Wilhelm Gundert

Wilhelm Gundert (born April 12, 1880 in Stuttgart ; † August 3, 1971 in Neu-Ulm ) was a German East Asian scholar who primarily devoted himself to the Buddhist literature of China and Japan .

Life

Before entering the parish, Gundert, who was influenced by Swabian pietism, studied in the Evangelical Tübinger Stift (1898–1900, 1901/02) and in Halle (1900/01). During his student days, he joined the Protestant German Christian Student Association (DCSV), making him known with Uchimura Kanzō . In 1906 Gundert went to Japan as a missionary , where he initially worked with Japanese Christians around Uchimura .

In Japan, Gundert taught the German language as a lecturer at several universities ( Tōkyō , Kumamoto (1915–1920), Mito (1922–1927)). In the meantime he stayed from 1920 to 1922 in Germany and was by Karl Florenz in Hamburg with the work The Shintoism in the Japanese Nō -drama. PhD. From 1927 to 1936 Gundert headed the newly founded Japanese-German Cultural Institute in Tōkyō after further studies in Japan.

National Socialism

In 1934 Gundert joined the NSDAP . In 1936, he succeeded Florence as a professor for the language and culture of Japan at the University of Hamburg . From November 1938 to April 1941 Gundert was rector of the university. He then served as dean of the Political Association of the Faculties at the University of Hamburg until 1945. Alongside Walter Donat, he is a staunch advocate of National Socialism, especially in his role as head of the editorial committee of the OAG and the German-Japanese cultural institute. As rector of the University of Hamburg, he ordered the expulsion of Jewish professors and students.

In 1945 he was released as politically charged, but in 1952 classified as "exonerated" as part of the denazification process. In 1955 he received the legal status of exempt university professor (emeritus).

research

Gundert was a staunch advocate of the Nippon system , later slightly modified as the Kunrei system . His most important achievement is the (unfinished) translation of the Bi-Yän-Lu ( Chinese  碧 巖 錄 , Pinyin Bìyán lù , W.-G. Pi-yen lu ; Japanese 碧 巌 録 , Hekigan roku ), one by Yüän- wu ( Chinese  圜悟 克勤 , Pinyin Yuánwù Kèqín , W.-G. Yüan-wu K'e-ch'in ; 1063–1135) compiled collection of one hundred kōan . This translation received great attention, for example, from Gundert's cousin Hermann Hesse .

Private

Gundert and Hesse had the same grandfather, the philologist and clergyman Hermann Gundert (1814–1893), who had been a missionary in India.

Works (selection)

• Japanese literature . In: Oskar Walzel (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Literaturwissenschaft . Academic publishing company Athenaion, Wildpark / Potsdam 1929.
• Japanese religious history . Japanese-German Cultural Institute, Tokyo and Gundert Verlag, Stuttgart 1935.
• Wilhelm Gundert: The importance of Japan and the German Japanological work. (PDF) In: Journal of the German Oriental Society. 1936, pp. 248–265 , accessed on May 1, 2013 (inaugural lecture at the University of Hamburg; Volume 60). 
• Idea and Reality in Japanese History . In: Ostasiatische Rundschau. Volume 21, 1940, pp. 44-247.
• W. Gundert, Annemarie Schimmel , Walther Schubring (ed.): Lyrik des Ostens . Carl Hanser, Munich 1952.
• Bi-yan-lu. Master Yüan-wu's transcript of the emerald rock face, written on the Djia-shan near Li in Hunan between 1111 and 1115, published in Sitschuan around 1300, translated into German and explained by Wilhelm Gundert . 3 volumes. Carl Hanser, Munich 1960, 1967, 1973.

literature

• Michael Grüttner : Biographical lexicon on National Socialist science policy. Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 67.
• Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 135 f .

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Gundert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Dietrich Seckel : Wilhelm Gundert in memory
• Brief biography of Gundert with a subsequent comparison of different editions of the Bi-Yän-Lu
• The National Socialist Fritz Jäger campaigned for Gundert in 1947 (PDF file; 217 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ AAI Webmaster: Wilhelm Gundert: media: University of Hamburg. Retrieved March 30, 2017 . 
2. ^ Joanne Miyang Cho, Lee Roberts, Christian W. Spang: Transnational Encounters between Germany and Japan: Perceptions of Partnership in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries . Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-57397-1 ( google.de [accessed March 30, 2017]).
3. ^ AAI Webmaster: Wilhelm Gundert: media: University of Hamburg. Retrieved March 30, 2017 .