DAHLMANN, Joseph. Koblenz 14.10.1861 — Tokyo 22.6.1928. Father. S.J. German Indologist, later in Japan. Son of a tailor, Johann Simon D., and Catharina Schulten, educated in 1873-78 at Feldkirchen Jesuit College, joined the S.J. in the age of 17 in 1878. Studies in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Puerto Rico, then Indology at Vienna (under Bühler) and in 1893-1900 at Berlin. Ph.D. 1900? Berlin (not in Indology). Intended to become Professor of Sanskrit at the Jesuit College in Bombay. From 1900 to 1908 living in Luxembourg. In 1902-05 he travelled three years in Asia: in China, Japan, South-East Asia and India. In 1908 moved to Japan, where he then taught German literature and Indian philosophy at the Catholic University of Tokyo from 1913 and 1914-24 also German and Greek literature at Imperial University, where his old friend from Berlin days Anesaki was the Professor of Sanskrit. Dahlmann was also one of the founders of Tokyo Catholic University. He was not bad scholar, but often he defended wrong ideas with great acuteness (Garbe). He defended the idea of the Mahābhārata being the work of one single author and saw much Christian influence in ancient India, especially in Mahāyāna.
Publications: Die Sprachkunde und die Missionen. 11+128 p. Freiburg i.Br. 1891, tr. into Italian 1892 and Spanish 1894; Die Thomaslegende und die ältesten Beziehungen des Christentums zum fernen Osten im Lichte der indischen Altertumskunde. 4+174 p. Freiburg i. Br. 1912.
– Das Mahābhārata als Epos und Rechtsbuch. 20+304 p. B. 1895; Die Genesis des Mahābhārata. 34+290 p. B. 1899; Mahābhārata-Studien. 1-2. B. 1899.
– “Der Materialismus in Indien”, Stimmen aus Maria Laach 57, 1897, 117-127, 278-289.
– Das Nirwâna. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte des Buddhismus. 214 p. B. 1896; Buddha. Ein Culturbild des Ostens. 220 p. B. 1898.
– Das altindische Volkstum und seine Bedeutung für die Gesellschaftskunde. 134 p. Köln 1899; Der Idealismus der indischen Religionsphilosophie im Zeitalter der Opfermystik. 140 p. Freiburg i.Br. 1901; Die Sāṁkya-Philosophie als Naturlehre und Erlösungslehre nach dem Mahābhārata. 32+294 p. B. 1902.
– Indische Fahrten. 1-2. Freiburg i.Br. 1908 (a travel-book), 2nd rev. ed. 1-2. 17+344, 15+311 p. 63+60 pl. Freiburg i.Br. 1927.
– Japans älteste Beziehungen zum Westen 1542–1614. 72 p. Freiburg i. Br. 1923; Le Japon: terre de fidélité. Louvain 1926.
Sources: C. Hentze, Art.As. 4, 1930/32, 73; W. Kratz, N.D.B. 3, 1957, 481; *G. Schurhammer, Die katholischen Missionen 58, 1930, 278-280; Stache-Rosen 1990, 143f.; briefly D.B.E. 2, 1995, 430; German Wikipedia.
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