Heinrich Lüders (25 June 1869 in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

– 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 kilome ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Turfan Turpan () or Turfan ( zh, s=吐鲁番) 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 693,988 (2020). The historical center of the prefectural area has shifted ...

fragmentary manuscripts.

Biography

From 1888 to 1894, he studied at the universities of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) 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. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, 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 Oxfo ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

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

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, where in 1905 he was named professor of

Indo-European linguistics Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...

and

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

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, 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 () 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 Academy" may also refer. In the 18th century, when Frenc ...

. 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 Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

, and

Gurung Gurung (exonym; ) or Tamu (endonym; Gurung language, Gurung: ) are a Tibetan people, Tibetan ethnic group living in the hills and mountains of Gandaki Province of Nepal. Gurungs speak Tamu kyi which is a Sino-Tibetan language derived from the ...

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

Oskar von Hinüber Oskar von Hinüber (born 18 February 1939 in Hanover) is a German Indologist. He joined the German Navy after leaving high school, and holds the rank of commander as a reservist. From 1960 to 1966 he studied at University of Tübingen, Univer ...

. 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 Academic staff of the University of Rostock Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) {{germany-academic-bio-stub