{"id":9971,"date":"2010-11-12T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idp.bl.uk\/?p=9971"},"modified":"2023-09-11T14:34:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T13:34:05","slug":"idp-collections-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idp.bl.uk\/blog\/idp-collections-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"IDP Collections in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This summary of the history and make-up of the collections held in German institutions was produced by the IDP team, led by Susan Whitfield, in December 2005. The information was last updated in November 2010. While we are keeping this text up as a background resource, please be aware that new information may have come to light since its initial writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German Turfan Expeditions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collections: Content and Access<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collections: On IDP<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The German Turfan expeditions<\/h2>\n\n\n

At the end of the nineteenth century, reports by European travellers and scholars about discoveries and finds along the Silk Roads aroused the interest of the Germans for the study of the hitherto unknown cultures. A decision to conduct their own expeditions to East Turkestan was taken immediately after the presentation of sensational text finds from the area at the twelfth international Congress of Orientalists in Rome in the year 1899.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the expedition planned by Albert Gr\u00fcnwedel, director of the Indian Department of the Museum f\u00fcr V\u00f6lkerkunde, was delayed until September 1902 because it proved difficult to find the necessary financial support. Finally, on the 11th August 1902 the expedition started with a fund of 40,000 marks that was composed of public funds of the museum for a quarter of the sum, donations by the industrialist Krupp and the sponsor James Simon, and a contribution by the ‘Ethnological Aid Committee Berlin’; (Ethnologisches Hilfskommitee Berlin). The expedition team consisted of Albert Gr\u00fcnwedel as director, the Orientalist Georg Huth and a museum technician, Theodor Bartus, a former sailor. The expedition reached its chosen destination, the oasis of Turfan, at the beginning of December 1902. Turfan was to lend its name to all four German expeditions and to the collections comprising their discoveries, even though investigations and excavations were also carried out in neighbouring areas. Gr\u00fcnwedel regarded it as his primary task to document the ruined sites discovered by them with accurate plans and to indicate the art-objects on these. The work and results of the first expedition, which had the permission of the Chinese authorities and the support of the local Uighur rulers, are described in his Bericht \u00fcber arch\u00e4ologische Arbeiten in Idikutschari und Umgebung im Winter 1902\u20131903<\/em> [Report on archaeological work in Idikutshari and surrounds in the winter 1902\u20131093], that appeared in 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Albert von Le Coq. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften \u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The amazing results and discoveries of this first expedition led to approval for a continuation of the work by the newly-founded German section for the study of Central Asia, guided by H. Pischel and H. L\u00fcders. Because the next three expeditions were funded by the state, the second expedition is also termed the ‘First Royal Prussian Turfan expedition’. Albert von Le Coq, scientific collaborator at the museum, was given charge of it and together with Bartus he worked in oasis of Turfan from November 1904 until December 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third expedition, again under the leadership of Gr\u00fcnwedel, began with his arrival in Kashgar in December 1905. The two expeditions joined and the third expedition lasted until June 1907. In the middle of 1906 Le Coq, beset by illness, set out on the journey homeward. Gr\u00fcnwedel and Bartus continued work, which now for the first time extended to the oases to the west of Turfan, including K\u00efz\u00efl with its extensive complexes of Buddhist caves. Reports on the second and third expeditions are Gr\u00fcndwedel’s Altbuddhistische Kultst\u00e4tten in Chinesisch-Turkistan<\/em> (1912) and Le Coq’s popular book Auf Hellas Spuren in Ostturkistan<\/em> (1926).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final and fourth expedition began in June 1913 and was completed in February 1914 shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. It was under the leadership of Le Coq and primarily continued the work in the area of Kucha begun during the third expedition. Le Coq published a report on this journey in Von Land und Leuten in Ostturkistan in 1928.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following books Le Coq presented his scientific evaluation of the discoveries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n