Seminar for Oriental Languages

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The Seminar for Oriental Languages (SOS) was founded in 1887 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . Linked to this was the special status of a university administered jointly by the German Empire and Prussia.

Motivation for founding

In the era of imperialism , the lack of expertise and language skills regarding the Orient was felt more and more in the empire . Close political and military relations with the Ottoman Empire , which were expressed in the German military missions (and later in the plans for the Baghdad Railway ), did nothing to change this.

It was Chancellor Otto von Bismarck himself who gave political impetus to the establishment of the SOS, annoyed that he did not have an interpreter for Turkish at the Berlin Congress . Germany's entry into the ranks of colonial powers since the mid-1880s also played a role.

The institution originally had the task of

"To combine the theoretical lessons in the living oriental languages ​​with practical exercise and thereby enable future aspirants for the interpreting service as well as members of other professions ... in addition to the theoretical learning especially the practical application of these languages".

The main aim was to prepare colonial officials, officers of the protection force and commercial travelers for their deployment in the colonies and overseas. The kk Academy for Oriental Languages in Vienna, which had existed since 1754 and had proven itself especially for interpreting training, served as a model .

Language teaching and colonial studies

The seminar for oriental languages ​​was initially located in the building of the old stock exchange ( Lustgarten 6). In 1904 it was moved to the immediate vicinity of the university (Dorotheenstrasse 7). The institution, which was financed with funds from the Foreign Office and the Reich Colonial Office , corresponded to an " affiliated institute " in today's terminology . The director of the SOS was also full professor of oriental studies at the Berlin University. Since 1921 this was Diedrich Westermann .

In addition to the “ oriental languages ” (Arabic, Chinese, Hindustani , Japanese, Persian and Turkish), African languages such as Swahili , Haussa etc. were also taught. In addition to a German scholar, a lecturer usually taught in his mother tongue. Subjects were also "realities", i. H. practical knowledge such as tropical hygiene , colonial law , economic conditions, geography and history of the colonies in question.

After the First World War and the loss of the German colonies as a result of the Versailles Peace Treaty , the Seminar for Oriental Languages ​​initially experienced a setback, but the colonial debate revived during the Weimar Republic . By dealing with questions of geography with political and economic relevance and issuing scientific publications, the SOS had meanwhile established itself as a center for German research on the Orient and Africa and was integrated into the Friedrich Wilhelms University .

Third Reich and incorporation into the Berlin University

The closeness to politics should then have a negative impact on the institution under changed colonial- political circumstances . After the seizure of power of the Nazis , the device was politically into line . Jewish employees were laid off, according to director Eugen Wednesday . In addition, the institution lost its organizational independence within a few years.

In 1936, the SOS was renamed “International University ” and five years later it was merged with the German School of Politics to form the “Foreign Studies Faculty” of the University of Berlin. For the students, a subject called Deutschtumskunde has now become a compulsory subject. The leadership as dean was the leading Nazi foreign scholar Franz Alfred Six . After the defeat in Stalingrad and the withdrawal of German troops from Africa in 1943, research on colonial science was largely stopped.

The historic Berlin SOS radiated into many subjects and is u. a. to be regarded as the forerunner of the Institute for Language and Culture of Japan at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Rudolf Lange taught Japanese here until 1920. From 1887 to 1890, the Japanese philosopher Inoue Tetsujirô worked as a lecturer . The alumni included well-known Japanologists such as Karl Florenz , Serge Elisseeff and Father Heinrich Dumoulin .

Re-establishment after the Second World War in Bonn

In the post-war period, specialized teaching and research institutions developed in East and West that took over numerous functions of the old SOS. However, the need for targeted language training remained. The Seminar for Oriental Languages ​​was re-established in 1959 at the University of Bonn, directly opposite the Foreign Office. Due to the changed environment, however, it did not come close to the importance and external impact of its Berlin predecessor.

With the support of the Foreign Office , language training for students of oriental subjects and external listeners took place at the Bonn SOS, including members of the diplomatic service who were able to acquire a “single language diploma”. Directors were u. a. Herbert Zachert , Josef Kreiner and Kay Genenz .

Between 1981 and 2004 there was the scientific diploma course "Translation - Languages ​​of the Near, Middle and Far East" (2003: 984 students in Arabic , Chinese , Indonesian , Japanese , Korean , Persian , Turkish and Vietnamese ). The SOS was finally integrated in 2006 as the "Department for Oriental and Asian Languages" (AOAS) in the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn. The translation course was continued there as a master’s course, building on the bachelor’s course in Asian Studies. Student demand in Arabic, Chinese and especially Japanese continued to grow. At the end of 2012, ostensibly due to austerity measures and the priority of research excellence, this department was also dissolved in 2012 and language training was integrated into the respective individual philologies with the master’s degree programs.

literature

  • Eduard Sachau (Hrsg.): Memorandum on the seminar for oriental languages ​​at the Royal Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin 1887 to 1912. Reichsdruckerei (Reimer), Berlin 1912.
  • Otto Franke : The seminar for oriental languages ​​in Berlin and its planned transformation. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1924.
  • The "Seminar for Oriental Languages" in the academic tradition of the Asian Studies section of the Humboldt University of Berlin (= contributions to the history of the Humboldt University of Berlin. No. 25, ISSN  0138-4104 ). Rector of the Humboldt University, Berlin 1990.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920), Vol. 3, pp. 347f.
  2. ^ University of Applied Sciences Abroad (Berlin) - ProvenanceWiki. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .