Asfa-Wossen Asserate

Asfa - Wossen Asserate ( äthiop. አስፋ - ዎሠን አሠርዓተ; born October 31, 1948 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ) is an Ethiopian- German management consultant, bestselling author and political analyst who was primarily known for his 2003 book, published manners. He is a member of the Ethiopian Imperial family, grandnephew of the last Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, grandson of Empress Menen II and son of the late president of the Imperial Privy Council Leul Ras ( Duke ) Asserate Medhin Kassa and his wife Leilt ( Princess ) Zuriash Work Gabre - Igziabher.

Life

Lij ( " son " or " boy " ) Asfa- Wossen attended the German School in Addis Ababa, where he graduated with the Abitur, and then studied in Tübingen and Cambridge law, economics and history. He followed a suggestion of Paul pride of man, the German Ambassador in Addis Ababa, and joined the fraternity Corps Suevia Tübingen; so that he could at the same time his father's wishes correspond to attend college before university. Since Asfa- Wossen Asserate was not allowed to fight as a member of a so-called rulers house, he got the loop of the Corps Suevia. In his autobiography, published in 2007 an entire chapter entitled " Gaudeamus Igitur " is his time as a student Corp. dedicated.

1978 Asfa- Wossen Asserate earned his doctorate under Eike Haberland at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main with a historical work on an aspect of Ethiopian history.

With the beginning of the communist revolution in Ethiopia in 1974 his father was executed without trial and arrested his family. For years his mother and most of his siblings were detained without contact with the outside world and with frequent threat. Asfa - Wossen itself, however, was forced to remain in the Federal Republic and could not return to his home country until the fall of the Mengistu regime in 1991. In 1976 he founded the first human rights organization for Ethiopia, the Council for Civil Liberties Association in Ethiopia, and sat down hard for the release of political prisoners in Ethiopia and its held into custody family members a.

Since 1981, he has German citizenship.

From 1980 to 1983 he was head of the press department of Messe Dusseldorf society. He has since worked as an independent consultant to Africa and the Middle East.

Since the end of communist rule in 1991, he may re-visit his native country and strives to improve the external contacts of his country of birth. In 1994 he founded Orbis aethiopicus, the Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Ethiopian culture eV, which, inter alia, to endeavored to preserve and maintain the Ethiopian culture, monuments and the handover of the Ethiopian history to the new generation. Asfa - Wossen Asserate is also committed to the dissemination of knowledge about Ethiopia and its traditional past in Germany and is an active campaigner for the preservation of the German Ethiopian; their institutional existence is endangered throughout Europe ..

Title and Title

The Ethiopian title " Lij " ( " Infant", " Prince" ) received up to the overthrow of the imperial family in 1974 descendants of salomonidischen dynasty. The Father's name ( transliterated as Asserate or Asrate ) follows the Ethiopian naming rules according to the first, actual name. There are in Ethiopia is no division into first name and family name.

Since Asfa- Wossen Asserate is a German citizen and since the abolition of the privileges of the nobility by the Weimar Constitution, only the former German, but not foreign title of nobility may (not a title ) will be out in Germany as part of their name, the title " Prince", although polite, but obsolete. The full address is Dr. Asfa- Wossen Asserate. If you however want to follow international conventions needle, it would be correct, Dr. Asfa- Wossen Asserate with " Imperial Highness " or with " Prince " or the former Ethiopian " Lij " followed by the name to address.

"Manners "

Asfa - Wossen Asserate imagined at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2003 Book manners, which deals with European and especially German manners, became a bestseller within a short time. It first appeared in The Other Library edited by Hans Magnus Enzensberger series. In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a renowned preprint appeared.

In early 2004 expressed doubts as to whether Asfa- Wossen Asserate really wrote the book itself. Asfa - Wossen Asserate himself has indicated some demand from the outset that the book was edited by his friend, the writer Martin Mosebach.

Some reviewers presented Asfa- Wossen Asserate book in a series with the etiquette of 1788 and the Schönfeldt 1987, strictly speaking, the book is not binding Guide of manners even though it is. Praise was also that the author is well versed in the international arena, social phenomena of other peoples and cultures and historical developments inclusive. Asfa - Wossen Asserate book was regarded in some feature articles as an attack on the generation of " 68".

The " manners " are not a textbook or guide to good behavior. Rather, it is sociological, cultural and historical considerations of the behavior of European people. However, since in most cases is echoed the author's opinion on a particular issue, the book is quite orientation.

In January 2004, he was the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize for manners with the one who will be awarded to authors who write in German, whose native language is not German.

In April 2007, was part of the chapter The honor part of the Baccalaureate in Baden- Württemberg.

Asserate was patron of the Focke- Museum, which opened in December 2009 exhibition manners. Tales of propriety and morality of seven centuries.

" A prince of the house of David "

The title of Asfa Wossen Asserate memoirs " A prince of the house of David and why he stayed in Germany " wants to his lineage of King David, the ancient ruler of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, and father of Solomon, point (this is based, however, more on the historical self-understanding of the Ethiopian imperial dynasty than on concrete, historically established facts ). According to the legend, stemming from the so-called Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia by Menelik indeed, an alleged son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; but in fact the genealogy of the imperial family is to be regarded only from the year 1270 AD, almost 2300 years after the time of Solomon, to be reasonably assured, as this year the then reigning Zagwe dynasty of the ancestors Asfa Wossen aces Council was replaced.

" Outside only jug "

A Tübingen anecdote that took place on the square in front of the local café Pfuderer was giving title for his latest book. " Was for the beauty of its waitresses known " He had turned off in search of a good cup of coffee, the former Café Pfuderer on the marketplace, which, as the prince.

"! Outside only pot ", then told him one of the gastronomic beauty - and shoved the young Ethiopians so into the midst of the strange rites of the German coffee house culture and street cafes.

His recent book outside in autumn 2010 only jug is loud Eike Freese " a lovingly collated curio cabinet of the German ( un) culture - funny, witty and interesting." It describes, among other things, as an Ethiopian prince learned to come to terms with German filter coffee. Prince Asfa- Wossen Asserate draws a portrait of his adopted home of Tübingen, its inhabitants and their peculiarities - personally and from many surprising angles, in entertaining anecdotes and excursions into history.

Awards

• 2004: Adelbert von Chamisso Prize for manners
• 2010: Honorary Senator of the University of Tübingen
• 2011: Walter Scheel Prize of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
• 2011: Listros Award

Honorary Appointments

• Member of the Innovation Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
• Member of the Alumni Council of the J.- W. - Goethe- University
• Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ORBIS aethiopicus, the Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Ethiopian culture eV
• Chairman of the Board of Trustees ' Association for the promotion of museums in Ethiopia "
• Chairman of the Advisory Board of the German - Ethiopian students and academics eV ( DÄSAV eV)
• Patron of the Project E ​​( Ethiopia, Education, English)
• Patron of the Society for the Advancement of the Ethiopian arts
• Board of Trustees ' Youth Debates "
• Patron of the Move Forward Project in support of sustainable development for young people in Africa

Writings

• The German school in Addis Ababa - from Ethiopian point of view. In: Journal for Cultural Exchange, Ethiopia. Special Edition 1973 E 7225 F, S. 162-175.
• The story of Saw ¯ a (Ethiopia ): 1700-1865; e after T ¯ arika naga'st of Bel ¯ ¯ att en g ¯ et ¯ a Heruy Walda 'Sell ¯ ¯ as. Frankfurt (Main), Univ, PhD thesis, 1978 ( text and German Amharic -. Teilw in amhar font. ) Steiner, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-515-02936-2. ( Series: Studies of Cultural Studies 53 )
• Manners. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2003, 388 pages, ISBN 3-8218-4739-5.
• As editor with Aram Mattioli: The first fascist war of extermination. The Italian aggression against Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941. SH -Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-89498-162-4 (Italy in the Modern 13; see SH- Publishing - Article details).
• As publisher: Adolph Freiherr Knigge: Benjamin Noldmanns history of the Enlightenment in Abyssinia. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-8218-4569-4.
• A prince of the house of David and why he stayed in Germany. Joke, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-502-15063-3.
• Outside only jug. My German finds. Joke, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-502-15157-9.
• Africa. The 101 most important questions and answers. Beck, München 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60096-8.
• Integration, or the art of eating with a fork. Utz, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8316-4044-7.
• German virtues of grace to the world of pain. C. H. Beck, Munich, 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64504-4.
• The last emperor of Africa: Triumph and tragedy of Haile Selassie. Propylaea, Berlin, 2014. ISBN 978-3549074282.
• Also contributions to the English-language Encyclopaedia aethiopica, ISBN 3-447-04746-1.