Annemarie Schimmel Research Centre

The Annemarie Schimmel Research Centre at the University of Erfurt is dedicated to researching the extensive estate of the world-renowned Islamic and religious scholar Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003). The centre focuses on her early academic biography, her intellectual networks and her role in the global history of knowledge in religious studies.

Annemarie Schimmel was born in 1922 in Erfurt and spent her youth here. More than half a century later, she was a member of the board of trustees of the re-established University of Erfurt and bequeathed a significant part of her extensive estate, including several thousand books with her bookplate, to the university out of attachment to her hometown.

Based on archival research, the research centre reconstructs central stages of Schimmel's life and work from 1939 to 1959, from her student days in National Socialist Berlin to her academic activities in Marburg and her work as a translator and scholar in Turkey and post-war Germany.