Dear list members,

Today I want to send a message to the list members which Jens-Uwe Hartmann (not on this list) has posted on the German Indology list a few days ago. It concerns the too early passing of our colleague and friend Klaus Wille on 17 November this year. We are very sad.

With kind regards,

Petra Kieffer-Pülz

Dear list members,

It is with the greatest regret that I have to inform you that my friend and colleague Dr. Klaus Wille passed away on Friday, 17 November 2023. His specialty was the cataloguing of Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts from Central Asia. Until the very end, he was busy cataloguing the German collection. Altogether, he edited seven of the twelve catalogue volumes to date (Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden VI–XII, Stuttgart 1989–2017). A final thirteenth volume he was about to complete; it will be published posthumously. This volume is particularly important because it not only lists all the Sanskrit fragments in the Francke-Körber Collection at the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich, thus completing the cataloguing of the manuscripts from the Silk Road in Germany, but also brings together the countless additions and corrections scattered throughout the previous volumes.

Klaus Wille's knowledge of the relevant materials was amazing, and the quality of his editions no less so. His willingness to help with questions at any time and to provide generous insight into unpublished material was almost proverbial. I am certain that he will be sorely missed by all those working in the same field but will also be remembered fondly.

Uwe Hartmann

Prof. i. R. Dr. Jens-Uwe Hartmann
Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
Universitaet Muenchen
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
80539 Muenchen