Heinrich Lüders (25 June 1869 in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

– 7 May 1943 in

Badenweiler Badenweiler ( High Alemannic: ''Badewiler'') is a health resort and spa in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, historically in the Markgräflerland. It is 28 kilometers by road and rail from Basel, 10 kilomet ...

) was a German Orientalist and

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

known for his

epigraphical Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

analysis of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

Turfan Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the cit ...

fragmentary manuscripts.

Biography

From 1888 to 1894, he studied at the universities of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, and afterwards worked as an assistant curator and librarian in the

Indian Institute The Indian Institute was an institute within the University of Oxford. It was started by Sir Monier Monier-Williams in 1883 to provide training for the Indian Civil Service of the British Raj. The institute's building is located in central Oxf ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. In 1898, he became an associate professor at Göttingen, then five years later relocated to

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

, where in 1905 he was named professor of Indo-European linguistics and

. In 1909, he was appointed professor of ancient Indian languages and literature at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

, where in 1931–32 he served as academic rector. In 1935, he retired from teaching and devoted himself entirely to research.Lüders, Heinrich
Catalogus Professorum RostochiensiumHeinrich Lüders
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin From 1920 to 1938, he served as secretary of the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

. In 1932 he was recipient of the ''

Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft The Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Goethe Medal for Art and Science) is a German award. It was authorized by Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg to commemorate the centenary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's death on March 22, 1932. It ...

'' (Goethe Medal for Art and Science). He was also appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission) for his expertise in the languages Bengali,

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

, and

Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung: ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurung people predominantly live around the Annapurna region in Manang, Mustang, Dolpo, Kaski, Lamjung, Go ...

. The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps.

Published works

* ''Bruchstücke buddhistischer Dramen'', 1911. * ''Weitere Beiträge zur Geschichte und Geographie von Ostturkestan''. Berlin 1930. * ''Kātantra und Kaumāralāta''. Berlin 1930. * ''Philologica Indica'', 1940.Most widely held works by Heinrich Lüders
WorldCat Identities * ''Bhārhut und die buddhistische Literatur''. Leipzig 1941. * ''Beobachtungen über die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkanons''. (edition by

Ernst Waldschmidt Ernst Waldschmidt (July 15, 1897, Lünen, Province of Westphalia – February 25, 1985, Göttingen) was a German orientalist and Indologist. He was a pupil of German indologist Emil Sieg. He taught at Berlin University and began teaching at the ...

. Berlin 1954). * "Mathurā Inscriptions. Unpublished papers" (edition by Klaus Ludwig Janert. Göttingen 1961). * ''Kleine Schriften''. (edition by Oskar von Hinüber. Wiesbaden 1973).

References

Bibliography

* * Ernst Waldschmidt (1943). Heinrich Lüders. In: Forschungen und Fortschritte. Nachrichtenblatt der Deutschen Wissenschaft und Technik, Organ des Reichsforschungsrates 19 (23/24), 250–252 1869 births 1943 deaths German scholars of Buddhism German Indologists German male non-fiction writers Epigraphers Writers from Lübeck University of Rostock faculty Humboldt University of Berlin faculty University of Göttingen faculty Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) {{germany-academic-bio-stub