DAHLMANN, JOSEPH. - Jesuit Orientalist, b. in Koblenz on 14 Oct. 1861, d. in Tokyo on 22 June 1930. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1878 at Exaeten. Destined at first to teach in Bombay, he studied Oriental philology and archaeology for 3 years in Vienna under the great Sanskritist Buhler, then in Berlin, where he took his doctorate (1893-1900).
From this period come his highly esteemed technical studies, such as Das Mahâbhârata als Epos und Rechtsbuch, Berlin 1895; Das Nirvana. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte des Buddhismus, 1896; Buddha, ein Kulturbild des Ostens, 1898; Die Genesis des Mahâbhârata, 1899, etc. Of more general missiological interest is the historical study: Die Sprachkunde und die Missionen, Freiburg im Br. 1891.
Made editor of the periodical Stimmen aus Maria Laach, in Luxembourg in 1902, he made a three-year journey through China, Japan and India. One of the fruits was his most widely circulated work: Indische Fahrten, 2 vols., Freiburg im Br. 1908, 2nd enlarged ed. 1927. But scarcely had he landed in Europe when he had obtained from the general of the Society and from Pius X himself the return of the Jesuits to the scene of their ancient Japanese missions. He decided on the foundation of a Catholic university in Tokyo, went there among the first three (1908, the first German missionary in Japan) and, through his great authority, was one of the principal promoters of the laborious ascent of the "Sophia Daigaku" (University of Wisdom). There he held the chairs of German literature and Indian philosophy and also taught, for some years, German literature and Greek in the same imperial university. Of the numerous writings of this period, the following are cited here: Die Thomaslegenden und die ältesten Beziehungen des Christentums zum Fernen Osten, Freiburg im Br. 1912; Japans älteste Beziehungen zum Westen 1542-1614, ibid. 1923; The Great Tokyo Earthquake, New York 1924.
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Edmond Lamalle