In Memoriam
Sigrid Kleinmichel
April 29, 1938 – September 06, 2024
Sigrid Kleinmichel, born April 29, 1938, died in Berlin, Germany, after short illness, on September 06, 2024.
In 1956, the German Democratic Republic sent Sigrid Kleinmichel to study Turkology in Leningrad, Soviet Union, a quite unusual field for a young woman from Germany to engage in. Yet it must have been a very good match, and until the end of her life, Sigrid Kleinmichel was a philologist with heart and soul who pursued the field of Turkology passionately. After graduating in 1961, she returned to Germany and became a member of the Humboldt University in Berlin where she taught and researched in the field of Turkic Studies for twelve years. In 1971, under the supervision of Prof. György Hazai (1932–2016), she completed her doctorate at Humboldt University with a linguistic study on the Marzubān-nāme, a mid-15th century text of the “mirrors of princes” genre, written in Old-Ottoman Turkish.
In 1974, Sigrid Kleinmichel moved to the Academy of Sciences of the GDR where she became a scholar at the Central Institute for the History of Literature (1969–1991). After learning Uzbek and Kazakh on site in Central Asia, she worked on the literatures of the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Soviet Union and of Turkey. Her expertise spanned a broad field in terms of time and genres, encompassing various Turkic languages, with a focus on Uzbek literature. By the time of the political changes in the 1990s, she built up an unusually large international network of Orientalists and scholars from other disciplines in various countries.
From 1994 to 2011, Sigrid Kleinmichel was affiliated with the Institute of Turkology, Free University of Berlin, where she continued her research and taught Uzbek and Kazakh language and gave seminars on Uzbek, Chagatay and Uyghur literature. Engaged in supporting students with her advices on theses and dissertations, always ready to share her extensive knowledge with colleagues; combined with her friendly and modest manner, Sigrid Kleinmichel was an appreciated conversation partner.
After the political changes in Germany in the 1990s, Sigrid Kleinmichel began to publish her research results and to implement innovative research approaches. In 1993, her first monography, a groundbreaking study on Uzbek literature appeared: Awakening from Oriental poetry traditions: studies on Uzbek drama and prose between 1910 and 1934.¹ This work deals with the Jadid Muslim national reform movement and the fate of Uzbek writers murdered during the Stalinist terror.
In 2000, Khalpa in Khorezm and ātin āyi in the Fergana valley: on the history of reading in Uzbekistan in the 20th century, an interdisciplinary study that focuses on women who recite religious texts, was published.² Located in the disciplines of ethnology, religious and cultural studies, literature and linguistics, popular Islam in Central Asia and the transmission of knowledge among women are analysed. The study represents a milestone in Central Asian literary research reaching far beyond the proper discipline of Turkic Studies.
In 2009, The Birth of the Prophet Muḥammad: three poems from Central Asia, a comprehensive work on Mevlid poetry in popular piety and scholarly literature since the Islamic Middle Ages followed.³ And finally, in 2016, the book Ijob between Self-Incrimination and Protest: poems from Central Asia, 19th to 20th century, a philological work, editing, translating, and commenting on a corpus of 86 Chagatay poems on Ijob, was published.⁴
Sigrid Kleinmichel attended four Meetings of the PIAC, in 1969, 1972, 1988 and 1991.
Sigrid Kleinmichel was a committed person with many social contacts. After her retirement, she volunteered to teach German as a Foreign Language, supported female Usbek students, and initiated and hosted a private literary salon in her home. Behaving humanely, taking social and historical circumstances into account, imparting culture and literature, and developing language skills were always important for her. With gratitude, we look back at her work and the time we could spend with her. We miss her as a conversation partner, as a very friendly person with an enormous knowledge who brought different worlds together.
Karin Schweissgut*
October 14, 2025
Anetshofer, Helga et al. (eds.): Über Gereimtes und Ungereimtes diesseits und jenseits der Turcia : Festschrift für Sigrid Kleinmichel zum 70. Geburtstag. Schöneiche bei Berlin : Scrîpvaz-Verl., 2008. Contains a bibliography of Sigrid Kleinmichel’s publications (pp. 19–28 op. cit.)
[1] Kleinmichel, Sigrid: Aufbruch aus orientalischen Dichtungstraditionen : Studien zur usbekischen Dramatik und Prosa zwischen 1910 und 1934. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1993. https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Aufbruch_aus_orientalischen_Dichtungstraditionen/titel_432.ahtml
[2] Kleinmichel, Sigrid: Ḫalpa in Choresm (Ḫwārazm) und ātin āyi im Ferghanatal : zur Geschichte des Lesens in Usbekistan im 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin : Das Arabische Buch, 2000 und Berlin : Klaus Schwarz, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112400227
[3] Kleinmichel, Sigrid: Die Geburt des Propheten Muḥammad : drei Dichtungen aus Mittelasien. Wiesbaden : Reichert, 2009. https://reichert-verlag.de/buchreihen/geographie_reihen/geographie_iran_turan/9783895006760_die_geburt_des_propheten_muhammad-detail
[4] Kleinmichel, Sigrid: Hiob zwischen Selbstbezichtigung und Protest : Gedichte aus Mittelasien (19. bis 20. Jahrhundert). Wiesbaden : Reichert Verlag, 2016. https://reichert-verlag.de/buchreihen/geographie_reihen/geographie_iran_turan/9783954901494_hiob_zwischen_selbstbezichtigung_und_protest-detail
* ORCID-ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0222-8522