85 Years of Southeast Asian Studies in Hamburg
The host of the 1998 EUROSEAS Conference looks back to a long history of scientific relationships with Southeast Asia and Oceania. In September 1998, when hundreds of scholars from all around the world will attend the Second Conference of the Association of European Southeast Asianists (EUROSEAS) in Hamburg, they will meet at a centre of Southeast Asian Studies with one of the longest scholarly traditions in Germany.By Arndt Graf
It was in the winter semester of 1912/13 when the first course on the history and the actual conditions of 'Dutch India' (= Indonesia) was given, including lessons on Indonesian languages and literatures. In fact, the literatures were quite well-represented in the following years. The teaching on Old Javanese literature, as well as on poetry from the South Pacific, started in the winter of 1913/14.These courses formed part of the decentralised framework of the predecessor of the University of Hamburg, the General Lecture System ('Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen'). In addition, from 1912 until its end in 1918, Austronesian languages and cultures from Oceania were also taught in the so-called Hamburg Colonial Institute ('Hamburger Kolonialinstitut') that was supported jointly by the city-state of Hamburg and the central government. These courses included among others languages from Guinea, the Carolines, Ponape, Truk, and Nauru.
First Courses on Malay and Javanese
In 1919, the University of Hamburg was founded officially by a decree of the city state's parliament, becoming the first university in Germany with a genuine democratic legitimation. In the first years Austronesian and African studies formed part of a common institute, the 'Seminar für Afrikanische und Südseesprachen' (Institute of African and Pacific languages). It was in 1931, after the founding father of Austronesian studies in Hamburg, Prof. Otto Dempwolff, had been awarded the degree of doctor honoris causa from the Univerity of Hamburg, that the Austronesian Department became an independent institute. The name 'Seminar für Indonesische und Südseesprachen' (Institute of Indonesian and Pacific Languages) continues to be preserved today, despite the fact that nowadays the name 'Indonesia' can be misunderstood as relating only to the modern nation-state. In Dempwolff's time as well as today, however, the focus of the Institute is the whole of Austronesia, including not only Indonesia, but also Malaysia and the Philippines, Madagascar and, of course, the South Pacific.
It is very interesting to see that this comprehensive understanding of the focus of Austronesian studies in Hamburg appeared right at the inception of the new democratic university in 1919. The old colonial obsessions with the former German colonies in the South Pacific, that had dominated the curriculum up to 1918, had vanished. From then on, the main focus of the Seminar was on Southeast Asia, especially on Indonesia. In 1920, the first course on Malay language was taught, followed in 1921 by the first on Javanese. From that time on, these two languages have been the core languages in the curriculum, making the University of Hamburg the academic centre with the longest tradition in teaching Malay and Javanese in Germany.
Tagalog since 1927
Besides these two pioneering representations, other Austronesian languages of Southeast Asia have been taught in Hamburg since the 1920s. Old Javanese, for example, was given for the first time in 1922, Ngaju Dayak in 1923/24, Minangkabau in 1925, Toba Batak in 1927, Tagalog in 1927/28, Lampung in 1929/30, Old Malay (not Classical Malay!) in 1930/31, Rejang in 1931, and Hova of Madagascar in 1935. Over the years, other languages, like Balinese or Manggarai, have followed. Sometimes, the University of Hamburg was the only place in the world were some of those languages were taught at an academic level.
Pertinently, as Germany had no longer colonies since the First World War, these language courses were given mainly for purely scientific purposes. The students should be in a position to do research on the languages studied. This linguistic focus was inspired mainly by Otto Dempwolff, who became the first director of the department in 1919, and of the independent institute in 1931. When he died in 1938, he could look back on the publishing of many important contributions to Austronesian linguistics.
Right from the beginning, in 1920, Prof. Dempwolff was assisted by Walther Aichele who became the first German to give a university course on Javanese in 1921. Walther Aichele's specializations also covered the field of literature, as can be seen by his numerous publications. In addition, he also did research on the language of the Roma and Sinti (who reject to be called 'gypsies', the old discriminative term). This interest and sympathy of Walther Aichele was in these years quite unusual in Germany, but shared by a small band of expressionist intellectuals and artists (like Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, or Otto Mueller). They likewise were fascinated by the cultures of Indonesia, the South Pacific, and Africa.
Indonesian lecturer since 1922
It is amazing to see from the sources that this unusual interest of Walther Aichele in the culture of the Roma and Sinti was shared by the Indonesian lecturer, Osman Idris, who began working in 1922 and was thus the first Indonesian lecturer in Germany. Osman Idris came from Payakumbuh in West Sumatra. After an adventurous life he taught Malay in Hamburg for a dozen years, up to 1935/6, during which time he married a German student. Osman Idris, like Walther Aichele, seems to have been fascinated by the culture of the Roma and Sinti, as he is reported to have joined them travelling by horse-caravan throughout Europe.
This is quite adequate to show that up to the 1930s, the programme of the Seminar was fairly diverse. This changed in the late 1930s, after the death of Dempwolff in 1938, when Walther Aichele remained to soldier on alone. Possibly owing to the war, but also possibly because of his lack of enthusiasm for Nazism, he was not appointed professor right until the end of the Nazi regime. But he continued teaching. Even in the summer semester of 1945, just weeks before the collapse of the Nazi empire, he was still teaching Malay, Old Javanese, and Toba Batak.
In 1946, when the University of Hamburg reopened under British administration, it was again Walther Aichele who took his place as the sole lecturer of the Institute, continuing his programme as if nothing had happened. His unflagging efforts were finally recognized, when he was appointed full professor in 1949. Unfortunately, because of his age, he had to retire as early as 1954, after 34 years of teaching in the field of Indonesian Studies.
Walther Aichele's successor as professor was the linguist Hans Kähler who held the chair from 1956 to 1979. Being a student of Dempwolff, he had been on research stay in Indonesia when the Second World War broke out. As he was interned as a German national, he used the time to continue his research. This is the reason he was able to publish one book after the other in his later career. To achieve this he founded the series 'Publications of the Seminar of Indonesian and Pacific Languages of the University of Hamburg' (Veröffentlichungen des Seminars für Indonesische und Südseesprachen der Universität Hamburg) that so far comprises more than twenty monographs, including the dissertation and habilitation theses produced by the Seminar..
After the retirement of Hans Kähler, the Dutch scholar Lode F. Brakel became Professor and Head of the Seminar in 1979. Unfortunately, Prof. Brakel died soon afterwards in 1981. Despite of various efforts, it was not possible to appoint a successor to Brakel until 1990. In that time, the institute was run consecutively by the - then - assistant professors, Rainer Carle and Peter Pink.
Current focuses
Finally, in 1990, Rainer Carle was appointed Professor and Director of the Seminar. His dissertation on the poetry of the famous Indonesian writer, Rendra, had still been supervised by Hans Kähler. Afterwards, he had written his habilitation thesis about the Opera Batak at the University of Cologne. Under Rainer Carle, the institute is intensifying its focus on Austronesian literary studies, especially on the literatures of contemporary Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Through various international contacts and cooperations it is now increasingly well integrated in a broader scientific context.
This main focus of the institute is ably supported by the Indonesian lecturer, Drs. Dami N. Toda, who is a well-known intellectual and literary critic. Not only does he give lectures on Indonesian, he extends his expertise to literature and historiography. In doing so, Dami N. Toda carries on the torch of his predecessors. Since the times of Osman Idris (1922-1936), the seminar has been able to profit from the presence of, inter alia, Dr Sukesi Adimiwarta, Dra, Sri Timur Suratman (both lexicographers of the Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Jakarta), and Drs Pamusuk Eneste (now at the publishing house Gramedia, Jakarta).
Now, the teaching staff is brought up to full strength by Dr Martina Heinschke (assistant professor) who has worked on the Indonesian literary movement Angkatan 45 and is now specializing in modern Javanese and Indonesian literature. The institute also has a long tradition of working with external and part-time lecturers who, in some cases, are based at other institutes and universities, as well. In this framework, in recent years there have also been regular lectures, from inter alia Dr Mary Somers-Heidhues (Southeast Asian history), Dr Francis Zewen and Hans Schmidt MA (Austronesian linguistics), Dr Herbert Jardner (Cultural Anthropology of Eastern Indonesia), Dr H. Kaminsky ( Southeast Asian economics and politics), Drs Ichwan Azhari (Islam and classical Malay literature), Divina Gracia-Martens (Filipino), and Dr Arndt Graf (Indonesian language, press and politics).
Centre of Thai and Vietnam studies
Today, the appointments of Prof. Barend Terwiel and Prof. Duy-Tu Vu, mainland Southeast Asia, especially Thailand and Vietnam, is also very well represented in Hamburg. The chair of Prof. Terwiel is a fully fledged chair of Thai studies, which is very rare in Europe. Similarly, Prof. Vu's position is currently the only one in Vietnam studies in the whole country, making Hamburg also an important centre of Southeast Asian Studies in the field of the mainland. As an anthropologist, Barend Terwiel is very interested in the decipherment of documents, his regional specializations being the languages and cultures of the Thais in Thailand as well as the Ahoms in Assam. The team for mainland Southeast Asian Studies is completed by the Assistant Professor Suteera Nittayananta (since October 1997), replacing Dr Volker Grabowsky who is now lecturing in Laos, and by the Thai lecturer Patcharee Kaspar-Sickermann. Together, they regularly offer full degree courses both in Thai and Vietnamese which is quite unique in Germany. Occasionally, other languages from mainland Southeast Asia are also taught, like Lao and Tai Yai (Shan).
Over the years, the teaching staff of Southeast Asian studies has had to deal with declining student numbers. But now, in both departments there are approximately 120 full-time students and 140 others, among them more than a dozen PhD students. The Southeast Asia network at the University of Hamburg is of special importance to them. This informal network consists of about thrity scholars from various disciplines, including Cultural Anthropology, Political Science, Theology, Geography, and others.
At present, the locations of Southeast Asian studies in Hamburg are still spread all over campus. However, in about three years, all Asianist and Africanist departments will move to the new central buildings of the university, that are now being constructed close to the Dammtor railway station. Visitors of the EUROSEAS conference can have a look at these new locations when they enter Hamburg, although, unfortunately, for the time being they still have to convene in other parts of the university.
:Dr Arndt Graf is attached to the Indonesian Department of the University of Hamburg.
The Second Euroseas Conference will be held from 3-6 September 1998. For more information, please contact:
The Euroseas secretariat
att. of: Ageeth van der Veen
c/o KITLV
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Fax: +31-71-5272638
E-mail: euroseas@let.leidenuniv.nl