Klaus Fischer (Indologist)

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Klaus Fischer (born November 20, 1919 in Zittau , † March 25, 1993 in Bonn ) was a German art historian and Indologist .

Professional background

Klaus Fischer studied art history , classical archeology and prehistory at the University of Heidelberg , in 1948 he received his doctorate with a thesis entitled Thomas Rössler, a German late Baroque master in Cholmland on a topic of Eastern European Baroque architecture .

Research trips in the following years led to the countries of South Asia , as well as to Iran , Iraq and the Soviet Union. 1953–1954 he was able to undertake extensive trips through India with a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service for the University of Calcutta . With other scholarships from other institutions, he and his wife Christa-M. Friederike Fischer, from 1959 to 1962 Pakistan and, as a scholarship holder of the University of Kabul, carried out archaeological field research on pre-Islamic and Islamic ruins in Afghanistan. Fischer was involved in the excavation of Surkh Kotal in the Hindu Kush by Daniel Schlumberger . The focus of his work in Afghanistan was the archaeological description of the country in the south-western border region to the Iranian province of Sistan .

In 1966, he completed his habilitation in Indian art history at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Bonn with a thesis on the ceilings and vaults of Sasanian and early Islamic buildings in northern Afghanistan. There he initially worked as a university lecturer, later as a scientific adviser and professor and finally as a professor at the Department of Oriental Art History, where he taught Indian, Iranian and Islamic archeology and art history until 1985.

effect

Excavations in Sistan

Occasional archaeological excavations began in Afghanistan in the early 19th century by travelers and officers of the British-Indian Army . Numerous new finds came to light at the end of the century by members of British commissions that were supposed to determine the border between Russia and Persia. Scientific excavations were first carried out in 1922 by the French, who initially focused on the Buddhist art of Gandhara , and after the Second World War also by the English ( Mortimer Wheeler ).

German explorations began in 1955. A photo shows Klaus Fischer on horseback on an excursion in Kunduz that year . In 1959 and 1961 and 1966–1974 Fischer undertook systematic excavations for the first time at numerous, predominantly Islamic, sites in Sistan. From there he wrote that there were more ruins and settlements in the once flourishing country than in similar landscapes anywhere else in the world.

In works on Graeco-Buddhist art and architecture of the Gandhara region, he emphasized, like Aurel Stein before , the dependence on Hellenism and the differences to Indian Buddhist art. More Buddha sculptures have been found in Gandhara than in the region of origin of this religion, central northern India.

At excavation sites such as Bost near today's Laschkar Gah in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, Fischer was able to examine ruins from the old Iranian, Buddhist and Islamic periods.

Basics of Indian art

In some overview images, Fischer presented general characteristics of Indian art and Indian architecture . These works include Caves and Temples of the Jains (1956) and the Indian architecture of the Islamic period (1976), which he wrote together with his wife .

In the Creations of Indian Art (1959), he interpreted the development of the Indian open-air temple from the simplest floor plan of the square cella by describing religious needs, the symbolic content of the construction and the technical means in connection. In a comparison of cultures, he showed the common forms and at the same time the different artistic expression: if nature served as a model in the West, in India an ideal (rich in variety) had to be created according to unchangeable, written laws.

Together with the two architects Michael Jansen and Jan Pieper, whose doctorate was supervised by Fischer at RWTH Aachen University , the volume Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent was created in 1987 . Another of Fischer's doctoral students is Volker Thewalt, who was involved in excavations in Sistan in the early 1970s and is co-author of von Nimruz. Site inspections in Sistan (1974–1976).

Publications (selection)

Independent works

  • Thomas Rössler, a German late baroque master in Cholmland. Dissertation University of Heidelberg 1948
  • Caves and Temples of the Jains. World Jain Mission, Aliganj 1956
  • Creations of Indian Art. From the earliest buildings and images to the medieval temple. Cologne 1959
  • Roofs, ceilings and vaults of Indian places of worship and utility buildings. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1974
  • Eroticism and asceticism in the cult and art of the Indians. Du-Mont Taschenbuch 81, Cologne 1979
  • with Erich Boehringer and Hermann Goetz : 5000 years of art from India. May – Sept. 1959. Essen Villa Hügel. Essen 1959 (German and English)
  • with Dietrich Morgenstern and Volker Thewalt (eds.): Site inspections in Sistan 1955–1973 and the recording by Dewal-Khodaydad 1970. Habelt, Bonn 1974 ISBN 3-7749-1262-9
  • this .: Nimruz. Archaeological survey of the land in southwest Afghanistan. , 2 volumes, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1974–1976
  • with Christa-M. Friederike Fischer: Indian architecture from the Islamic period. Holle-Kunst, Baden-Baden 1976. ISBN 3-87355-145-4
  • with Michael Jansen and Jan Pieper: Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1987. ISBN 3-534-01593-2

Contributions to edited volumes

  • Kusana, Centri e Correnti. In: Enciclopedia Universale dell 'Arte. Venezia e Roma VIII 1958
  • Indus valley culture. In: Klaus Fischer and Ernst Diez: Indian Art. ( Ullstein Art History Vol. 19). Ullstein, Frankfurt 1964
  • Civilization de l'Indus. In: Histoire Universelle de'l Art, vol. V. Zurich, Paris 1967
  • Monuments of prehistoric and historical times. In: Willi Kraus (Ed.): Afghanistan. Nature, history, state, society and economy. Erdmann, Tübingen 1972. pp. 138-151
  • Bengal Brick Temples. Thoughts on Near Eastern and Medieval Hindu Traditions During the Indo-Islamic Period. In: Pramod Chandra (Ed.): Studies in Indian Temple Architecture. American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi 1975
  • Land of cultural encounters. In: M. Usman Malik and Annemarie Schimmel (eds.): Pakistan. The country and its people. History, culture, state and economy. Tuebingen 1976
  • Depictions of death on some Buddhist works of art. In: H.-J. Klimleit (Ed.): Death and Beyond in the Faith of the Nations. Wiesbaden 1978
  • Aspects of Indian Sculpture and Painting. In: Niels Gutschow, Jan Pieper: India. Du-Mont Art Travel Guide, Cologne 1978, pp. 185–209
  • From the Mongols to the Mughals. In: FR Allchin and N. Hammond (Eds.): The Archeology of Afghanistan from the Earliest Times to the Timurid Period. London 1978, pp. 356-414
  • ibid .: From the Rise of Islam to the Mongol Invasion. Pp. 301-355
  • Hidden Symbolism in Stupa-Railing Reliefs. Coincidentia Oppositorum of Mara and Kama. In: AL Dallapiccola (Ed.): The Stupa. Its Religions, Historical and Architectural Significance. Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1980, pp. 90-99
  • Client, sculptor and admirer of mithuna groups in the Mediterranean-Indian mixed art. In: AJ Gail (Ed.): Artists and workshops in oriental societies. Graz 1982
  • Archaeological Fieldwork in Afghan Sistan and Current Research on Eastern Iranian Architecture. In: G. Urban and M. Jansen (eds.): Documentation in archeology. Techniques, methods, analyzes. Aachen 1983, pp. 81-89
  • Traditions of popular and manorial forms of construction in Sistan. In: Ethnology and History. Festschrift for Karl Jettmar. Wiesbaden 1983, pp. 135-146
  • A group of riders in front view from Swat based on the model of Quadriga representations. In: Memorial Volume in Honor of Giuseppe Tucci . Rome 1984
  • How were love scenes on Gandharan Stupas understood by contemporary worshipers? In: J. Schotsmans and M. Taddei (Eds.): South Asian Archeology. 1983. Naples 1985, pp. 629-639
  • Old Indian and Indo-Islamic flat stone beam and flagstone ceilings. In: History of Construction. Colloquium at the Institute for Light Structures, organizes by Frei Otto. Vol. 2. Stuttgart 1986
  • Icons of Heracles and Alexander in the Eastern Part of the latter's Empire. In: G. Pollet (Ed.): India and the ancient world. Leuven 1987, pp. 59-65

Articles in magazines

  • Orissan Art in the Evolution of Postmediaeval Indian Culture. In: Orissa Historical Research Journal 3, No. 1. 1954, p. 27
  • Firozabad on the Bhima and its Environs. Islamic Culture, Hyderabad, Deccan 29, 4th 1955
  • Some Illuminated Persian Manuscripts in the Saidiyah Library. In: Islamic Culture 30. 1956, pp. 36-39
  • Siva Buddha Heracles stone from Saozma Kala. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1957, pp. 416–436
  • Gandhara's sculpture from Kunduz and environs. In: Artibus Asiae Vol. 21, 1958, pp. 231-251
  • Kandahar in Arachosia. In: Scientific journal of the Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Vol. 7, No. 6. Halle 1958, pp. 1151–1164
  • About the location of Kandahar on land connections between Iran and India. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 167, 1967, pp. 129–232
  • Gandhara reliefs to be told. With an excursus about the stallion Kathaka. In: General and comparative archeology. Contributions, Vol. 2. (BAVA 2). 1980, pp. 229-295
  • The Art of Chinese Horse Representation. In: Leisure in the saddle . Issue 9, 1981
  • Central Asian Horsemanship in the Light of Recently Discovered Sculptures. In: Afghanistan 35, No. 3. 1982
  • The transportation of the Buddhas relics by riders in frontal view on a relief from Swat. In: International Conference on Karakorum Culture, Gilgit. 1983
  • A relief from Swat. The Transportation of the Buddha's relics by riders in frontal view. In: Journal of Central Asia Vol. 8, No. 1, 1985, pp. 123-128
  • Why has a Gandharan sculptor depicted the Nagaradevata semi-nude in the Abhiniskramana scene? In: Investigating Indian Art. Publication by the Museum for Indian Art Berlin, 8th Berlin 1987, pp. 61–65

literature

  • Jakob Ozols and Volker Thewalt (eds.): From the east of the Alexander empire. Peoples and cultures between Orient and Occident: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. Festschrift for Klaus Fischer's 65th birthday. Du-Mont Documents, Cologne 1984 (with list of publications).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Fischer: Archaeological field work in Afghan saddles. In: Leisure and Saddle . Volume 6 and 7, 1984.
  2. ↑ Klaus Fischer, Xavier de Planhol: Bost . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica , as of December 15, 1989, accessed on June 9, 2011 (English, including references)
  3. ↑ More articles by Klaus Fischer in E. Iranica after entering the name in the search mask.
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German indologist and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Zittau
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1993
Place of death Bonn