Coolblack5 at 01:12, 22 February 2026

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{{Short description|German Indologist and linguist (1890–1943)}}
{{About|the Indologist (1890–1943)|the Celticist and Indologist (1851–1910)|Heinrich Zimmer (Celticist)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Heinrich Zimmer
| image = Heinrich Zimmer 1933.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Heinrich Zimmer (1933)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 6 December 1890
| birth_place = [[Greifswald]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date = 20 March 1943 (age 52)
| death_place = [[New Rochelle, New York]], US
| nationality =
| other_names =
| alma_mater = [[University of Berlin]]
| spouse = {{marriage|Christiane von Hofmannsthal|1929|}}
| known_for =
| occupation = Academic, [[Indologist]], linguist, and historian of South Asian art
}}
'''Heinrich Robert Zimmer''' (6 December 1890 – 20 March 1943) was a German [[Indologist]] and linguist, as well as a historian of South Asian art, most known for his works, ''Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization'' and ''Philosophies of India''. He was the most important German scholar in Indian [[philology]] after [[Max Müller]] (1823–1900).<ref name=hdl/>

==Early life and education==
He was born in [[Greifswald]], Germany. Zimmer began studying [[Sanskrit]] and [[linguistics]] at the [[University of Berlin]] in 1909. He earned his doctorate in 1914 with a thesis entitled ''Studien zur Geschichte der [[Gotra]]s'' and directed by [[Heinrich Lüders]].

He completed his Ph.D. in philology and comparative linguistics in 1914 at the University of Berlin.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0UABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128 |title = Heinrich Zimmer: Coming into His Own|isbn = 9781400863761|last1 = Case|first1 = Margaret H.|date = 2014-07-14| publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref>

==Career==
Between 1920 and 1924, he lectured at the [[University of Greifswald]], moving to [[Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg|Heidelberg University]] to fill the Chair of Indian Philology (1924–1938).<ref name=hdl>[http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/en/zimmer-chair/ Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Philosophy and Intellectual History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623154954/http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/en/zimmer-chair/ |date=2018-06-23 }} [[Heidelberg University]].</ref>

In 1938, he was dismissed by the [[Nazism|Nazis]] based on the fact that his Christian wife was the great-great-granddaughter of [[Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal|a Jewish Austrian]], and he emigrated to England, where between 1939 and 1940 he taught at [[Balliol College]], [[Oxford]]. In 1940 he moved to [[New Rochelle, New York]], where he eventually accepted a visiting lecturer position in [[philosophy]] at [[Columbia University]]. Here, [[Joseph Campbell]], who was then working on his first book, ''A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake'' (1944) attended his lectures. The two men became good friends.

Zimmer died unexpectedly of pneumonia in 1943, two years after his arrival in the United States. According to Joseph Campbell, "Zimmer was at the opening of what would have been the most productive period of his career. . . hardly had he begun to find his stride, however, when, suddenly stricken, he passed from full career to his death within seven days."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zimmer |first1=Heinrich |editor1-last=Campbell |editor1-first=Joseph |editor1-link=Joseph Campbell |title=Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization |date=1973 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=US |isbn=9788120807518 |page=v Editor's Foreword}}</ref> After Zimmer's death, Campbell was given the task of editing and posthumously publishing Zimmer's papers, which he did over the next 12 years, turning Zimmer's lecture notes into four books, in the Bollingen Series: ''Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization'', ''Philosophies of India'',<ref name="Watts1952">{{cite news |last1=Watts |first1=Alan W. |title=The Aim Is to Know; PHILOSOPHIES OF INDIA. By Heinrich Zimmer. Edited by Joseph Campbell. Illustrated. 687 pp. Bollingen Series XXVI. New York: Pantheon Books. $6. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1952/02/03/archives/the-aim-is-to-know-philosophies-of-india-by-heinrich-zimmer-edited.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 February 1952 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317142035/https://www.nytimes.com/1952/02/03/archives/the-aim-is-to-know-philosophies-of-india-by-heinrich-zimmer-edited.html |archive-date=17 March 2023 }}</ref> ''The Art of Indian Asia'',<ref name="TheArtofIndian1955">{{cite news |last1=Read |first1=Sir Herbert |title=Out of the Inner Life; THE ART OF INDIAN ASIA: Its Mythology and Transformations. By Heinrich Zimmer. Completed and edited by Joseph Campbell. With photographs by Eliot Elisofon and others. Vol. I, Text: 465 pp. Vol. II: 614 plates. Bollingen Series. New York: Pantheon Books. $17.50 up to August 15; $22.50 thereafter. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/07/03/archives/out-of-the-inner-life-the-art-of-indian-asia-its-mythology-and.html |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 July 1955}}</ref> and ''The King and the Corpse'', which in turn became Zimmer's lasting legacy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1488076/Heinrich-Zimmer|title=Heinrich Zimmer|publisher=Britannica.com}}</ref>

===Work===
{{Quote box| quote = "On all levels there are [[ritual]]s capable of transforming man. But it is everywhere the tradition and trend to rank the spiritual, sublime practices above the sensual and magical ones, since the general course of cultural development has favored the spiritual element over the material and feminine. This development has taken place under the predominance of the male principle. But with the cult of the Great [[Goddess]] in late [[Hinduism]], the archaic heritage of sensual earth-bound rites rises once again overwhelmingly to the zenith."<ref>Zimmer, Heinrich. ''The Indian World Mother'', [1938] pp. 91–92; from The Mystic Vision: Papers from The Eranos Yearbooks, Bollingen Series XXX, 6. Princeton University Press, 1968, Edited by Joseph Campbell and translated by Ralph Manheim.</ref>| source = Zimmer, ''The Indian World Mother'', (1938)| width = 50%| align = right}}
Zimmer's method was to examine religious images using their sacred significance as a key to their [[psychic]] transformation. His use of (Indian) philosophy and [[religious history]] to interpret art was at odds with traditional scholarship. His vast knowledge of [[Hindu mythology]] and philosophy (particularly [[Puranic]] and [[Tantra|Tantric]] works) gave him insights into the art, insights that were appreciated by [[Joseph Campbell]] among others. Campbell edited many of Zimmer's writings after his death. In the foreword to Zimmer's book, ''Artistic Form and Yoga in the [[Sacred]] [[Image]]s of India'', Campbell makes reference to a memorial to Heinrich Zimmer, which was read at the New York Oriental Club meeting in the spring of 1949: "Dr. Zimmer stood alone, forming a class by himself, not only for the wide range of subjects he was proficient in, but also for his unique genius of interpretation. . . Zimmer strove to understand both Eastern and Western ideas from Universal conceptions lying at the root of spiritual and [[psychological]] developments everywhere."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zimmer|first1=Heinrich|title=Artistic Form and Yoga in the Sacred Images of India|date=1990|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=0691072892|page=foreword|edition=First Princeton paperback printing}}</ref> The psychiatrist [[Carl Jung]] also developed a long-standing relationship with Zimmer, and incidentally edited a volume of Zimmer's entitled Der Weg zum Selbst (''The Way to the Self''). The two men first met in 1932, after which Zimmer, along with [[Richard Wilhelm (sinologist)|Richard Wilhelm]], became one of the few male friends of [[Jung]].

Zimmer is credited by many for the popularizing of [[Hindu art]] in the West, as he was the first to identify the radical difference between [[Western classical]] and [[Indian art]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/series/bshz.html |title=Works by Heinrich Zimmer, Completed and Edited by Joseph Campbell |publisher=Princeton University Press |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100720182616/http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/series/bshz.html |archivedate=2010-07-20 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1929 he married Christiane von Hofmannsthal (1902–1987), daughter of Austrian novelist [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]] and Gertrud ({{nee}} Schlesinger) von Hofmannsthal. Her younger brother, [[Raimund von Hofmannsthal]], was twice married, first to American heiress [[Ava Alice Muriel Astor]] (whose daughter from a later marriage eventually married Zimmer's son) and Lady Elizabeth Paget (a daughter of [[Charles Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey]]). Together, they were the parents of:

* Andreas "''Andrew''" Peter Zimmer (1930–2003), who married Joyce Hylton.<ref name="APZObit2003">{{cite news |title=Andrew Zimmer Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/andrew-zimmer-obituary?id=5483343 |via=Legacy.com |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=17 March 2023}}</ref>
* Clement Zimmer ({{Circa|1932}}–1955), who died while a student at [[Wadham College, Oxford]].<ref name="CZObit1955">{{cite news |title=AMERICAN FOUND DEAD AT OXFORD; Body of New York Student Discovered on the Campus -- Foul Play Is Doubted |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/03/13/archives/american-found-dead-at-oxford-body-of-new-york-student-discovered.html |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=13 March 1955}}</ref><ref name="1955FreakFall">{{cite news |title=STUDENT'S DEATH MISHAP; British Police Say Freak Fall Killed American Saturday |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/03/15/archives/students-death-mishap-british-police-say-freak-fall-killed-american.html |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=15 March 1955}}</ref>
* ''Michael'' Johannes der Baptist Karl Maximilian Heinrich Hugo Zimmer (1934–2008), who married, and later divorced, Emily Sophia Harding, a daughter of [[Ava Alice Muriel Astor]] (the former wife of Christiane's brother, [[Raimund von Hofmannsthal|Raimund]]) and English journalist Philip John Ryves Harding in 1963.<ref name="1963Engagement">{{cite news |title=Michael Zimmer Becomes Fiance Of Miss Harding; Graduate of Harvard to Wed Descendant of John Jacob Astor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/05/27/archives/michael-zimmer-becomes-fiance-of-miss-harding-graduate-of-harvard.html |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=27 May 1963}}</ref><ref name="1963Wedding">{{cite news |title=Michael Zimmer Weds Miss Emily S. Harding |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/06/30/archives/michael-zimmer-weds-miss-emily-s-harding.html |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 June 1963}}</ref> His longtime companion was Vera Graaf and his second wife was Véronique Sari.<ref name="MZObit2008">{{cite news |title=Paid Notice: Deaths ZIMMER, MICHAEL |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-940CE6D6133AF931A35752C1A96E9C8B63.html |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 2, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Cohen2008">{{cite news |last1=Cohen |first1=Stefanie |title=SALTWATER DAFFY |url=https://nypost.com/2008/11/30/saltwater-daffy/ |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=[[NY Post]] |date=30 November 2008}}</ref>

Zimmer died of pneumonia in New Rochelle, New York, on March 20, 1943.

===Schloss Prielau===
In 1932, his wife's widowed mother, Gerty von Hofmannsthal bought [[Schloss Prielau]] in [[Zell am See]] and began restoring the castle.<ref name="Sands2021">{{cite book |last1=Sands |first1=Philippe |title=Ruta de escape |date=20 January 2021 |publisher=Anagrama |isbn=978-84-339-4221-0 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bR4OEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA4-PA27 |access-date=16 March 2023 |language=es}}</ref> To avoid expropriation by the [[Nazi]]s due to the family's Jewish heritage, she wanted to give the castle away to Christiane and Heinrich Zimmer, who could then have sold the property to Gustav Kapsreiter, a friend of the family, but the sale, which was initially approved, was ultimately prohibited and the family property was expropriated. Kapsreiter's attempts to acquire the property were unsuccessful, instead the sculptor [[Josef Thorak]] was able to acquire the property for [[Reichsmark|ℛℳ]] 60,000, which at the time was described as a "small fifteenth-century residence, beautifully furnished and immaculately maintained".<ref name="Petropoulos2000">{{cite book |last1=Petropoulos |first1=Jonathan |title=The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany |date=30 March 2000 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-802968-7 |page=266 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSfkIvDejykC&pg=PA266 |access-date=16 March 2023 }}</ref> In 1947, however, Schloss Prielau was restituted to the [[Hofmann von Hofmannsthal|von Hofmannsthal]] family.<ref name="histouring">{{cite web |title=Schloss Prielau |url=https://www.histouring.com/en/historical-places/schloss-prielau/ |website=www.histouring.com |publisher=Histouring |access-date=16 March 2023 }}</ref>

== Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Philosophy and Intellectual History ==
A chair has been named after Heinrich Zimmer since 2010. The Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Indian Philosophy and Intellectual History is awarded by the Indian Council for [[Cultural]] Relations (ICCR) in New Delhi and is based both at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" and at the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University. The first holder of this new endowed chair in [[Indian philosophy]] and [[intellectual history]] was the Indian [[historian of science]] [[Dhruv Raina]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heidelberg |first=Uni |title=Cluster Asia and Europe – Uni Heidelberg: Indiens Botschafter eröffnete Heinrich Zimmer Chair |url=http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/de/aktuelles/nachrichten/detail/m/indian-ambassador-inaugurates-the-chair-for-philosophy-and-intellectual-history-1.html |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de |language=de}}</ref> Heeraman Tiwari, the second holder of the Heinrich Zimmer Chair,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heidelberg |first=Uni |title=Cluster Asia and Europe – Uni Heidelberg: Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Heeraman Tiwari |url=http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/de/aktuelles/nachrichten/detail/m/heinrich-zimmer-chair-for-heeraman-tiwari.html |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de |language=de}}</ref> was followed by Prof.[[Amiya Prosad Sen]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heinrich Zimmer Chair for Philosophy and Intellectual History |url=https://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/en/zimmer-chair/ |website=www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de}}</ref>

==Works==
*''Kunstform und Yoga im Indischen Kultbild'' (''Artistic Form and Yoga in the Sacred Images of India'' [1926];Translated and edited by Gerald Chapple, James B. Lawson and J. Michael McKnight [1984])
*''Maya: Der Indische Mythos''. (1936)
* ''Der Weg zum Selbst'' (The Way to the Self) (1944)
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jJmFDPkwj50C&q=Heinrich+Zimmer Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization]''. Edited by Joseph Campbell. (1946)
*''Hindu Medicine.''Edited by Ludwig Edelstein.(1948)
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cRYJDuzjd44C&q=Heinrich+Zimmer The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil]''. Edited by Joseph Campbell. (1948)
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bRQ5fpTmwoAC&q=Heinrich+Zimmer Philosophies of India]''. Edited by Joseph Campbell. (1953). {{ISBN|0-691-01758-1}}.
*''The Art of Indian Asia, its Mythology and Transformations''. Completed and edited by Joseph Campbell. (1955)
*''Heinrich Zimmer: Coming Into His Own''. Edited by Margaret H Case. (1994)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Case |first=Margaret H.|title=Heinrich Zimmer: coming into his own|year=1994|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-03337-4}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/zimmer1914 Heinrich Zimmer, Studien zur Geschichte der Gotras]
* [http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/zimmer1929 Heinrich Zimmer, Spiel um den Elefanten: ein Buch von indischer Natur]
* [http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/zimmer1930 Heinrich Zimmer, Ewiges Indien: Leitmotive indischen Daseins]

{{Yoga scholars}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmer, Heinrich}}
[[Category:German art historians]]
[[Category:German orientalists]]
[[Category:German Indologists]]
[[Category:20th-century mystics]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Greifswald]]
[[Category:Writers from New Rochelle, New York]]
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]
[[Category:People from Greifswald]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Heidelberg University]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Historians of Indian art]]
[[Category:20th-century German philologists]]
[[Category:20th-century German male writers]]

Heinrich Zimmer - Revision history

Coolblack5 at 01:12, 22 February 2026