Walther Heissig (December 5, 1913 – September 5, 2005) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n Mongolist.

Life

Heissig was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He studied

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

, historical

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

sinology Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to th ...

and Mongolian in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and Vienna, and got his doctoral degree in 1941 in Vienna. Afterwards he traveled to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, worked at the Fu-jen University in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

and visited China's

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

region. In 1945/46 he had to leave China in an affair about alleged espionage for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

by German nationals.The so-called Shanghai trial (german: Schanghai-Prozess). In 1951 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, but, on failing to obtain a position there, he undertook to pursue his second habilitation at the

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

in 1957. In 1964, he was appointed the

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of the Central Asian seminar at

Bonn University The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

Academic interests

His major fields of study were Mongolian history, literature, and also Mongolian maps. He not only made a number of invaluable contributions in the academic field, but also edited several popular books on Mongolian history and culture, for example ''Ein Volk sucht seine Geschichte''. He also published several books on Mongolian epics, proverbs, and folk tales. He worked extensively on the

Epic of King Gesar The Epic of King Gesar ( Tibetan, Bhutanese: གླིང་གེ་སར །), also spelled Geser (especially in Mongolian contexts) or Kesar (), is a work of epic literature of Tibet and greater Central Asia. The epic originally develop ...

and other epics circulating in Mongolia. In 1978, he initiated a project for the study of epics. Also, with the help of Heissig, the five-volume series "Folklore mongol" by B. Rinchen was published between 1960–1972, followed by a 13-volume series of epics, ''Mongolische Epen'' by

Nicholas Poppe Nicholas N. Poppe (russian: Никола́й/Ни́колас Никола́евич Поппе, ''Nikoláj/Níkolas Nikolájevič Poppe''; 27 July 1897 – 8 August 1991) was an important Russian linguist. He is also known as Nikolaus Poppe, wit ...

. His scientific research work has been acknowledged by elections into various learned societies i.a. he was elected foreign member of the

Mongolian Academy of Sciences The Mongolian Academy of Sciences (, ''Mongol ulsyn Shinjlekh ukhaany Akademi'') is Mongolia's first centre of modern sciences. It came into being in 1921 when the government of newly independent Mongolia issued a resolution declaring the establi ...

which is the highest scientific honour in Mongolia.

A bibliography

* ''Wörterbuch der heutigen mongolische Sprache. Mit kurzem Abriß der Grammatik und ausgewählten Sprachproben''. Siebenberg-Verlag, Vienna 1941 (with

Robert Bleichsteiner Robert Bleichsteiner (6 January 1891 – 10 April 1954) was an Austrian ethnologist. Life Bleichsteiner was born in Mariahilf and attended the local grammar school from 1901 to 1909. He went on to study history, geography, ethnography and Oriental ...

) *''Das gelbe Vorfeld: die Mobilisierung der chinesischen Außenländer'', 1941 *''Der mongolische Kulturwandel in den Hsingan-Provinzen Mandschukuos'', 1944 *''Über mongolische Landkarten'', 1944 *''Bolur erike'', 1946 (as editor) *''Some glosses on recent mongol studies'', 1953 *''Neyici toyin'', 1953 *''Die Pekinger lamaistischen Blockdrucke in mongolischer Sprache: Materialien zur mongolischen Literaturgeschichte'', 1954 *''Ostmongolische Reise'', 1955 *''Wort aus tausend Jahren: Weisheit der Steppe'', 1956 *''Zur Entstehungsgeschichte d. Mongolischen Kandjur-Redaktion d. Ligdan Khan-Zeit (1623–1629)'', 1957 *''Mongγol borǰigid oboγ-un teüke = Meng-ku shih-hsi-p'u'', 1957 (as editor, with

Charles Bawden Charles Roskelly Bawden, FBA (22 April 1924 – 11 August 2016) was a professor of the Mongolian language in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1970 to 1984. Early years Charles Bawden was b ...

) *''Altan kürdün mingγan gegesütü bicig: eine mongolische Chronik von Siregetü Guosi Dharma (1739)'', 1958 (as editor) *''Die Familien- und Kirchengeschichtsschreibung der Mongolen I & II'', 1959 and 1965 *''Mongolische Handschriften, Blockdrucke, Landkarten'' ( = ''Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland'', vol. I), 1961 *''Erdeni-yin erike: mongolische Chronik der lamaistischen Klosterbauten der Mongolei von Isibaldan (1835)'', 1961 (as editor) *''Beiträge zur Übersetzungsgeschichte des mongolischen buddhistischen Kanons'', 1962 *''Helden-, Höllenfahrts- und Schelmengeschichten der Mongolen'', 1962 (as editor) *''Bolur Toli "Spiegel aus Bergkristall"'', 1962 (as editor) *''Mongolische Volksmärchen'', 1963 (as editor) *''Ein Volk sucht seine Geschichte: die Mongolen und die verlorenen Dokumente ihrer grossen Zeit'', 1964 (English translation: ''A lost civilization; the Mongols rediscovered'', London 1966) *''Mongolische Ortsnamen I-III'' (= ''Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland'', suppl. vol. V), 1966 - 1981 (as editor) *''Mongolische volksreligiöse und folkloristische Texte aus europäischen Bibliotheken'' (= ''Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland'', suppl. vol. VI), 1966 (as editor) *''Collectanea Mongolica: Festschrift für Prof. Dr. Rintchen zum 60. Geburtstag'', 1966 (as editor) *''Die mongolische Steininschrift und Manuskriptfragmente aus Olon süme in der Inneren Mongolei'', 1966 *''Mongolistik an deutschen Universitäten'', 1968 *''Catalogue of Mongol books, manuscripts and xylographs'' (= ''Catalogue of oriental manuscripts, xylographs etc. in Danish collections'', vol. III), 1971. *''Mongoleireise zur späten Goethezeit: Berichte und Bilder von der russischen Gesandtschaftsreise 1805/06'' (= ''Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland'', suppl. vol. XIII), 1971 (as editor) *''Geschichte der mongolischen Literatur'' (two vols.), 1972 *''Schriftliche Quellen in Mogholi'' (as editor), 1974 *''Die mongolischen Handschriften-Reste aus Olon süme, Innere Mongolei (16. - 17. Jhdt.)'' (as editor), 1976 *''Tractata altaica: Denis Sinor sexagenario optime de rebus altaicis merito dedicata'' (as editor), 1976 *''Altaica collecta: Berichte u. Vorträge d. XVII. Permanent Internat. Altaistic Conference, 3.-8. Juni 1974 in Bonn, Bad Honnef'' (as editor), 1976 *''Die mongolischen Epen: Bezüge, Sinndeutung u. Überlieferung'' (as editor), 1979 *''Die mongolischen Heldenepen: Struktur u. Motive'', 1979 *''Die Zeit des letzten mongolischen Großkhans Ligdan (1604–1634)'', 1979 *''Geser-rëdzia-wu: Dominik Schröders nachgelassene Monguor (Tujen)-Version des Geser-Epos aus Amdo'' (as editor), 1980 *''Die Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen'' (as editor), 1981 *''Geser-Studien: Untersuchungen zu d. Erzählstoffen in d. "neuen" Kapiteln d. mongolischen Geser-Zyklus'', 1983 *''Westliche Motivparallelen in zentralasiatischen Epen'', 1983 *''Dschingis Khan-Ein Weltreich zu Pferde'' (as editor), 1985 *''Tsakhar-Märchen: Nach Aufzeichnungen aus dem Jahre 1938/39'' (as editor), 1985 *''Geschichte der Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses'', 1985 *''Erzählstoffe rezenter mongolischer Heldendichtung'' (2 vols.), 1988 *''Gedanke und Wirkung: Festschrift zum 90. Geburtstag von Nicholas Poppe'' (as editor), 1989 *''Die Mongolen'' (exhibition catalogue, 2 vols., as editor), 1989 *“New Material on East Mongolian Shamanism,” ''Asian Folklore Studies,'' Vol. 49, No. 2. (1990), pp. 223–233. *“Tracing Some Mongol Oral Motifs in a Chinese Prosimetric Ming Novel of 1478, ''Asian Folklore Studies,'' Vol. 53, No. 2. (1994), pp. 227-254 *''Formen und Funktion mündlicher Tradition.'' 1995. *“The Present State of the Mongolian Epic and Some Topics for Future Research.” ''Oral Tradition'' 11/1 (1996): 85-98. *(with Geoffrey Samuel) The Religions of Mongolia *Mongolische Epen VIII *''Heldenmärchen versus Heldenepos? Strukturelle Fragen zur Entwicklung altaischer Heldenmärchen'' Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1991.

Works in Honor of or about Walther Heissig

*Taube, Erika. “Walther Heissig (5 December 1913-5 September 2005): in memoriam.(Obituary)”. ''Asian Folklore Studies,'' April, 2006 *Serta tibeto-mongolica: Festschrift für Walther Heissig zum 60. Geburtstag am 5.12.1973, *''Documenta barbarorum'', 1983

References

Obituary (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heissig, Walther Mongolists 1913 births 2005 deaths Scientists from Vienna Academic staff of the University of Bonn