The Emigration of German Sinologists 1933-1945: Notes on the History and Historiography of Chinese Studies

Abstract

During the times of the National Socialist regime, the great majority of the young, and also some of the well-established, German scholars in Sinology and East Asian art history left their country to continue their academic careers elsewhere, notably in the United States. The present international state of Chinese studies is hardly explainable without reference to the broad loss of expertise and creativity in Germany, on the one hand, and to the balancing energetic development of new academic opportunities in the United States, on the other - that took place fifty years ago. But despite their enduring aftermath - still multiplying through the emigrants' students - these dramatic shifts have never been a topic of analysis and discussion. The collective, voluntary silence of five decades has made for increasing difficulties in reconstructing the details of the emigration in Sinology and East Asian art history. At the same time, the continuing failure of historiographical self-reflection appears itself as a lingering historical phenomenon, that is, a critical issue for scholarly self-perception.