURNAME	Garbers, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German orientalist and science historian
DATE OF BIRTH	May 16, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	July 9, 1990
Place of death	Bad Neuenahr

[Hanisch186-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ludmila Hanisch: The successors of the exegetes. German-language exploration of the Middle East in the first half of the 20th century . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 186.

[FoScWu-2] A ^b Menso Folkerts, Christoph J. Scriba, Hans Wussing: Germany . In: Joseph W. Dauben and Christoph J. Scriba: (Eds.) Writing the History of Mathematics: Its Historical Development . Birkhäuser, Basel et al. 2002, p. 133.

[3] Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 37.

[Ellinger481-4] A ^b ^c ^d Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux Mondes Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 481.

[5] Ludmila Hanisch: The successors of the exegetes. German-language exploration of the Middle East in the first half of the 20th century . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 186, gives the period from 1938 to 1943; Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 481, gives the period 1941 to 1946 for this.

[6] Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, p. 191.

[7] Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . Deux-Mondes-Verlag, Edingen-Neckarhausen 2006, pp. 239f .; Ellinger quotes here from a letter from Amt Rosenberg employee Wolfgang Erxleben to Wolfgang Bechtold from the party chancellery dated February 1, 1943 (IfZ, MA 141/9, p. 0351233) and a memo Erxleben for the head of the main science office Rosenberg Office of November 3, 1942 (IfZ, MA 141/9, Bl. 0351235f).