History of Sinology/Chapter 7 - Revision history

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Add German sinologists from 2026 Qingdao conference: Schilling, Zimmer, Leeb, Dederichs, Xu-Lackner, Pouget; update Clausberg, Eberspächer

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 Also other universities of applied sciences established professorships: the Hochschule Bremen operates a China Centre with BA programs in International Mechanical Engineering with a Focus on China (MAWIC) and Applied Business Languages (AWS, founded 1988); the Hochschule Ludwigshafen's Ostasieninstitut (East Asia Institute, founded 1989) offers a BSc in International Business Management East Asia; the HTWG Konstanz runs BA programs in Asian Studies and Management with a China track and hosts the BMBF-funded China-Kompetenzzentrum Bodensee (ChiKoBo), directed by Gabriele Thelen, which networks 24 universities of applied sciences in Baden-Württemberg; the Hochschule Osnabrück established a Hochschulzentrum China (HZC) in 2013 offering a China Competence Certificate and cooperative degree programs with Chinese partner universities; and the FH Dortmund operates DoCoChi, the Dortmund Competence Center China, focusing on transnational education and dual bachelor programs. These institutions are coordinated through the Verbund der Chinazentren (VCdH), founded in 2019, which connects China centres across the German university system to promote China competence in research and teaching.
-Several scholars have shaped the character of contemporary German sinology beyond the founding figures already discussed. Wolfgang Kubin (b. 1945, Celle) has been the most prolific and provocative German sinologist of the post-Franke era. His ten-volume ''Geschichte der chinesischen Literatur'' (2002–2014), the most ambitious literary history of China undertaken in any Western language, drew both admiration and controversy.<ref>On examination content, see ibid.; the Britannica article “chu nom.”</ref> Heiner Roetz (b. 1950), professor at Bochum, is the leading German scholar of Chinese philosophy, whose ''Die chinesische Ethik der Achsenzeit'' (1992; English: ''Confucian Ethics of the Axial Age'', 1993) challenged the tendency to deny the universality of ethical reasoning by demonstrating the sophisticated argumentative structures in classical Chinese thought. Mechthild Leutner (b. 1949) at the Freie Universität Berlin has been the foremost scholar of modern Chinese social history and Sino-German relations. Hans van Ess (b. 1962) at Munich has continued the Munich tradition of historical sinology with important work on Han-dynasty intellectual history and the ''Shiji''. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer (b. 1948), who combined the directorship of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel with a sinological professorship at Göttingen, exemplifies the German tradition of embedding sinology within broader humanistic scholarship. Hartmut Walravens (b. 1944), the Berlin-based bibliographer and historian of sinology at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, has spent decades documenting the history of East Asian studies in Germany and beyond. Max Jakob Fölster, a Hamburg-trained sinologist specializing in Han-dynasty manuscript studies, the history of Chinese book-collecting, and the history of German sinology, has served as the representative of the Max Weber Foundation in Beijing, contributing to the ongoing institutional framework of Sino-German academic exchange. Michael Knüppel (b. 1967), trained in Turkology and Altaic studies at Göttingen and Hamburg, has documented the history of orientalist and sinological research at Göttingen — including the remarkable wartime presence of Ji Xianlin at the Göttingen sinological seminar — and 2018-2025 has held a professorship at the Arctic Studies Center of Liaocheng University in China. Felix Clausberg, a younger scholar based at the University of Tübingen, represents the emerging generation of German sinologists working at the intersection of classical Chinese philosophy and contemporary pragmatist thought, with research on the role of ritual (''li'' 禮) in classical Chinese theories of ontogenesis and perception.
+Several scholars have shaped the character of contemporary German sinology beyond the founding figures already discussed. Wolfgang Kubin (b. 1945, Celle) has been the most prolific and provocative German sinologist of the post-Franke era. His ten-volume ''Geschichte der chinesischen Literatur'' (2002–2014), the most ambitious literary history of China undertaken in any Western language, drew both admiration and controversy.<ref>On examination content, see ibid.; the Britannica article “chu nom.”</ref> Heiner Roetz (b. 1950), professor at Bochum, is the leading German scholar of Chinese philosophy, whose ''Die chinesische Ethik der Achsenzeit'' (1992; English: ''Confucian Ethics of the Axial Age'', 1993) challenged the tendency to deny the universality of ethical reasoning by demonstrating the sophisticated argumentative structures in classical Chinese thought. Mechthild Leutner (b. 1949) at the Freie Universität Berlin has been the foremost scholar of modern Chinese social history and Sino-German relations. Hans van Ess (b. 1962) at Munich has continued the Munich tradition of historical sinology with important work on Han-dynasty intellectual history and the ''Shiji''. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer (b. 1948), who combined the directorship of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel with a sinological professorship at Göttingen, exemplifies the German tradition of embedding sinology within broader humanistic scholarship. Hartmut Walravens (b. 1944), the Berlin-based bibliographer and historian of sinology at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, has spent decades documenting the history of East Asian studies in Germany and beyond. Max Jakob Fölster, a Hamburg-trained sinologist specializing in Han-dynasty manuscript studies, the history of Chinese book-collecting, and the history of German sinology, has served as the representative of the Max Weber Foundation in Beijing, contributing to the ongoing institutional framework of Sino-German academic exchange. Michael Knüppel (b. 1967), trained in Turkology and Altaic studies at Göttingen and Hamburg, has documented the history of orientalist and sinological research at Göttingen — including the remarkable wartime presence of Ji Xianlin at the Göttingen sinological seminar — and 2018-2025 has held a professorship at the Arctic Studies Center of Liaocheng University in China. Felix Clausberg (柯斐烈), currently associate professor at Peking University, represents the emerging generation of German sinologists; trained under the renowned historian of Chinese medicine Paul U. Unschuld (文树德), his research bridges classical Chinese philosophy and the history of science. Dennis Schilling (谢林德), who has held positions at the Universities of Marburg and Munich before joining Renmin University in Beijing, represents the tradition of German philosophical sinology abroad, with research on the ''Yijing'', ''Zhuangzi'', and the modern reception of Buddhist philosophy. Thomas Zimmer (司马涛), Distinguished Professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, has specialized in Chinese literature and the intellectual world of Chinese writers, with his study ''Der chinesische Roman der ausgehenden Kaiserzeit'' examining the late imperial novel tradition. Leopold Leeb (雷立柏), an Austrian-born scholar who has taught at Renmin University since the 1990s, occupies a unique niche at the intersection of European classical languages and Chinese cultural history, with pioneering work on the transmission of Latin in China and the history of Christianity in Chinese contexts — his research on 250 German nuns who served in Shandong province between 1905 and 1955 has opened new perspectives on the cultural dimensions of missionary activity in China. Anno Dederichs, formerly at the University of Tübingen's China Centre and now associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, works on contemporary Chinese sociology and economic-social research, representing the growing trend of German sinologists holding permanent positions at Chinese universities.
 The German sinological landscape has also been distinguished by a rich tradition of specialized journals and book series. Wolfgang Kubin’s journal ''minima sinica: Zeitschrift zum chinesischen Geist'', founded in 1989 and co-edited with Li Xuetao, has served as a forum for literary and philosophical engagement with Chinese culture, reflecting the Bonn school’s emphasis on hermeneutic and comparative approaches. Richard Wilhelm’s journal ''Sinica'', originally published from Frankfurt until 1943, was later revived as a book series: Martin Woesler has edited the series ''Sinica'' — originally founded by Wilhelm — as well as ''Scripta Sinica'', and since 2024 the series ''Bibliotheca Sinica'' at LIT Verlag. Woesler also edits several periodical publications: the ''Mitteilungsblatt der Deutschen China-Gesellschaft'' (founded in 1957, in German), the ''European Journal of Sinology'' and ''European Journal of Chinese Studies'' (both in English), and the journal 汉学 (''Hanxue'', in Chinese), together constituting a multilingual infrastructure for sinological publication that is unique in the German-speaking world.
-The organizational landscape of German sinology is shaped by several professional bodies with distinct profiles. The Deutsche Vereinigung für Chinastudien (DVCS), co-founded by Helmut Martin and led by him from 1995 until his death in 1999, remains the primary professional association for academic sinologists. The Deutsche China-Gesellschaft (German China Association), founded in 1957 to promote mutual understanding and friendship between Germans and Chinese, was led for nearly two decades by the philosopher Gregor Paul (b. 1947), who served as president from 1997 to 2016. Paul, a specialist in Chinese and comparative philosophy at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, brought a distinctly philosophical orientation to the society’s activities, organizing conferences and publications on intercultural ethics and the universality of logical reasoning in Chinese thought. Since 2016, the Deutsche China-Gesellschaft has been led by Martin Woesler, who has also served since 2016 as president of the World Association for Chinese Studies (WACS), an international scholarly network founded in that year with representation from over forty-eight countries. WACS organizes annual conferences in changing locations worldwide — the tenth conference is scheduled for August 2026 at the University of Hong Kong, School of Chinese — with more than 300 lectures providing a platform for sinological exchange that bridges Western and Asian scholarly traditions. The board of the Deutsche China-Gesellschaft includes Thomas Weyrauch (b. 1954), a jurist and author of works on Chinese political history, human rights, and the Republic of China on Taiwan; Cord Eberspächer, a historian of Sino-German relations who held a professorship in comparative Chinese and European history at Hunan Normal University 2020-2022; and Michael Knüppel. Ole Döring (b. 1965), a philosopher and sinologist who holds a professorship at Hunan Normal University since 2020, has made distinctive contributions to Chinese bioethics and intercultural philosophy, receiving recognition from Chinese institutions for his work on ethics in medicine.
+The organizational landscape of German sinology is shaped by several professional bodies with distinct profiles. The Deutsche Vereinigung für Chinastudien (DVCS), co-founded by Helmut Martin and led by him from 1995 until his death in 1999, remains the primary professional association for academic sinologists. The Deutsche China-Gesellschaft (German China Association), founded in 1957 to promote mutual understanding and friendship between Germans and Chinese, was led for nearly two decades by the philosopher Gregor Paul (b. 1947), who served as president from 1997 to 2016. Paul, a specialist in Chinese and comparative philosophy at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, brought a distinctly philosophical orientation to the society’s activities, organizing conferences and publications on intercultural ethics and the universality of logical reasoning in Chinese thought. Since 2016, the Deutsche China-Gesellschaft has been led by Martin Woesler, who has also served since 2016 as president of the World Association for Chinese Studies (WACS), an international scholarly network founded in that year with representation from over forty-eight countries. WACS organizes annual conferences in changing locations worldwide — the tenth conference is scheduled for August 2026 at the University of Hong Kong, School of Chinese — with more than 300 lectures providing a platform for sinological exchange that bridges Western and Asian scholarly traditions. The board of the Deutsche China-Gesellschaft includes Thomas Weyrauch (b. 1954), a jurist and author of works on Chinese political history, human rights, and the Republic of China on Taiwan; Cord Eberspächer (培高德), professor at Bonn University and a historian of Sino-German relations and late Qing military history, who also held a professorship in comparative Chinese and European history at Hunan Normal University 2020-2022 and directed the Confucius Institute in Düsseldorf; and Michael Knüppel. Ole Döring (b. 1965), a philosopher and sinologist who holds a professorship at Hunan Normal University since 2020, has made distinctive contributions to Chinese bioethics and intercultural philosophy, receiving recognition from Chinese institutions for his work on ethics in medicine.
 A notable feature of recent decades has been the internationalization of German sinological careers. Martin Woesler’s trajectory illustrates this pattern: during his tenure with the professorship at the Hochschule für Angewandte Sprachen in Munich (2007–2014), he served as visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (2010–2011, on the invitation of David Der-wei Wang), as associate professor of Chinese Studies and founding coordinator of the Chinese Studies program at Utah Valley University (2011–2013), as professor of sinology and comparative culture at the Università Roma Tre (2014–2015), and as professor of literature and communication in China at Witten/Herdecke University (2015–2020), during his last year accepting a Distinguished Professorship of Sinology, Translation Studies, and Comparative Literature at Hunan Normal University in 2019, where he founded and directs the International Centre for Chinese Studies, the EU Jean Monnet Research Centre of Excellence and supervises doctoral candidates. The careers of Eberspächer and Döring at Hunan Normal University reflect a broader trend in which German sinologists, faced with the structural constraints of the German university system, have found positions at Chinese institutions — a reversal of the brain drain that depleted German sinology in the 1930s and 1940s, and a development that raises new questions about the relationship between Western sinological traditions and Chinese academic structures.
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 ==== Erlangen-Nürnberg ====
-The Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg has developed one of the most research-intensive sinology programs in Germany, distinguished by its institutional connection to the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (IKGF), a major interdisciplinary research center funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Andrea Breard, an Alexander von Humboldt Professor, brings a unique profile combining the history of mathematics and science in China with broader questions of cross-cultural knowledge transfer. Marc Matten specializes in modern Chinese intellectual and cultural history, with particular attention to nationalism and historical consciousness. Höckelmann works on Chinese art history and visual culture. The department benefits from the continued presence of Michael Lackner, who as founder and longtime director of the IKGF has made Erlangen a major international hub for research on the fate of the humanities across cultures — a project that places Chinese intellectual traditions in comparative global perspective.
+The Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg has developed one of the most research-intensive sinology programs in Germany, distinguished by its institutional connection to the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (IKGF), a major interdisciplinary research center funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Andrea Breard, an Alexander von Humboldt Professor, brings a unique profile combining the history of mathematics and science in China with broader questions of cross-cultural knowledge transfer. Marc Matten specializes in modern Chinese intellectual and cultural history, with particular attention to nationalism and historical consciousness. Höckelmann works on Chinese art history and visual culture. Yan Xu-Lackner (徐艳), associate professor and director of the Confucius Institute at Erlangen-Nürnberg — which has been recognized multiple times as a global model Confucius Institute — conducts research on the history of foreign language teaching, the relationship between language and politics, intercultural communication, and cultural policy, with a German-language monograph on the political dimensions of foreign language education in modern China. Marco Pouget (马熠辉), a postdoctoral researcher at Erlangen and Munich, represents the next generation of Erlangen-trained scholars, with a doctoral dissertation on Zheng Xuan's commentaries on the ''Liji'' supervised by Michael Lackner, working in the field of Chinese intellectual history and classical studies. The department benefits from the continued presence of Michael Lackner, who as founder and longtime director of the IKGF has made Erlangen a major international hub for research on the fate of the humanities across cultures — a project that places Chinese intellectual traditions in comparative global perspective.
 ==== Frankfurt am Main ====

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