F. M. Trautz (1877–1952) and the German-Japanese relations from the German Empire to the Nazi Regime

弗里德里希·马克斯·特劳茨（Friedrich Max Trautz, 1877-1952）在20世纪上半叶的德日关系中担任过各种职务，包括军官、日本学者和研究所所长。在作为德国军队总参谋部的日本专家参加了日俄战争的考试后，他选择了学术生涯：1921年，他以日本研究的博士论文第一个从柏林大学毕业，1927年，他在那里获得了“复职”（教授资格）。此后，他在两次世界大战期间担任德日文化交流的重要职位，如柏林日本研究所的首任德国所长（1926-1930）和京都德国研究所的首任所长（1934-1938）。尽管有这样的记录，他在德日关系方面的工作如今基本上被遗忘了，他的遗产在研究中没有得到充分利用。该项目旨在揭示特劳茨对德日关系的参与，重建他在学术和文化调解领域的活动，并在各自的学术和政治历史背景下对其进行评估。这项研究的基础是特劳茨在德国和日本的大量遗产，这些遗产几乎完整地记录了他在人生不同阶段的努力。这些资源的特点是媒介的多样性，因为特劳茨不像他那个时代的主流日本研究那样是文字学的，他强烈依赖于视觉和光学媒体。因此，在很长一段时间里，他的财产被认为是一个没有明确概念的大杂烩。然而，现在，它的多样性促进了一种新颖的传记方法，以多维度重建他的活动及其历史背景。本研究主要从三个方面来考察他的工作：作为一名专门研究日本的军官，作为一名研究日本的学者，以及作为两所文化研究所的所长。因此，以一部全面的特劳茨传记的形式，有可能弥合日本研究史学和德日文化政治交流方面的巨大差距。

Friedrich Max Trautz (1877–1952) filled various roles within and for German-Japanese rela-tions during the first half of the 20th century: army officer, scholar of Japan, and director of institutes. After undertaking an examination of the Russo-Japanese War as a Japan specialist with the General Staff of the German army, he chose an academic career: In 1921 he was the first to graduate from Berlin University with a PhD thesis in Japanese studies, in 1927 he received his “Habilitation” (qualification to work as a professor) there. Afterwards, he held key positions in German-Japanese cultural exchange during the interwar period as the first German director of the Japan Institute in Berlin (1926–1930) and the first director of the German Research Institute in Kyoto (1934–1938). In spite of this track record his work for German-Japanese relations has been largely forgotten nowadays and his estate has not been sufficiently utilized in research. This project aims to shed light on Trautz’s participation in German-Japanese relations, reconstruct his activities in the fields of scholarship and cultural mediation and evaluate them in their respective historical contexts within academia and politics. The foundation for this study is laid by Trautz’s very voluminous estate, located at various places in Germany and Japan, which almost completely documents his efforts in the different phases of his life. These resources are distinguished by their medial diversity, since Trautz, unlike the mainstream of Japanese studies in his time, which was philological, strongly relied on visual and optical media. For a long time, therefore, his estate was considered a hodgepodge without any clear concept. Now, however, its diversity facilitates a novel biographical approach towards a multidimensional reconstruction of his activities as well as their historical contexts. This research focusses on three aspects of his work: as an army officer specializing in Japan, as a scholar of Japan and as the director of two cultural institutes. Thus, it becomes possible to close large gaps in the historiography of Japanese studies and the cultural and political exchange between Germany and Japan in the form of a comprehensive biography of Trautz.