Albert Grünwedel
Albert Grünwedel ( born July 31, 1856 in Munich, † October 28, 1935 in Lenggries ) was a German Indologist, Tibetologist and archaeologist, who organized two of the four German Turfanexpeditionen.
Biography
Albert Grünwedel was the son of a painter and studied art history and Asian languages, including Avestan, with Ernst and Ernst Kuhn squad. In 1883 he earned his doctorate at the University of Munich.
Since 1881 he worked as an assistant at the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin. In 1883 he was promoted to deputy director of the ethnographic collection and the Scandinavian antiquities of the museum. In 1891 he received for his numerous publications on Buddhist art, archeology of Central Asia and the languages of the Himalayas, an honorary professorship at the University of Berlin.
In his two works of Buddhist Art in India ( 1893) and mythology of Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia (1900) pointed Grünwedel the Greek origins of the art of Gandhara and its consequences in Central Asia.
1899 Grünwedel was invited by the Russian Orientalist Radloff and Salemann to participate in archaeological expeditions in northern Xinjiang, where remains of ancient cultures had been found on the Silk Road. In the same year he was elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Grünwedel organized under the impression the research of his Russian colleagues 1902-1903 even the first German Turfanexpedition who worked mainly in Idiqutšahri. He described the results in his book report on archaeological work in Idikutschahri (1905 ). The rich yield of this expedition led to a further fact-finding mission - led by Albert von Le Coq - could be organized. Grünwedel itself also led the third German Turfanexpedition who worked in Tumšuq, Qarašahr and Turfan 1905-1907. The results of this expedition he made in the book Altbuddhistische places of worship in Chinese Turkistan (1912 ) dar.
Compared to its peers Le Coq Grünwedel walked cautiously in the excavations before, but he also let out carve whole frescoes from the walls of caves and ship to Europe. After all, he photographed prior to removal of the references and made detailed drawings of the frescoes make.
The manuscripts, which he brought from his expeditions to Germany, are still worse documented than the much more spectacular for the public works of the fine arts. Grünwedel himself did not participate in the work-up of the manuscripts.
Grünwedel was a longtime member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, and in 1909 was honored for a lecture on the archaeological findings of the Turfan expedition with the Golden Medal. In 1916 he was appointed privy councilor. There were rivalries with Le Coq and Wilhelm von Bode. In the conflict with FWK Müller it was about who had been the first character of the manchiäischen font and written in their documents. It turned out that Müller approached this merit.
1921 Grünwedel retired and moved in 1923 to Bavaria, where he spent his last years in Lenggries at Bad Tölz and wrote a number of scientific papers. When writing these late works Grünwedel was affected by a worsening disease and did not distinguish between reality and illusion ever.
Ernst Waldschmidt noticed that Grünwedel not distinguish between facts, speculation and invention already in some passages of his beautifully illustrated band Alt- Kucha. This applies even more for later works such as The Devil to the Avesta, The Legend of Na Ro Pa and Tuscia. In the latter book Grünwedel claimed to have solved the Etruscan problem. These late works were indeed criticized by fellow researchers, however, could not be ignored and enjoyed a certain influence. Grünwedel speculation about a " Etruscan satanic cult " for example myth of the 20th century (Munich 1930) were taken over by Alfred Rosenberg in his book.
Writings
- Buddhist Art in India, 2nd edition (Berlin 1920)
- Mythology of Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia: Guide to the Collections of the Prince E. Lamaist Echtomskij (Leipzig 1900)
- Report on archaeological work in Idikutschahri and surroundings in winter 1902-1903 (Munich 1905)
- Altbuddhistische places of worship in Chinese Turkistan (Berlin 1912)
- Alt- Kucha: archaeological and religious history research at tempera paintings from Buddhist caves of the first eight centuries after Christ's birth. (Berlin, 1920).
- The devil of the Avesta and its relations with the iconography of Buddhism in Central Asia ( Berlin, 1924).
- The Legend of the Na Ro Pa, the main representative of the Necromancer and Hexentums: According to an ancient Tibetan manuscript as evidence of the influence of Northern Buddhism by the Secret Doctrine of Manichaeans, translated by A. Grünwedel (Leipzig, 1933),
- Tuscia (Leipzig, 1922)