BEYTHAN, Karl August Hermann. Teichel bei Rudolstadt, Thüringen 29.5.1875 — 1945?. German Missionary and Indologist (Tamil Scholar). Son of a farmer. After Mission School in Leipzig in 1895-1901 he was ordained priest and sent to India. Arrived in February 1902, he worked in Erode, at Fabrizius School in Madras and in 1905-09 in Kumbakonam and Chidambaram. He returned to Germany in 1909 in order to study medicine and become a missionary doctor. In 1910 he moved to Berlin, where he taught at a school and was later appointed a Lecturer in Tamil at Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen (then Auslandshochschule and Auslandswissenschaftliche Fakultät) in 1933/34-1944/45. He was a nazi, who is said to have translated Hitler’s Mein Kampf into Tamil. On 20th September 1945 he was arrested by Russians in Berlin and was never heard of again (one source, stsg.de, claims he died in a camp in Frankfurt an der Oder in 25.12.1945). Married, at least one son.

Publications: Praktische Grammatik der Tamilsprache. 11+225 p. Leipzig 1943.

– Was ist Indien. 15+187 p. Indien 1. Heidelberg 1942.

– Die soziale Frage in Indien. 168 p. Heidelberg 1943.

Sources: Mohanavelu 1993, 197; Stacie-Rosen 1990, 185; lmw-mission.de/de/missionar-157.html (with photo); photo in Rau 100.