Klemens Ludwig

Klemens Ludwig (born December 23, 1955 in Suttrop , Sauerland ) is a German author, publicist, minority expert and Tibetan scholar. In addition to his main focus, he also publishes on topics such as tourism and astrology. Since 2015 he has been the first chairman of the German Astrologer Association.

Career

After graduating from the Friedrich-von-Spee-Gymnasium in Rüthen in 1975, he first studied English and theology in Tübingen . In 1979 he went to the Society for Threatened Peoples as the second full-time employee (then Hamburg, now Göttingen). In terms of content, he concentrated over time on conflicts in Asia. In 1986 he visited Tibet for the first time , which has been the focus of his journalistic work ever since. He has traveled to almost all Asian countries and published about his experiences. From 1994 to 2000 he was chairman of the Tibet Initiative Germany . At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 90s he often stayed in the Baltic States , where he saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and the regaining of independence for the Baltic states.

Services

During his time at the Society for Threatened Peoples, he organized the first visit to Germany in June 1985 by the Nobel Prize winner and today's East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta . As part of these activities, he has given several lectures to the UN Decolonization Committee in New York. Klemens Ludwig has been working as a freelance author and journalist since 1989, with a focus on the Himalayan region. In addition, Beck-Verlag published a Dalai Lama biography with a very personal foreword to what was described. Ludwig first met the Tibetan leader in 1988 in the Swiss Rikon and has met him regularly ever since. Ludwig is also the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Brennpunkt Tibet”. Further publications deal with Burma / Myanmar , East Timor , the Baltic States, ethnic, national and religious minorities in general, soft tourism, nuclear tests and their effects on indigenous peoples. Klemens Ludwig writes for bodies such as Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Welt, the daily newspaper (taz), Publik Forum and others. He also works for public broadcasters. In addition to his journalistic activities, Ludwig also records an intensive lecture and reading activity. In his historical novel “Die Schwarze Hofmännin”, published in 2010, he turns to a largely forgotten figure in German history and commemorates the only woman known by name from the great peasant war of 1525.

Positions

In his book “Eyewitnesses Don't Lie. Journalist Reports, Claims and Reality ”, Klemens Ludwig took up the problem of foreign reports as early as 1992, which attracted a great deal of attention at the end of 2018 through the so-called Relotius affair with invented reports in Spiegel and other media. Ludwig's book was maliciously panned by the Spiegel: “So it's no wonder that reporters from abroad couldn't find the truth. She lives in Tübingen in the form of Klemens Ludwig. "

Ludwig represents in the book “The role of victims. Islam and its staging "the thesis," the Islamic victim role is invoked by all socially relevant and influential groups: by scientists and politicians, writers and journalists, sociologists and theologians. "He counters this," in the overall social context, however, Muslims are involved Far from being victims to the extent that their staging would lead one to believe. If they were, their associations, their representatives and their institutions would not make their demands for a life in accordance with Islam with such self-confidence and such a matter of course; [...] Victims are usually too intimidated to make claims aggressively and confidently. "

These theses were discussed controversially. Godehard Uhlemann attested to the author in the Rheinische Post that the book was “a committed contribution to the debate. It is easy to read, clear in its line of thought, but never provocative or polarizing. "

Matthias Bertsch, on the other hand, comments on the 2nd edition on Deutschlandfunk: “The strength of 'Die Victim Role' lies in the fact that Ludwig stubbornly sticks to critical questions and thoughts that many no longer publicly express because they are Islamophobic, racist or simply apply “right” and the questioners are therefore excluded. But in this persistence lies the book's great weakness. All the quotes and examples that Ludwig brings only serve one purpose: to prove what he already knew. The facts are not wrong, but they are only part of the truth. "

Awards

In 1995 he received the "Astrology Media Prize" from the German Association of Astrologers for his efforts to "objectively portray the topic of astrology" . He was also made an honorary member of the Society for Threatened Peoples.

Book publications

• Astrology in Art - 4000 Years of Cosmic Harmony and Aesthetics, Tübingen 2013
• Gendün - The Return of the Panchen Lama, Giessen 2012
• The victim role. Islam and its production, Munich 2011
• Die Schwarze Hofmännin: A Peasant War novel, Knecht Verlag, 2010
• Multi-ethnic state China - The national minorities in the Middle Kingdom, Munich 2009, Becksche Reihe
• When the iron bird flies - Tibetans in exile - Nymphenburger, 2008
• The great handbook of astrology (with Daniela Weise), Krummwisch bei Kiel, 2008
• Dalai Lama - Ambassador of Compassion, Munich 2008
• My child's horoscope. Understanding and supporting children in their uniqueness, Munich 2001
• The great lexicon of astrology (with Daniela Weise), Niedernhausen 2001
• Perspectives for Tibet, Munich 2000
• Latvia - A regional geography, Munich 2000
• Estonia - A regional geography, Munich 1999
• Tibet: Beauty - Destruction - Future (with Franz Alt), Frankfurt 1998
• The way to Potala, A novel from ancient Tibet, Giessen 1997
• Burma - A regional geography, Munich 1997
• East Timor - The Twenty Years War, Reinbek 1996
• Ethnic minorities in Europe. A Lexicon, Munich 1995
• Phantom atom. Abysses of nuclear technology and ways out of danger (with Susanna Voigt), Gießen 1993
• Whisper to the rock. The message of the indigenous people of the earth for the preservation of creation, Freiburg 1993
• Europe is falling apart, peoples without states and the new nationalism, Reinbek 1993
• Eyewitnesses don't lie. Journalist Reports: Claim and Reality, Munich 1992
• The Baltic States - A Regional Geography, Munich 1991
• Tibet - Faith versus Guns, Essen 1991
• The new tourism, Munich 1990
• Tibet accuses (with Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian), Wuppertal 1990
• Tibet - a regional geography, Munich, 1989
• Life songs - death laments, A reading book for forgotten peoples, Wuppertal 1988
• Threatened Peoples. An encyclopedia of national and religious minorities, Munich, 1985
• East Timor - The forgotten death, Göttingen 1985

Web links

• Literature by and about Klemens Ludwig in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of the new novel Gendün - The Return of the Panchen Lama
• Klemens Ludwig's Tibetan side
• Klemens Ludwig's astrology page
• Klemens Ludwig's literary publications

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Spiegel, No. 53/1992 of December 28, 1992, p. 169, Modernes Leben: “Eyewitnesses lie”
2. ↑ Rheinische Post “Islam in the Victim Role”, August 17, 2011
3. ↑ Deutschlandfunk: Andruck - the magazine for political literature, June 24, 2019, https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/klemens-ludwig-die-opferrolle-der-islam-seine.1310.de.html?dram:article_id = 451672