13.10.2023

In Memoriam Prof Dr Anil Bhatti

Prof Bhatti passed away in Delhi on October 11, 2023.

In Anil Bhatti, we lose not only a revered colleague but a warmhearted and intellectually stimulating friend and above all a role model in terms of scholarly integrity, political courage, magnanimity, and humanity. 
He was Professor Emeritus at the Centre of German Studies of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Bhatti was one of the most important Germanists in India, who has influenced generations of students and colleagues. He was president of the Indian Goethe Society from 1998 to 2012 and honorary president since 2012. In 1971, he had completed his doctorate on Clemens Brentano at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and since then had moved through Europe, the USA, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He particularly enjoyed spending long periods of time in Vienna: From 1996 to 2001, he was president of the Institute for Research and Promotion of Austrian and International Literary Processes in Vienna (INST). 
Bhatti has received many prestigious awards for his work on Goethe, Romanticism, Viennese Modernism, and cultural theory. In 2005 he received the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2011 the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class. In 2021, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich. He was connected with the University of Tübingen in many ways, not only with the Institute of German Language and Literatures, but also the English Department and the Institute of Media Studies. In 2011, initiated by the Institute of German Language and Literatures, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded him the highest honor for international scholars, the Humboldt Research Award. 
Anil Bhatti introduced a new paradigm into the debates on globalism, interculturality, and universalism with the concept of cultural similarity, which he saw in juxtaposition and opposition to notions of cultural difference and identity. "Similarity – A Paradigm for Culture Theory" was published in 2018 and became an internationally acclaimed publication.
To honor his memory means to strive for an understanding between cultures, religions, states and people under all circumstances and especially in difficult times. We, the colleagues of the University of Tübingen, mourn the loss of our friend who loved to stroll through our city, who loved our library, who loved the Hölderlin Tower, and who traveled the long way from India again and again to stay, think, write, and exchange ideas with us.

Prof. Dr. Dorothee Kimmich (Institute of German Language and Literatures)
Prof. Dr. Susanne Marschall and Prof. Dr. Klaus Sachs-Hombach (Institute of Media Studies)