Hello everybody on the
list,
two days ago on
Wednesday a commemoration ceremony for Lutz took place in
Halle, Saale, in the reading room of the
Library
of the Institute where he was based. The event was
organized by his academic friends and colleagues on rather
short notice due to schedule difficulties and was therefore
only announced inside of Germany. Attendants were mostly
academics from Halle and other institutions and the only
librarians present besides the colleagues from Halle were
Werner Schwartz from Göttingen and myself. The ceremony
enclosed two lectures and was framed by a number of
melancholic English Renaissance songs befitting the sad
occasion. One lecture was delivered by
Patrick
Franke, holder of the Chair on Islamic Studies here in
Bamberg, who had worked and lived in Halle for some 10 years
and knew Lutz well from daily contacts. His lecture (German
title: Manuskripte – Mamluken – MENALIB: Eine Würdigung von
Lutz Wiederhold aus islamwissenschaftlicher Sicht =
Manuscripts, Mamluks, Menalib: an appreciation of LW from
the standpoint of Islamic Studies) was also meant to
appreciate Lutz’ academic ambitions and gave me much
completely new information on his academic qualifications.
Lutz had a strong standing in Islamic law from the Mamluk
period and had published some substantial articles in this
field. He had even thought of delivering a “Habilitation”
(second dissertation) which is desirable to apply for a
certain level in academia and is hellishly ambitious to
accomplish. A second lecture was then delivered by Dr.
Astrid Meier (“Recht denken und Recht setzen: Zum
Praxisbezug islamischer Rechtsliteratur“) which focused on
practical aspects in Ottoman Damascus in the 17th
and 18th century. She had discussed the topic
with Lutz and the connections between Mamluk and Ottoman
law. Lutz’ activities as a librarian were mentioned in
Patrick Franke’s paper and it brought back many memories of
past time conferences, telephone talks, visits in Halle,
shared beers in bars after long conference days. Lutz’
family was present as well, his parents and his wife and one
could see the deep pain on their faces. I talked briefly
with Mrs. Wiederhold and she is battling very much with the
disaster that befell her. Their small son Edgar (7 months
old) is well and looks just like Lutz she said …
I also learned about the
future of Halle’s “SSG”, Sondersammelgebiet = National
Middle East and North Africa Collection and its management
which was decided in a – for me - somehow surprising way.
After the responsible committee couldn’t agree on a
successor for Lutz they opted for a collective direction
between two longstanding associates of the SSG, Dr. Volker
Adam (responsible for the Turkish and Turkic Section) and
Susanne Reich (working in Arabic and Semitic Studies). Let’s
wish them all the best for the difficult tasks ahead!
Altogether it was a
dignified ceremony and I thought it was a very good idea by
the people who planned it to organize this event. It was a
seven hours round-trip in the train for me and made me
think very much on the person you once knew and who isn’t
there anymore.
Andreas
--
Dr.
Andreas Drechsler
Bibl.-Oberrat
Universitätsbibliothek
Bamberg
PF
2705
96018
Bamberg
Tel.:
0951/863-1530
Fax:
0951/863-4530
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