Paul Dahlke (Buddhist)

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Berlin memorial plaque on Edelhofdamm 54 in Berlin-Reinickendorf

Paul Dahlke (born January 25, 1865 in Osterode in East Prussia , † February 29, 1928 in Berlin ) was a doctor and a pioneer of Buddhism in Germany . During his lifetime he published numerous essays and reviews on Buddhism, as well as 22 independent works, four of which were volumes with translations of Buddhist scriptures. Dahlke was the founder of the Buddhist House in Berlin-Frohnau , the oldest of its kind in Europe, which still exists today.

From 1917 to 1922 he published the “New Buddhist Magazine” in five volumes and then the “Brockensammlung” until his death. Both publications contained contributions from him only. His siblings continued the chunk collection until 1938, mainly with texts from his estate.

In his profession as a doctor and homeopath he also developed a lively publication activity. He wrote about 200 essays that deal primarily with homeopathic medicine .

Life

Years of apprenticeship

Paul Dahlke was born in 1865 as the son of an official in Osterode in East Prussia. He was the oldest of five siblings. Since the father was often transferred due to his professional activity, Dahlke completed high schools in Osnabrück , Hanover and Frankfurt , where he also passed the Abitur on March 16, 1883. From the summer semester he studied medicine in Berlin , where he successfully passed the Rigorosum on March 10, 1887 after 8 semesters . On August 6, 1887, he received his doctorate with a thesis "On heat stroke". Soon afterwards he took over a homeopathic practice in Berlin, which he ran with great success until 1898. He also became a medical officer .

Wandering years

In 1898 Dahlke embarked on a one-year trip around the world, which enabled him to have a successful medical practice. He was particularly fascinated by the South Seas. But he also came to Ceylon , where Buddhism, which he had got to know through Arthur Schopenhauer's writings in the early 1890s, made no special impression on him. The experiences had worked in him underground, however, because in the spring of 1900 he set off on a second trip to Ceylon; this time to study Buddhism. There he learned Pali and maintained contacts with local scholars, namely Hikkaduwe Sumangala, Suriyagoda Sumangala, Nyananissara and Wagiswara.

He returned as a Buddhist, and the following years were marked by extensive trips to Asia alternating with work in his Berlin practice. In 1906 he even gave up his medical practice entirely. His travels, of which he made a total of seven or eight, took him mainly to Ceylon, but also to India , China , Japan , Burma , Siam and Indonesia . When he was in Germany in the meantime in preparation for a print in 1914, he was surprised by the outbreak of the First World War and had to give up the planned return trip to Ceylon.

The Buddhist house

Dahlke tried to found a Buddhist monastery in Germany because he had recognized that for Europeans, being a monk in Asia is often associated with too much strain. In Wenningstedt on Sylt he acquired an extensive area of ​​around 5 hectares of land, for which he designed a model of the monastery. After learning of the plans to build Hindenburgdamm , however, he gave up the project because he feared that the house would be isolated. His house in Wenningstedt served him as a holiday home in the following years.

After the war he lived and practiced in a Zehlendorf villa. In the autumn of 1919 he bought a piece of land in Berlin-Frohnau and after he was fired in Zehlendorf, he began building the Buddhist house in 1923 . In August 1924 he was able to move in there.

The remaining years until his death were filled with daily fellowship in the house and a lively lecture, travel and publication activity for the Buddhist cause, for which he now completely gave up competing interests in mathematics and music. In the winter of 1927/28 Dahlke got the flu, from which he did not recover , also due to a weak heart caused by a tropical fever in Java . Dahlke succumbed to a weak heart on February 29, 1928, a full moon day, and was buried on his own property. After his death his sister Bertha Dahlke took over the management of the Buddhist house. The philosopher Volker Zotz coined the term "German Buddhology" for the interpretations of Buddhism by Paul Dahlke and Georg Grimm and assessed them as "independent schools of interpretation of Buddhism."

Works

During his lifetime Paul Dahlke published 22 independent publications as well as over 150 articles and more than 100 reviews, most of them in his two magazines, the “New Buddhist Magazine” and the “Brockensammlung”. After his death, further articles and edited volumes were published.

The list includes all independent German-language publications that appeared during Dahlke's lifetime. Most of the data come from Hecker and are part of an extensive bibliography.

Medical writings

  • 1887 About heat stroke .
  • 1914 Drug teaching . (2nd edition 1928)
  • 1915/16 Clinical guideline for the sighted drug teaching .
  • 1916 repertory . (2nd edition 1928)

Scriptures on Buddhism

  • 1903 essays on understanding Buddhism . 2 volumes. (2nd edition 1995)
  • 1904 Buddhist stories .
  • 1905 The book of genius .
  • 1912 Buddhism as a worldview . (2nd edition 1920)
  • 1912 The meaning of Buddhism for our time . (2nd edition 1924)
  • 1913 From the realm of the Buddha. Seven stories . (2nd edition 1924)
  • 1914 Buddhism as religion and morality . (2nd edition 1923)
  • 1914 English sketches .
  • 1918 What is Buddhism and what does it want? (2nd edition 1968)
  • 1918 About the Pali Canon .
  • 1919 State and Church .
  • 1920 Buddhism and religious reconstruction .
  • 1920 What should the new religion look like?
  • 1921 New Buddhist Catechism .
  • 1921 The book Pubbenivasa .
  • 1926 Buddhism .
  • 1928 Buddhism as a theory of reality and a way of life .
  • 1928 Medicine and Weltanschauung .

Translations from the Pali canon

  • 1919 Dhammapadam . (3rd edition 1969)
  • 1920 Digha-Nikaya .
  • 1920 Buddha. Selection from the Pali Canon . (5th edition 2000)
  • 1923 Majjhima-Nikaya .

literature

Web links

Commons : Paul Dahlke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Paul Dahlke  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Zotz: On the blissful islands. Buddhism in German culture. Berlin 2000 ( ISBN 3-89620-151-4 ), p. 156
personal data
SURNAME Dahlke, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pioneer of Buddhism in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Osterode
DATE OF DEATH February 29, 1928
Place of death Berlin