Hermann Berger passed away

[Axel Michaels]

The Indologist and Linguist Hermann Berger passed away on the 31st of
January 2005.  He was 78 years old.  Hermann Berger, who was Emeritus
Professor and former Head of the Department of Indology at the South
Asia Institute, Heidelberg devoted himself to the study of Indian
languages.  On completing his doctorate and his habilitation at the
University of Munich, after a period spent as Visiting Professor at the
Sanskrit College in Calcutta, he came to the University of
Heidelberg in 1964 and was active there till his retirement in 1993.  He
became the Director of the South Asia Institute in 1974/75,  the Dean of
the Fakultät für Orientalistik und Altertumswissenschaften between
1979-81 and remained a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences
starting 1981.

Hermann Berger was a fine and learned scholar who devoted his life and
his research to the study, in particular, of the endangered languages of
South Asia. His extraordinary knowledge of  Burushaski earned him international fame in the field
of linguistics. His expertise and painstaking work in documenting
Burushaski through many fieldtrips in the Karakoram region resulted in
the three volume standard work on this language. Inspite of chronic
health problems, the result of the war years, he engaged himself
energetically and with great success in teaching, in building up the
South Asia Institute and in encouraging research in the modern languages
of South Asia.

He will be long and fondly remembered by the faculty of the South Asia
Institute and his former students for his excellent research, his
committment to teaching as well as his gentle sense of humour and
humanity.

Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels
Direktor der Abt. Klassische Indologie; Sprecher des SFB 619 (Ritualdynamik); Sprecher des DFG-Kollegiums 106
Südasien-Institut der Universität Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 330
D-69120 Heidelberg
Tel. +49-6221-548917 / Fax +49-6221-546338
www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/IND/index.html
www.ritualdynamik.uni-hd.de