In Memoriam
Michael Weiers
(December 26, 1937 — July 17, 2025)

Michael Weiers was born in Bernried am Starnberger See, in one of the most beautiful landscapes of Bavaria, on the second day of Christmas of the year 1937. His grammar school years (the proper German term is Gymnasium) offered him a broad exposure to the world of classical languages as Greek and Latin were a mandatory part of the grammar school curriculum.

This exposure to the intellectual heritage of Europe is a core objective of the idea of humanism, a worldview the foundations of which are rooted in Classical antiquity.

It must have been this education in combination with the proximity of Bavaria to Italy (by far not only in the sense of geography, but also determined by those immaterial sentiments of life [“Lebensgefühl”, as the Germans would say] as reflected in Baroque decorative arts and religious life) that made the young Michael Weiers explore Italy during his university years. From 1958 onwards, he did not only attend university in Munich and (later) Bonn, but also spent years in Rome and Naples.

The subjects he studied truly reflected both the spirit of Renaissance Man, or, equally true, the ideals of the late 19^th century idea of a linguist and philologist commanding a vast array of languages. He took courses in Semitic studies, followed by Manju, Mongolian, Chinese and Tibetan studies, and he broadened his horizon by taking classes in Turkology, Islamic studies, Central Asian studies in Language and Culture, as well as Comparative Religious studies. Throughout his academic life, his most productive focus was centered in the fields of Manju and Mongolian studies, assisted and supported by all the other fields he was interested in during his formative years at university.

During his university years (and later on), he had the privilege to attend classes held by the most prominent authorities in their respective fields. His curriculum vitae lists, among others, Herbert Franke, Helmut Hoffmann, Joachim Kissling, Giuseppe Tucci, Luciano Petech, Francesco Gabrieli, Alessio Bombaci and Walther Heissig, many of whom were later to become prominent contributors to the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), or, in the case of Walther Heissig, one of the founding fathers of the PIAC.

In his scholarly work, Michael Weiers had a strong interest in the rule-based foundations of language in general, and their many expressions in linguistic and philological practice. His Ph.D. dissertation in 1965 on the historical grammar of preclassical Mongolian was considered outstanding (Latin: egregie) and was honoured with the Prize of the Association of Friends of the University of Bonn (short in German: “Geffrub-Preis”). He rose through the ranks of the University of Bonn which would become his life-long intellectual home base from where he undertook numerous expeditions. To name just one example, he conducted field work among the Moghol in Herat, Afghanistan (1969–1972); basis of an authoritative monograph and series of papers which qualified him for the post of professor in 1972. He would hold this status until his retirement in 2003.

One field in which he made singular contributions was the study and research of the so-called Old Manju Archive Materials, or Jiu Manzhou Dang 舊滿洲檔 being the precursor to—and sometimes erroneously taken for—the more widely known Manwen Laodang. He was the only European scholar working on this subject which traditionally was considered a Chinese and Japanese domain. His field work in Taiwan in 1971 brought a rich harvest of Manju and Mongolian materials, source for many of his later papers.

In his publications (his bibliography lists approximately 350 titles, the last one published recently, in 2022), he covered a number of fields. The languages of the Mongolian language family were but one of his fields of interest. He also was either editor or co-editor of journals like Zentralasiatische Studien or series like Aetas Manjurica, to name just two examples. Besides his scholarly work, he had a keen interest in disseminating the knowledge of his field to broader audiences. He contributed at least a dozen or more articles to the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, a flagship of German encyclopediae with roots in the Age of Enlightenment. Yet, the encyclopedia as such was not only a means of disseminating knowledge, it was also subject of his research he conducted on the lexicology and lexicography of Mongolian and Manju. It is no wonder at all that he also contributed the article on “Mongolian Lexicography” in Wörterbücher. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Lexikographie (Dictionaries. An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography).

Michael Weiers attended three Meetings of the PIAC, in 1974, 1977 and 1984.

One of his closest colleagues broke the news of Michael Weiers’ departure to the author of these lines with the words “the ranks are thinning out”. True this is, and deeply saddening as well. The community of Altaic scholars mourns the loss of an outstanding peer.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
July 20^th, 2025