History of the Institute

The Beginnings: Indology and Indo-European Linguistics

The first representative of Oriental and Sanskrit studies at the university was Othmar Frank (1770–1840). After teaching in Würzburg from 1821 to 1826, he was appointed by King Ludwig I when the university relocated from Landshut to Munich, where he taught from 1826 to 1840. Frank is notable for publishing a Sanskrit chrestomathy (Munich 1820/21) and the first Sanskrit grammar in Germany (Würzburg 1823). The Institute’s official inception, however, dates to 1868 with the establishment, under King Ludwig II, of a Chair of Sanskrit and Comparative Linguistics. The king appointed Martin Haug (1827–1876), who had just spent several years in India, to this newly created chair. In 1877, the chair was renamed the Chair of Aryan Philology and Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, and Ernst Kuhn (1846–1920) succeeded Martin Haug and held the chair from 1877 to 1919. It was during his tenure that the Institute’s library (then known as the Orientalistische Seminarbibliothek) was established. Kuhn and, above all, his successor Wilhelm Geiger (1856–1943; Chair 1920–1924) introduced Pāli studies to the institute. Geiger had visited Sri Lanka several times and discovered Pāli Buddhist literature as an essential field of research, in which he accomplished pioneering work through his editions of texts. He continued Kuhn’s Pāli studies and wrote the authoritative Pāli grammar, he achieved a pionneer work on the Buddhist historiography of Ceylon, but at the same time he was also an excellent Sanskrit scholar. The appointment of Hanns Oertel (1868–1952; Chair 1925–1935) to the Chair in 1925 introduced Vedic studies to Munich. Having studied at Yale under William Dwight Whitney, Oertel specialized in the syntax of Vedic prose, producing significant works on the subject, notably his edition, translation, and study of the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa.

Read more (in German): Commemorative publication in memory of Haug celebration in Ostdorf (PDF, 28,077 KB)

While Oertel’s successor, Walther Wüst, continued the tradition of Vedic studies, his tenure was deeply compromised by the context of the rise of the NSDAP. Wüst was a committed Nazi who joined the party in May 1933. He joined the League of Nazi Teachers (NS-Lehrerbund) in 1934 and the SS in 1937, eventually rising to the highest non-military rank within the organization, Oberführer in the personal staff of the Reichsführer SS, by 1942. In addition to these party functions, Wüst held influential positions in various Nazi university organizations. From 1937 onwards, he chaired the Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe (German Ancestral Heritage Research Society). In 1941, he became Rector of the University of Munich (LMU), and it was under his mandate and responsibility that the Scholl siblings (of the White Rose resistance) were arrested and executed. Arrested after the war and dismissed from the LMU in 1946, he was classified as ‘incriminated’ (Belasteter) in 1949.

Read more: Junginger 2008 (PDF, 1,158 KB); Junginger 2017 (PDF, 111 KB).

Post-War Recovery, Expansion and Diversification

With Wüst dismissed, his predecessor Hanns Oertel was reactivated for three years (1946–1948). In the aftermath of World War II, the Institute’s name was changed to the Institute of Indology and Iranian Studies. The appointment of Helmut Hoffmann (1912–1992; Chair 1948–1968) to the Chair expanded the Institute’s research scope to include Tibetology. His book, Die Religionen Tibets (The Religions of Tibet), published in 1956, was long regarded as the definitive work on the subject. He also played an important role in initiating the Tibetan-German dictionary project at the Academy. Trained in the Göttingen tradition of Central Asian Sanskrit manuscript studies, Dieter Schlingoff (Chair 1972–1996) was a specialist in reconstructing lost Buddhist literature, including a Buddhist yoga manual notable for its rich imagery. In Munich, he shifted his focus to Buddhist narrative art and material culture—especially at the major site of Ajanta—thereby broadening the Institute’s profile by introducing a strong tradition of Indian art studies. Gritli von Mitterwallner was thus appointed in 1978 as a professor to teach art history and archaeology of the Indian subcontinent. The process of diversification also entailed, under Schlingoff’s time, the establishment of a (temporary) position in Tibetology (Friedrich Wilhelm) and Middle Indic languages (Adelheid Mette (PDF, 1,280 KB)).

Jens-Uwe Hartmann (Chair 1999–2018) continued the Institute’s tradition of work on Central Asian Sanskrit manuscripts, concentrating on canonical Buddhist texts (such as the Dīrghāgama manuscripts) as well as classical poetic works, paying particular attention to their Tibetan counterparts, including Mātṛceta’s Varṇārhavarṇastotra and Aśvaghoṣa’s works. The early twenty-first century saw the establishment of a professorship in Modern Indology ( Robert Zydenbos); an endowed professorship in Tibetology and Buddhist Studies was created in 2003 ( Franz-Karl Ehrhard), and in 2008 the Institute was officially renamed the Institute of Indology and Tibetology. With a history now spanning over 150 years, the Institute currently offers a curriculum that is more extensive and varied than at any previous point in its existence.

Read more (in German): Wilhelm 2007 (PDF, 2,424 KB); Wilhelm 2012 (PDF, 975 KB)

Professorships (1868–present day)