Obituary: Martin Gimm (1930–2025)

In Memoriam Martin Gimm (1930–2025)

Martin Gimm was born on May 25, 1930, in Waltershausen, Thuringia, and passed away on December 22, 2025 at Rösrath (near Cologne). After completing his secondary education and musical training as a pianist and later organist he studied musicology, mathematics, philosophy, and Oriental studies at the University of Jena from 1949, before turning his attention to East Asian studies at the University of Leipzig in 1951. There he studied Sinology, and after transferring to the Free University of Berlin in 1953, he continued with Chinese and Manchu (with Walter Fuchs) and Japanese. From 1959 to 1963, he worked as director of the German Cultural Center in Taiwan and, starting in 1960, taught as an associate professor at three universities in Taipei, where he also continued his Manchu studies (with Guanglu [in Manchu: Kunggur 廣祿‎ (1900–1973)], and Puru 溥儒 (1896–1963) a cousin of the last emperor). After returning to Germany in 1963, he earned his Ph.D. with a comprehensive dissertation on the Yuefu zalu 樂府雜錄, a collection of essays on the Music Office, by the Tang author Duan Anjie 段安節. In 1969 he habilitated in Cologne and in 1970, after his teacher Fuchs’ retirement, Gimm succeeded him as ordinary professor of Chinese and Manchu at the University of Cologne, the only place in Germany where the study of Manchu language and literature was officially available for a degree, until his retirement in 1996.

Martin Gimm was a good teacher, but his passion was research; in this respect, he was similar to his teacher Fuchs. Retirement gave him the opportunity to work through much of what he had accumulated over the years, and not a year went by without several substantial publications. Until two weeks before his departure, he worked tirelessly, even though his health and mobility were declining.

Gimm was extraordinarily knowledgeable, meticulous in detail, even fastidious, and it was easy to see from his numerous footnotes that Paul Pelliot and Walter Fuchs were his role models—he, too, loved the “bibliographic giant finger.” As a person, he was friendly, open-minded, and helpful, although he seemed reserved, even somewhat shy; he was reluctant to appear in public and at conferences. His friends and students will miss him greatly.

In honour of his outstanding achievements as a Manchurist, the PIAC awarded him the PIAC Prize for Altaic Studies in 2019.

As a full bibliography of Gimm’s publications was published in 2019 which includes his numerous contributions to Sinology and musicology, only some highlights in the Manchu field are presented here:

  • The edition of a Manchu translation of the classical Chinese literary anthology Wenxuan 文選 according to mss. in Leningrad and Cologne (1968), and of the Manchu version of the Qing literary anthology Guwen yuanjian 古文淵鑑 (1969) as well. The original works are both highly esteemed and considered selections of models of excellent literary style.
  • “Manchu translations of Chinese novels and short stories. An attempt at an inventory” (1988). Only a few such novels were printed in Manchu, therefore the identification of the respective manuscripts is of considerable value for the study of Manchu literature. A pioneering study!
  • The Qianlong emperor as a poet. Remarks on his writings (1993; new edition 2024). The volume is particularly strong as a bibliography, presenting an annotated survey of the emperor’s works, both in the original and in translation.
  • “Hans Conon von der Gabelentz and the first Manchu grammar in Germany” (1997). On the first scholarly grammar of Manchu.
  • “Chinese dogs and dogs’ names. On a trilingual series of portraits by the court painter Giuseppe Castiglione” (2002). This paper supplements Zhuang Jifa’s and Walravens’ earlier studies.
  • Conon von der Gabelentz and his translation of the Chinese novel Jin ping mei 金瓶梅. (2005). Gimm rediscovered the manuscript of Gabelentz’s translation, believed lost after WWII. The Manchu translation was praised for its superb style and therefore occasionally credited to a brother of the Kangxi emperor (which is but a legend).
  • Hans Conon von der Gabelentz: Jin Ping Mei. The first full translation into German from Manchu. (2005–2013). The German translation is clear and fluent and lacks the flowery terminology often found in translations from the Chinese, thus giving a true representation of the Manchu version. In 10 volumes. While this study edition was published in a very small number, a revised and annotated, illustrated version with an introduction was prepared by H. Walravens: Ein Herzensbrecher und seine Frauen (Jin Ping Mei 金瓶梅). for the trade (2024. 1985 pp., 200 woodcuts)
  • “Elementary Manchu grammar, edited from Georg von der Gabelentz’ manuscript” (2010). Georg v. d. Gabelentz, the author of an outstanding Chinese Grammar, never finished his basic Manchu grammar, mainly owing to his premature death.
  • “On the Manchu Rouputuan 肉蒲團.” (2011). Introduction to an edition of the Manchu translation of this erotic novel in the Berlin State Library (now in Cracow). The manuscript believed lost after WWII was rediscovered by the referee in the Jagiellonian Library and edited for publication.
  • Georg von der Gabelentz in memoriam. Materials on his life and work. (2013) Gabelentz Jr. was a highly gifted linguist; his special interest focused on East Asia, and he worked mainly on the Chinese and Manchu languages. Among his students were Wilhelm Grube (1855–1908) and Otto Franke, both later professors of Chinese at Berlin University.
  • P. Johann Adam Schall von Bell S.J. and the secret files on the court case of 1664–1665 in China. The secret Manchu documents on the trial of the German Jesuit missionary Adam Schall (1591–1666). (2021). Schall was in an influential position as advisor to the emperor, and his adversaries therefore accused him of having willfully jeopardized the imperial family and the empire by manipulating the burial rites for Prince Rong and falsifying the calendar.
  • The case of Prince Rong in the trial against Father Adam Schall (2018).
  • The secret shamanism of the Qing emperors. (2018).
  •  “Some additions to the history of the Buddhist canon in Manchu translation” (2020) provides additions to H. Walravens’ previous study (2007).
  • A selection of Gimm’s articles Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte und Kultur der Qing-Dynastie provides a reprint of nine papers on Qing history (2023).

Biobliographical information is to be found in

Ad Seres et Tungusos. Festschrift für Martin Gimm zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 25. Mai 1995. Hrsg. von Lutz Bieg, Erling von Mende und Martina Siebert. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2000. (Opera sinologica 11.)

H. Walravens: Sinologie in Köln. Von Adam Schall bis in die Gegenwart. Biobibliographien. Berlin: Staatsbibliothek 2017. 250 pp. (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Neuerwerbungen der Ostasienabteilung. Sonderheft 48.)

H. Walravens: Verzeichnis der Veröffentlichungen von Professor Dr. Martin Gimm. Norderstedt: BoD 2020. 48 pp. 4°

H. Walravens: Skizze der deutschsprachigen Mandschuristik vom 17. bis Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts. Mit Briefen von Erich Haenisch (1880–1966) und Gottfried Rösel (1900–1992) an Walter Fuchs (1902–1979). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2025. 186 pp. (Asien- und Afrika-Studien der Humboldt-Universität 69.)

Hartmut Walravens
January 2026