Gastbeitrag von Prof. Sarah Panzer
The staggering quantity of literature on the First World War can give rise to the mistaken impression that scholars have already said all that there is to say on the topic, especially in the wake of the many fine publications which emerged out of the centenary commemorations of the conflict. Growing recent interest in the conflict’s global dimensions, as well as the diverse experiences of captivity and internment faced by military prisoners and civilians alike, however, have illuminated new directions for scholars to pursue. Even within this literature, the East Asian front of the First World War has been largely relegated to the status of a historical footnote, a function both of its geographic distance and its brevity, at least militarily.
On 23 August 1914, Japan declared war on Imperial Germany, using its alliance with Great Britain as a convenient pretext in claiming Germany’s colonial possessions in Asia for its own. By mid-October the Japanese Navy successfully occupied German Micronesia and on 7 November the German garrison at Tsingtao (Qingdao) surrendered to the 18th Infantry Division of the Japanese Imperial Army, supported by a symbolic contingent of British troops. The nearly 4,700 German and Austrian servicemen captured at Tsingtao were subsequently transported to the Japanese mainland, where they were housed in a series of temporary camps throughout central Japan. Once it became clear that the war would not be ending as quickly as initially predicted, these camps were replaced by larger, more comfortable facilities intended to mitigate the prisoners’ boredom and loneliness.
Repatriation of the POWs only began in 1919, with the final prisoners returning to Germany (excepting those who chose to remain in Asia) in 1920. Over the course of their five-year captivity, these men produced a significant archival record of their lives in Japan, including camp newspapers, printed objects such as concert programs and postcards, personal diaries and memoirs, and dozens of photographs. The Bandō-Sammlung, held since late 2021 in the Ostasienabteilung of the SBB-PK, sheds invaluable light on a dimension of that conflict which has been so far largely overlooked by researchers outside of Japan.
The Best Camp in the World
Camp Bandō was one of the ‘second generation’ camps opened during the war; it opened in early April 1917 and was officially closed three years later, on 1 April 1920. Located on the island of Shikoku and built to accommodate the prisoners previously held in the camps in Matsuyama, Marugame, and Tokushima, Bandō quickly acquired a reputation as a model camp because of its many well-resourced facilities and opportunities for cultural and social diversion. The camp included living quarters, administrative buildings, kitchens, and baths, as well as two small lakes (one of which was used by the prisoners for boating) and a small ‘commercial district’ with some eighty shops, specializing in everything from bookbinding and photography to furniture construction and musical instrument repair. (Fig. 1) Just outside the camp the prisoners also had access to a large sports complex, which boasted a soccer field, a Turnhalle, and eight tennis courts.
Fig. 2: A group of students waits in line to enter the exhibition of “visual arts and handicrafts” organized by the residents of Bandō POW camp. The exhibition was hosted by the nearby Ryōzenji temple, hence the statue in the center of the image. A no less imposing bearded German soldier is visible on the lefthand side of the photo. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung H 57-07.
Even at the time, prisoners referred to Bandō as the “best camp in the world,” and both the camp and its commander—Lieutenant Colonel Toyohisa Matsue—have become synonymous in contemporary popular memory in Japan with a humane and tolerant approach to internment, which facilitated not only a (relatively) pleasant experience for the prisoners themselves, but also a mutually beneficial circuit of cultural and intellectual exchange between the German prisoners and their Japanese neighbors. One striking example was the exhibition of “visual arts and handicrafts” organized by Bandō’s residents in March 1918. Visitors could peruse the works on display—which included everything from oil paintings to technical models to taxidermied local birds—at their leisure or receive a guided tour by a prisoner-translator, visit one of the concession stands and sample ‘authentic’ German baked goods, try their luck at one of the carnival games operated by the prisoners outside, or simply relax and listen to music performed by one of the camp’s multiple ensembles. (Fig. 2) With a reported total attendance of just over 50,000 visitors over twelve days, Bandō’s camp newspaper Die Baracke concluded that the exhibition had been a triumph of cultural diplomacy:
“Thousands of inhabitants of the country which holds us captive have admired the works of German POWs with their own eyes, and hundreds of thousands have heard about them through word of mouth and newspapers. To those who had been repeatedly exposed to the image of the German Barbarian since the beginning of the war, we were able to show them with our exhibit ‘Hie gut Deutschland alleweg!’—Thus, even with our modest resources, we were able to render a service to the Fatherland.”
(Die Baracke I, no. 25 [17 March 1918], 42. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung A 2-1)
This quotation is a useful reminder that, their official status as POWs notwithstanding, the residents of Bandō saw themselves as participants in the ongoing global war. The activities and groups with which they occupied themselves were never simply about staying busy; they were also meant to project an image of German resilience, strength, and cultural superiority meant to function as ‘counter-programming’ to British and French propaganda.
Fighting Vicariously
The POWs held in Japan were avid consumers of news about the war’s progress, militarily and politically. Far from being isolated from the events back in Europe, prisoners were kept up-to-date through regular telegram transmissions—in the case of Bandō, these transmissions were recorded daily and made available to the camp’s residents through a subscription-based bulletin—from New York, London, Paris, and Moscow. German-language media was less consistently available, but newspapers, books and other printed materials shipped from Europe provided prisoners with an invaluable sense of connection to the German war effort. This ongoing interest in the war was, in one sense, eminently practical—although rumors of prisoner swaps or early parole persisted, most recognized that they were ‘stuck’ in Japan until the war ended—but it also speaks to the powerful sense of national unity and purpose which emerged in German-speaking Europe during the First World War.
Die Baracke featured monthly articles summarizing the major battles, personalities, and strategic developments on the war’s various fronts, as well as significant political events like the October Revolution in Russia. Likewise, President Woodrow Wilson’s public comments and speeches denouncing German autocracy and claiming that the US was fighting to secure a just and lasting peace for the peoples of the world, was met with scathing commentary in the pages of Die Baracke, with one article sarcastically responding, point-by-point, to Wilson’s rhetoric:
“‘America refuses to impose its will by exploiting the weakness and internal unrest of other countries.’
Fig. 3: Illustration of German trenches on the Western Front. The almost bucolic scene betrays the illustrator’s lack of familiarity with the realities of trench warfare. Drei Märchen von E. Behr. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung B 06.
But you should not have said that Herr Professor… Mr. President! Or has your noble life’s work, the study and destruction of brutal German militarism, so completely occupied you that you have never heard of the Spanish-American War – it was in 1898? Your high-minded country has its own delicate American militarism, which was quite involved at the time ‘exploiting the weakness of other countries,’ to thank for the not quite so independent, rich island of Cuba and the likewise not entirely poor, not entirely independent Philippines.”
(Die Baracke I, no. 22 [24 February 1918], 13-14. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung A 2-2)
On one level, these articles reflect the appetite for news about the war, in all its various dimensions, among the POWs in Japan; other articles published in Die Baracke, as well as public lectures in the camp, commented on modern military technology and tactics, specific battles, and the mobilization of the home front. Indeed, one of the more interesting artifacts of the Bandō-Sammlung is the lavishly illustrated book of modern German fairy tales published by the camp printing press in 1918; the first of the three stories takes place largely in the trenches of the Western Front, already an icon of contemporary cultural memory which neither the story’s author nor its illustrator had ever actually seen for themselves. (Fig. 3)
More meaningfully, however, they also demonstrate the intense emotional investment of the POWs with the German state, the German war effort, and with German war nationalism more generally. Kaiser Wilhelm II’s birthday was celebrated in the camp with lavish festivities, and tributes to the Prussian royal dynasty, Bismarck, and Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg became a regular feature in Die Baracke. (Fig. 4)
Fig. 4: A special cover of Die Baracke celebrating the hero of Tannenberg Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. By 1918 a veritable cult of personality had coalesced around Hindenburg in Germany, and apparently in Bandō as well. Die Baracke II, no. 19 (4 August 1918), 489. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung A 2-2.
Notable battles from earlier in the war, such as the Battle of Tannenberg, were commemorated with special concerts. (Fig. 5) Nor were the residents of Bandō content to be mere observers, their circumstances notwithstanding; they (re)mobilized themselves as active participants in the war effort through fundraisers on behalf of their fellow German POWs in Siberia. It is not entirely surprising that the war would have been on the minds of these men; what is noteworthy, however, are the patterns revealed by their consumption of news and propaganda as an integral element of their performance as good and loyal Germans.
Fig. 5: Program for a concert by the Tokushimaer Orchestra in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung E 3-17.
The German and Austrian POWs held in Japan during the First World War were determined to not be forgotten by their political leaders and fellow countrymen. Accordingly, they documented their lives in Japan, their thoughts on the war, and their feelings towards German culture and national identity in a variety of sources. This research was conducted as part of a broader project examining the POW camps in Japan as sites of cultural engagement and exchange, but also transformation as the prisoners were forced to reconcile their previous relationship to the German nation with the reality of defeat and decolonization.
Frau Prof. Sarah Panzer, Missouri State University, war im Rahmen des Stipendienprogramms der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz im Jahr 2025 als Stipendiatin an der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Forschungsprojekt: „German-Austrian Prisoners of War (POWs) in Japan during the First World War“
Vortrag im Rahmen von CrossAsia Talks am 04.09.2025
Dieser Beitrag erschien zuerst im SBB-Blog.
CrossAsia Talks: Marlene Erschbamer 25.09.2025
/in Aktuelles, Veranstaltungen, Vortragsreihe "CrossAsia Talks"/by CrossAsia(See English below)
Wir freuen uns, Sie zum ersten tibetologischen CrossAsia Talk des Jahres einzuladen: Am 25. September 2025, ab 18 Uhr (Berliner Zeit), wird Frau Dr. Marlene Erschbamer in einem Online-Vortrag über “Reading Outside the Lines – Mutterschaft und Mutterrollen in der Barawa Kagyü Tradition des tibetischen Buddhismus” referieren.
Mutterschaft ist eine komplexe und höchst ambivalente Rolle für Frauen. Noch komplexer wird es, wenn Mutterrollen durch eine religiöse Brille betrachtet werden. Dies gilt auch für die Darstellung von Müttern im tibetischen Buddhismus. Um sich ein Bild von Mutterschaft im Laufe der Jahrhunderte zu machen, ist es hilfreich, zwischen den Zeilen, aber auch außerhalb der Zeilen tibetischer Texte zu lesen.
Aus tibetisch-buddhistischer Sicht wird von Frauen erwartet, liebevolle und fürsorgliche Mütter zu sein, idealerweise für alle fühlenden Wesen. Gleichzeitig bedeutet Mutterschaft ein Hindernis auf dem eigenen spirituellen Weg. Mutterschaft spielt sich zwischen Liebe und Mitgefühl ab, ist aber auch mit Herausforderungen, Enttäuschungen und Schwierigkeiten verbunden.
Dieser Vortrag gibt einen Einblick in die verschiedenen Darstellungen von Müttern innerhalb buddhistischer Traditionen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Barawa-Kagyü-Tradition liegt. Es werden Themen angesprochen wie z.B. idealisierte Darstellungen von Empfängnis, Schwangerschaft und Geburt eines buddhistischen Meisters, Geburtshindernisse und Herausforderungen der Mutterschaft sowie die Mutterschaft buddhistischer Nonnen. Außerdem wird untersucht, ob männliche und weibliche Autoren Mütter in buddhistischen Texten unterschiedlich beschreiben und welche Aspekte der Mutterschaft sie jeweils thematisieren. Präsentiert werden Auszüge aus tibetischen, sikkimesischen und bhutanesischen Quellen der Barawa-Kagyü-Tradition, die sich zum Teil im Besitz der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin befinden.
Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
Der Vortrag wird darüber hinaus via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.
Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account, Mastodon und BlueSky an.
—
We are delighted to invite you to the first Tibetological CrosAsia Talk of this year: On September 25, 2025, at 6 pm (Berlin time), Dr. Marlene Erschbamer will present an online lecture on “Reading Outside the Lines – Motherhood and the Roles of Mothers within the Barawa Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism“.
Motherhood is a complex and highly ambivalent role for women. It becomes even more complicated when the roles of mothers are examined through a religious lens. This applies also to the image of motherhood in Tibetan Buddhism. To get an idea of motherhood through the centuries, it is helpful to read between the lines, but also outside the lines, of Tibetan texts.
From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, women are expected to be loving and caring mothers, ideally to all sentient beings. At the same time, being a mother means placing obstacles on one’s spiritual path. Motherhood takes place between love and compassion, but also involves challenges, disappointments and hardships.
This lecture provides an insight into the different ways in which mothers have been portrayed in relation to a Buddhist tradition, with a focus on the Barawa Kagyu tradition. Topics include idealised representations of the conception, pregnancy and birth of a Buddhist master, obstacles to childbirth and challenges associated with motherhood, and Buddhist nuns who became mothers. It also asks whether male and female authors differ in the extent to which mothers are described in their texts and what aspects of motherhood they address. Extracts are presented from Tibetan, Sikkimese and Bhutanese sources of the Barawa Kagyu tradition. Some of these sources are part of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will also be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.
You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X, Mastodon and BlueSky.
*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.
Highlighting a ‘Forgotten’ Perspective on the First World War: German POWs in Japan and the Bandō-Sammlung
/in Aktuelles, CrossAsia Stipendiaten, Newsletter 35, Sammlungen/by CrossAsiaGastbeitrag von Prof. Sarah Panzer
The staggering quantity of literature on the First World War can give rise to the mistaken impression that scholars have already said all that there is to say on the topic, especially in the wake of the many fine publications which emerged out of the centenary commemorations of the conflict. Growing recent interest in the conflict’s global dimensions, as well as the diverse experiences of captivity and internment faced by military prisoners and civilians alike, however, have illuminated new directions for scholars to pursue. Even within this literature, the East Asian front of the First World War has been largely relegated to the status of a historical footnote, a function both of its geographic distance and its brevity, at least militarily.
On 23 August 1914, Japan declared war on Imperial Germany, using its alliance with Great Britain as a convenient pretext in claiming Germany’s colonial possessions in Asia for its own. By mid-October the Japanese Navy successfully occupied German Micronesia and on 7 November the German garrison at Tsingtao (Qingdao) surrendered to the 18th Infantry Division of the Japanese Imperial Army, supported by a symbolic contingent of British troops. The nearly 4,700 German and Austrian servicemen captured at Tsingtao were subsequently transported to the Japanese mainland, where they were housed in a series of temporary camps throughout central Japan. Once it became clear that the war would not be ending as quickly as initially predicted, these camps were replaced by larger, more comfortable facilities intended to mitigate the prisoners’ boredom and loneliness.
Repatriation of the POWs only began in 1919, with the final prisoners returning to Germany (excepting those who chose to remain in Asia) in 1920. Over the course of their five-year captivity, these men produced a significant archival record of their lives in Japan, including camp newspapers, printed objects such as concert programs and postcards, personal diaries and memoirs, and dozens of photographs. The Bandō-Sammlung, held since late 2021 in the Ostasienabteilung of the SBB-PK, sheds invaluable light on a dimension of that conflict which has been so far largely overlooked by researchers outside of Japan.
The Best Camp in the World
Camp Bandō was one of the ‘second generation’ camps opened during the war; it opened in early April 1917 and was officially closed three years later, on 1 April 1920. Located on the island of Shikoku and built to accommodate the prisoners previously held in the camps in Matsuyama, Marugame, and Tokushima, Bandō quickly acquired a reputation as a model camp because of its many well-resourced facilities and opportunities for cultural and social diversion. The camp included living quarters, administrative buildings, kitchens, and baths, as well as two small lakes (one of which was used by the prisoners for boating) and a small ‘commercial district’ with some eighty shops, specializing in everything from bookbinding and photography to furniture construction and musical instrument repair. (Fig. 1) Just outside the camp the prisoners also had access to a large sports complex, which boasted a soccer field, a Turnhalle, and eight tennis courts.
Fig. 2: A group of students waits in line to enter the exhibition of “visual arts and handicrafts” organized by the residents of Bandō POW camp. The exhibition was hosted by the nearby Ryōzenji temple, hence the statue in the center of the image. A no less imposing bearded German soldier is visible on the lefthand side of the photo. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung H 57-07.
Even at the time, prisoners referred to Bandō as the “best camp in the world,” and both the camp and its commander—Lieutenant Colonel Toyohisa Matsue—have become synonymous in contemporary popular memory in Japan with a humane and tolerant approach to internment, which facilitated not only a (relatively) pleasant experience for the prisoners themselves, but also a mutually beneficial circuit of cultural and intellectual exchange between the German prisoners and their Japanese neighbors. One striking example was the exhibition of “visual arts and handicrafts” organized by Bandō’s residents in March 1918. Visitors could peruse the works on display—which included everything from oil paintings to technical models to taxidermied local birds—at their leisure or receive a guided tour by a prisoner-translator, visit one of the concession stands and sample ‘authentic’ German baked goods, try their luck at one of the carnival games operated by the prisoners outside, or simply relax and listen to music performed by one of the camp’s multiple ensembles. (Fig. 2) With a reported total attendance of just over 50,000 visitors over twelve days, Bandō’s camp newspaper Die Baracke concluded that the exhibition had been a triumph of cultural diplomacy:
“Thousands of inhabitants of the country which holds us captive have admired the works of German POWs with their own eyes, and hundreds of thousands have heard about them through word of mouth and newspapers. To those who had been repeatedly exposed to the image of the German Barbarian since the beginning of the war, we were able to show them with our exhibit ‘Hie gut Deutschland alleweg!’—Thus, even with our modest resources, we were able to render a service to the Fatherland.”
(Die Baracke I, no. 25 [17 March 1918], 42. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung A 2-1)
This quotation is a useful reminder that, their official status as POWs notwithstanding, the residents of Bandō saw themselves as participants in the ongoing global war. The activities and groups with which they occupied themselves were never simply about staying busy; they were also meant to project an image of German resilience, strength, and cultural superiority meant to function as ‘counter-programming’ to British and French propaganda.
Fighting Vicariously
The POWs held in Japan were avid consumers of news about the war’s progress, militarily and politically. Far from being isolated from the events back in Europe, prisoners were kept up-to-date through regular telegram transmissions—in the case of Bandō, these transmissions were recorded daily and made available to the camp’s residents through a subscription-based bulletin—from New York, London, Paris, and Moscow. German-language media was less consistently available, but newspapers, books and other printed materials shipped from Europe provided prisoners with an invaluable sense of connection to the German war effort. This ongoing interest in the war was, in one sense, eminently practical—although rumors of prisoner swaps or early parole persisted, most recognized that they were ‘stuck’ in Japan until the war ended—but it also speaks to the powerful sense of national unity and purpose which emerged in German-speaking Europe during the First World War.
Die Baracke featured monthly articles summarizing the major battles, personalities, and strategic developments on the war’s various fronts, as well as significant political events like the October Revolution in Russia. Likewise, President Woodrow Wilson’s public comments and speeches denouncing German autocracy and claiming that the US was fighting to secure a just and lasting peace for the peoples of the world, was met with scathing commentary in the pages of Die Baracke, with one article sarcastically responding, point-by-point, to Wilson’s rhetoric:
“‘America refuses to impose its will by exploiting the weakness and internal unrest of other countries.’
Fig. 3: Illustration of German trenches on the Western Front. The almost bucolic scene betrays the illustrator’s lack of familiarity with the realities of trench warfare. Drei Märchen von E. Behr. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung B 06.
But you should not have said that Herr Professor… Mr. President! Or has your noble life’s work, the study and destruction of brutal German militarism, so completely occupied you that you have never heard of the Spanish-American War – it was in 1898? Your high-minded country has its own delicate American militarism, which was quite involved at the time ‘exploiting the weakness of other countries,’ to thank for the not quite so independent, rich island of Cuba and the likewise not entirely poor, not entirely independent Philippines.”
(Die Baracke I, no. 22 [24 February 1918], 13-14. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung A 2-2)
On one level, these articles reflect the appetite for news about the war, in all its various dimensions, among the POWs in Japan; other articles published in Die Baracke, as well as public lectures in the camp, commented on modern military technology and tactics, specific battles, and the mobilization of the home front. Indeed, one of the more interesting artifacts of the Bandō-Sammlung is the lavishly illustrated book of modern German fairy tales published by the camp printing press in 1918; the first of the three stories takes place largely in the trenches of the Western Front, already an icon of contemporary cultural memory which neither the story’s author nor its illustrator had ever actually seen for themselves. (Fig. 3)
More meaningfully, however, they also demonstrate the intense emotional investment of the POWs with the German state, the German war effort, and with German war nationalism more generally. Kaiser Wilhelm II’s birthday was celebrated in the camp with lavish festivities, and tributes to the Prussian royal dynasty, Bismarck, and Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg became a regular feature in Die Baracke. (Fig. 4)
Fig. 4: A special cover of Die Baracke celebrating the hero of Tannenberg Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. By 1918 a veritable cult of personality had coalesced around Hindenburg in Germany, and apparently in Bandō as well. Die Baracke II, no. 19 (4 August 1918), 489. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung A 2-2.
Notable battles from earlier in the war, such as the Battle of Tannenberg, were commemorated with special concerts. (Fig. 5) Nor were the residents of Bandō content to be mere observers, their circumstances notwithstanding; they (re)mobilized themselves as active participants in the war effort through fundraisers on behalf of their fellow German POWs in Siberia. It is not entirely surprising that the war would have been on the minds of these men; what is noteworthy, however, are the patterns revealed by their consumption of news and propaganda as an integral element of their performance as good and loyal Germans.
Fig. 5: Program for a concert by the Tokushimaer Orchestra in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg. SBB-PK. Bandō-Sammlung E 3-17.
The German and Austrian POWs held in Japan during the First World War were determined to not be forgotten by their political leaders and fellow countrymen. Accordingly, they documented their lives in Japan, their thoughts on the war, and their feelings towards German culture and national identity in a variety of sources. This research was conducted as part of a broader project examining the POW camps in Japan as sites of cultural engagement and exchange, but also transformation as the prisoners were forced to reconcile their previous relationship to the German nation with the reality of defeat and decolonization.
Vortrag im Rahmen von CrossAsia Talks am 04.09.2025
Dieser Beitrag erschien zuerst im SBB-Blog.
Eingeschränkte Erreichbarkeit von CrossAsia am 22.09.
/in Aktuelles, Services/by CrossAsiaLiebe Nutzer:innen,
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Wir danken für Ihr Verständnis!
***
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121 Million Chinese Characters Now Searchable in Our Digitized Collection: Full-Text Access Powered by OCR
/in Aktuelles, Digitalisierung, Fachinformationsdienst, Newsletter 35, OCR/by CrossAsiaNeuer Testzugang: 15.000 eBooks von SSAP
/in Aktuelle Testzugänge, Aktuelles, Newsletter 35/by Cordula GumbrechtBis zum 30.11.2025 haben Sie die Gelegenheit, die SSAP E-Book Plattform先晓书院 zu testen. Sie enthält nahezu sämtliche Medien, die der Verlag Social Sciences Academic Press seit den 1970er Jahren veröffentlicht hat: Dies sind nahezu 15.000 E-Books, 300.000 Artikel, 700.000 Bilder, über 1 Million Diagramme und Grafiken sowie mehr als 3.000 Stunden Audio- und Videomaterial. Die Inhalte werden täglich in Echtzeit automatisch aktualisiert. Rund 95% der Printausgaben liegen mittlerweile digital vor.
Enthalten sind Blaubücher, Sammelbände und großangelegte Materialsammlungen und Editionen. Die Inhalte decken das gesamte Spektrum der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften ab, darunter die Belt-and-Road-Initiative, Marxismus, chinesische Modernisierung, soziologische Studien, Länder- und Regionalforschung, Global Governance, die in Großbritannien aufbewahrten Dunhuang-Dokumente sowie Bibliographien. Darüber hinaus bietet die Plattform Materialien für regionale Studien, Branchenentwicklungsforschung sowie Forschung zu Schlüssel- und aktuellen Themen.
Viel Spaß beim Testen!
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CrossAsia Talks: Sarah Panzer 04.09.2025
/in Aktuelles, Veranstaltungen, Vortragsreihe "CrossAsia Talks"/by CrossAsia(See English below)
Wir laden Sie herzlich zum ersten japanologischen CrossAsia Talk nach der Sommerpause ein: Am 4. September 2025 ab 18 Uhr (Berliner Zeit) wird Frau Prof. Sarah Panzer (Missouri State University) Einblicke in ihre Forschungsarbeit “Documenting the Lives of Germany’s ‘Forgotten’ Prisoners of War (POWs): Photographs in the Bandō-Sammlung” geben. Die Vortragende war im Frühling diesen Jahres im Rahmen des Stipendienprogramms der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz an der Staatsbibliothek in der Ostasienabteilung zu Gast und hat sich intensiv mit der Bandō-Sammlung beschäftigt.
On 7 November, 1914 the German garrison at Tsingtao (Qingdao), following a brief siege, surrendered to Japanese and British colonial troops. The German servicemen captured at Tsingtao were subsequently interned in Japan for the duration of the First World War. After early temporary arrangements—including barracks dating back to the Russo-Japanese War—proved inadequate, a series of POW camps were constructed across Japan. These camps became a kind of wartime ‘Ersatz Deutschland’ for their occupants, with multiple musical and theatrical ensembles organized within the various camps, as well as teams and training groups for popular sports and leisure activities. The differences between the camps notwithstanding, all variously functioned as sites where German identity was translated, represented, and negotiated within the context of extended internment. This fragile connection back to Germany became all the more important as the POWs began to suspect that their existence—to say nothing of their personal sacrifice as prisoners—had been forgotten.
Like their counterparts in Europe, some of the men interned in Japan during the First World War had access to private cameras, which they either brought with them from China or acquired in Japan. They used their cameras to document life in the camps, as well as to capture images of Japan and the Japanese. The photos produced within the camps, whether as discrete albums or as individual snapshots, provide insight into how POWs made sense of their experience in Japan and their ambivalent position as, on the one hand, emissaries of German Kultur, and, on the other, prisoners subject to the authority of the Japanese Empire. Drawing on the work of historians such as Maiken Umbach, who has argued that photographs are often more “usefully thought of as performative props than as documents of historical reality,” in this presentation I interrogate the photos and photo albums created by the German POWs and archived within the Bandō-Sammlung as a window into their understanding of themselves and their relationship to Germany and to Japan.
Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
Der Vortrag wird darüber hinaus via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.
Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account, Mastodon und BlueSky an.
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We cordially invite you to attend the first japanological CrossAsia Talk after the summer break: On 4 September 2025 from 6 pm (Berlin time), Prof. Sarah Panzer (Missouri State University) will give insights into her research work ‘Documenting the Lives of Germany’s “Forgotten” Prisoners of War (POWs): Photographs in the Bandō Collection’. The lecturer was a guest at the State Library in the East Asia Department in spring 2025 as part of the grant programme of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and worked intensively on the Bandō Collection.
On 7 November, 1914 the German garrison at Tsingtao (Qingdao), following a brief siege, surrendered to Japanese and British colonial troops. The German servicemen captured at Tsingtao were subsequently interned in Japan for the duration of the First World War. After early temporary arrangements—including barracks dating back to the Russo-Japanese War—proved inadequate, a series of POW camps were constructed across Japan. These camps became a kind of wartime ‘Ersatz Deutschland’ for their occupants, with multiple musical and theatrical ensembles organized within the various camps, as well as teams and training groups for popular sports and leisure activities. The differences between the camps notwithstanding, all variously functioned as sites where German identity was translated, represented, and negotiated within the context of extended internment. This fragile connection back to Germany became all the more important as the POWs began to suspect that their existence—to say nothing of their personal sacrifice as prisoners—had been forgotten.
Like their counterparts in Europe, some of the men interned in Japan during the First World War had access to private cameras, which they either brought with them from China or acquired in Japan. They used their cameras to document life in the camps, as well as to capture images of Japan and the Japanese. The photos produced within the camps, whether as discrete albums or as individual snapshots, provide insight into how POWs made sense of their experience in Japan and their ambivalent position as, on the one hand, emissaries of German Kultur, and, on the other, prisoners subject to the authority of the Japanese Empire. Drawing on the work of historians such as Maiken Umbach, who has argued that photographs are often more “usefully thought of as performative props than as documents of historical reality,” in this presentation I interrogate the photos and photo albums created by the German POWs and archived within the Bandō-Sammlung as a window into their understanding of themselves and their relationship to Germany and to Japan.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will also be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.
You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X, Mastodon and BlueSky.
*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.
Wartungsarbeiten im Repository beendet
/in E-Publishing/by Ursula FlacheUpdate um 17 Uhr: Die unten für heute angekündigten Wartungsarbeiten sind beendet.
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Bitte beachten Sie, dass heute am 04. September 2025 ab 10 Uhr kurzfristig Wartungsarbeiten im CrossAsia Open Access Repository stattfinden. Bitte laden Sie heute nichts im Repository hoch. Wir danken für Ihr Verständnis!
Newsletter 34 – CrossAsia Highlights der ersten Jahreshälfte 2025
/in Aktuelles, Datenbanken, Digitalisierung, Fachinformationsdienst, Newsletter, Newsletter 34, SBB, Schulungen, Services, Vortragsreihe "CrossAsia Talks"/by Tristan HinkelLiebe CrossAsia Nutzer:innen,
von filmischen Annäherungen an Tibet über neue Datenbanklizenzen bis hin zu besonderen Schenkungen aus Thailand: Es gibt viel zu berichten. Werfen Sie mit uns in diesem Newsletter einen Blick auf all das, was sich in der ersten Jahreshälfte bei CrossAsia ereignet hat:
Sammlung Wolf Kahlen zum tibetischen Gelehrten Thang-stong-rgyal-po online!
Die Ostasienabteilung der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin hat die digitalisierte Sammlung des Künstlers und Tibetforschers Wolf Kahlen übernommen. Sie dokumentiert seine Forschungsreisen zwischen 1985 und 1994 durch Tibet, Nepal, China und die Mongolei und umfasst Fotografien, Reisetagebücher und Dokumentarfilme.
Schwerpunkt der Sammlung sind Kahlens Forschungen zu Thang-stong-rgyal-po (1361-1485), einem buddhistischen Gelehrten und Begründer der tibetischen Oper. Die Fotografien stehen für die wissenschaftliche Nutzung frei zur Verfügung, weitere Materialien sind auf Anfrage zugänglich.
Weitere Informationen:
Kontakt: x-asia@sbb.spk-berlin.de
Haben Sie schon den neuen und verbesserten Blauen Leihverkehr genutzt?
Schon seit dem vergangenen Jahr können Sie über den Blauen Leihverkehr sämtliche ausleihfähigen Bestände der Staatsbibliothek anfordern – sowohl die Bestände in ost-, zentral- und südostasiatischen Sprachen als auch die umfassende und stets aktuelle Sammlung westlichsprachiger Forschungsliteratur zu Asien.
Werfen Sie doch direkt mal einen Blick in die CrossAsia Suche!
Neue Publikationen im CrossAsia Open Access Repository
Neben Band 3 der Alliance for Research on East Asia (AREA) Ruhr Working Papers wurden die drei sinologischen Beiträge „Xinyatuoluo : Envoy of Dashi or Wuxun, or Muscat or Sohar or…“, „Of Red Parrots from Dashi 大食 Submitted to the Song Court in the Eleventh Century“ und „Pujiaxin 蒲加心 : an inter-national man of mystery in eleventh century China?” von Johannes Kurz veröffentlicht. Ebenso die Zusammenfassung des bei der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) vorgelegten Abschlussberichts für das Forschungsprojekt “Urban-rural migration and rural revitalization in Japan”. Weitere Blogbeiträge des gleichen DFG-Projekts aus dem Zeitraum Juli 2024 bis Juni 2025 befinden sich derzeit in Vorbereitung für die Freischaltung. Darüber hinaus sind Folien einer Schulung von Seiten des FID Asien zum Umgang mit Forschungsdaten einsehbar. Wir bedanken uns bei allen Beitragenden für die Nutzung dieses Angebots! Open Access ermöglicht unbeschränkten und kostenlosen Zugang zu wissenschaftlicher Information. Dies stärkt die Sichtbarkeit von faktenbasiertem Wissen im Internet. Umfangreiche Informationen rund um Open Access bietet die Webseite des open-access.network.
Das CrossAsia Open Access Repository ist das von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft empfohlene Fachrepositorium für die Asienwissenschaften (DFG-White List für fachspezifische Repositorien). Es bietet langfristige Archivierung sowie gute Auffindbarkeit der Inhalte dank DOI/URN-Vergabe und Nachweis in den einschlägigen Recherche-Tools. Sowohl Erst- und Zweitveröffentlichungen als auch Forschungsdaten können im CrossAsia Open Access Repository publiziert werden. Bei Fragen zu diesem kostenfreien Service kontaktieren Sie uns gerne unter x-asia@sbb.spk-berlin.de
Neue Datenbanken auf CrossAsia
CrossAsia Talks
Auch in diesem Jahr setzen wir unsere Reihe CrossAsia Talks erfolgreich fort. Bis zum Jahresende erwarten Sie noch einige Highlights:
Es lohnt auch ein Rückblick auf die vergangenen Talks in diesem Jahr:
Wie klangen Buddhas Worte im Originalton? – Eine Tripitaka-Schenkung an die Staatsbibliothek
Am 28. April 2025 fand im Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Saal der Staatsbibliothek die feierliche Übergabe des 80-bändigen Tripitaka-Sets „World Tipitaka Saj-jhā-ya Phonetic Recitation“ der World Tipitaka Foundation statt. Das 80-bändige Werk erschien erstmals 2016 in Thailand als Gedenkausgabe zu Ehren des thailändischen Königs Bhumibol Adulyadej und der Königin Sirikit und wird an ausgewählte Bibliotheken und akademische Einrichtungen in über 30 Ländern übergeben. Die 40-bändige Teilausgabe zu Ehren König Bhumibol Adulyadej des Großen verwendet zur Wiedergabe des Pali Textes außer der thailändischen Schrift eine phonetische Umschrift, die die exakte Aussprache des originalen Pali-Textes ermöglicht. Die ebenfalls 40 Bände umfassende Teilausgabe, die Königin Sirikit gewidmet ist, enthält neben der speziell entwickelten phonetischen Umschrift in lateinischen Buchstaben und der thailändischen Schrift eine Notation mit Musiknoten, die den authentischen Rhythmus und Ton des Pali-Textes nachvollziehbar macht. Weitere Infos zu dieser außergewöhnlichen Schenkung finden Sie in unserem Blog.
Vernetzung durch Koreanistik: ENKRS-Workshop 2025
Der Workshop 2025 des European Network of Korean Resources Specialists (ENKRS) fand vom 21. bis 24. Mai in Olomouc, Tschechien, statt und wurde vom Lehrstuhl für Asienstudien der Palacký-Universität ausgerichtet. Das diesjährige Thema „Korean Studies Librarianship and Digital Humanities: Opportunities and Challenges for Librarians in Supporting the Next Generation of Korean Studies Scholars“ brachte Fachleute zusammen, um Wissen auszutauschen und über die sich wandelnde Rolle von Bibliothekar:innen im digitalen Zeitalter zu diskutieren. Auch CrossAsia war vor Ort. Mehr erfahren Sie hier im Blog.
Buddhismus und Kunst in Thailand – Die Sammlung Heinrich Damm
Heinrich Damm (1947-2016) hatte seit seiner ersten Begegnung mit Thailand in den frühen 1970er Jahren die Begeisterung für das Land gepackt und sie ließ ihn nicht mehr los. Während zahlreicher Aufenthalte befasste er sich intensiv mit der Kultur, der Kunst und der Geschichte des Landes. Er erlernte Thailändisch und verbrachte längere Zeit in thailändischen Klöstern, um den Buddhismus zu studieren. In fast 50 Jahren trugen er, der beruflich als IT-Fachmann tätig war, und seine Frau Anne Heitzer (1955-2022) eine exzellente Literatursammlung mit dem Schwerpunkt Buddhismus und Kunst in Thailand zusammen. Nach dem Tode der Eheleute übernahm die Staatsbibliothek zum größten Teil als Schenkung ca. 260 Bücher aus der Sammlung, davon 57 in Thailändisch. Mehr Infos zur Sammlung Heinrich Damm finden Sie in unserem Blog.
Meet CrossAsia
Kommen Sie mit uns ins Gespräch! Unser Team wird auf folgenden Konferenzen vertreten sein:
11.08. – 15.08.: International Association for Buddhist Studies (IABS) in Leipzig
20.08. – 22.08.: 19. Deutschsprachiger Japanologentag an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
09.09. – 11.09.: 5. Konferenz für Asienforschung der DGA (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde) in Bonn
10.09. – 12.09.: 45th EASL conference, London
Und ein Team des FID-Netzwerks Asien wird auf folgenden Veranstaltungen vertreten sein:
08.09. – 12.09.: 35. Deutscher Orientalistentag an der FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
18.09. – 20.09.: 5. Turkologentag an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Wir wünschen Ihnen sonnige Sommermonate und einen erfolgreichen Start ins kommende Wintersemester!
Ihr CrossAsia Team
Sammlung Kahlen ist online
/in Aktuelles, Sammlungen, Themenportale/by Antje ZiemerDie Ostasienabteilung der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz hat im Sommer 2023 die umfangreiche Sammlung des Künstlers und Tibetforschers Wolf Kahlen (geb. 1940) übernommen. Die Sammlung dokumentiert über drei Jahrzehnte Forschung zur tibetisch-buddhistischen Kultur, insbesondere zu Thang-stong-rgyal-po (1361-1485).
Wolf Kahlen, emeritierter Professor für Intermediäre Kunst an der Technischen Universität Berlin, führte zwischen 1985 und 1994 fünf Expeditionen durch Tibet, Nepal, Spiti, China und die Mongolei durch. Im Zentrum seiner Forschungen stand Thang-stong-rgyal-po, ein bedeutender buddhistischer Gelehrter, Architekt und Begründer der tibetischen Theaterform Ache Lhamo.
Kahlens interdisziplinärer Ansatz, der künstlerische Dokumentation mit wissenschaftlicher Feldforschung verbindet, führte zu einer reichen, größtenteils noch unpublizierten Materialsammlung, die hier erstmals zugänglich gemacht wird. Die digital vorliegende Sammlung umfasst mehrere tausend Fotografien, sechs detaillierte Reisetagebücher der Forschungsreisen (1985-1994) sowie 28 Dokumentarfilme, unter anderem mit Aufzeichnungen tibetischer Rituale und kultureller Praktiken. Die Materialien dokumentieren Klöster, Rituale, Landschaften und das kulturelle Leben in den bereisten Regionen und enthalten ethnographische Beobachtungen, wissenschaftliche Notizen und Originalskizzen. Einen Überblick über die gesamte Sammlung erhalten Sie im Themenportal zur Sammlung Kahlen
Die fotografischen Bestände stehen der wissenschaftlichen Nutzung zur Verfügung. Aufgrund vertraglicher Vereinbarungen und datenschutzrechtlicher Bestimmungen sind die Reisetagebücher und Filme ausschließlich für berechtigte Forschungszwecke nach vorheriger Anfrage zugänglich.
Kontakt für Anfragen zu den Tagebüchern und Dokumentarfilmen: x-asia@sbb.spk-berlin.de
In summer 2023, the East Asia Department of the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation acquired the extensive collection of artist and Tibet scholar Wolf Kahlen (born 1940). The collection documents over three decades of research into Tibetan Buddhist culture, with a particular focus on Thang-stong-rgyal-po (1361–1485).
Wolf Kahlen, professor emeritus of Intermediary Art at the Technical University of Berlin, conducted five expeditions through Tibet, Nepal, Spiti, China and Mongolia between 1985 and 1994. His research focused on Thang-stong-rgyal-po, an important Buddhist scholar, architect and founder of the Tibetan theatre form Ache Lhamo.
Kahlen’s interdisciplinary approach, which combines artistic documentation with scientific field research, resulted in a rich collection of material, most of which is still unpublished and is being made available here for the first time. The digital collection comprises several thousand photographs, six detailed travel diaries from his research trips (1985-1994) and 28 documentary films, including recordings of Tibetan rituals and cultural practices. The materials document monasteries, rituals, landscapes and cultural life in the regions visited and contain ethnographic observations, scientific notes and original sketches. An overview of the entire collection can be found in the thematic portal for the Kahlen collection
The photographic holdings are available for scientific use. Due to contractual agreements and data protection regulations, the travel diaries and films are only accessible for authorised research purposes upon prior request.
Contact for enquiries about the diaries and documentary films: x-asia@sbb.spk-berlin.de
Neuer Testzugang: 2804 Abreibungen aus der UC Berkeley East Asian Library
/in Aktuelle Testzugänge, Aktuelles/by Cordula GumbrechtBis zum 31. August 2025 können Sie die UC Berkeley East Asian Library Rubbings Collection Database testen. Die Datenbank ist durch eine Kooperation der US Berkeley mit dem Verlag der Fudan Daxue 复旦大学出版社 entstanden.
Sie untergliedert sich in die acht Teildatenbanken: 摩崖石刻数据库, 碑刻数据库, 墓志、塔铭数据库, 造像数据库, 法帖数据库, 吉金数据库, 画像石数据库 und 砖瓦陶库.
Die Abreibungen sind innerhalb der Teildatenbanken chronologisch sortiert. Zu jeder Abreibung finden sich Angaben wie zeitliche Einordnung, Herkunftsort, Abreibungstyp sowie eine kurze Beschreibung der wichtigsten Merkmale. Die Datenbank kann anhand dieser Beschreibungsdaten durchsucht werden. Die Digitalisate sind von ausgezeichneter Qualität.
Wir wünschen Ihnen viel Vergnügen beim Ausprobieren und freuen uns, wie immer, über Ihr Feedback an: x-asia@sbb.spk-berlin.de.