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·特拉茨(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：军官、日本学者和研究所所长。在作为德军总参谋部的日本专家参加了一次日俄战争的考试后，他选择了学术生涯：1921年，他第一个从柏林大学毕业，获得了日本研究的博士论文，1927年，他在那里获得了“合格资格”(教授工作资格)。后来，他在两次世界大战期间担任德日文化交流的关键职位，成为柏林日本研究所的第一位德国主任(1926-1930)和京都德国研究所的第一位主任(1934-1938年)。尽管有这样的记录，但他为德日关系所做的工作如今基本上已被遗忘，他的遗产在研究中也没有得到充分利用。该项目旨在阐明特拉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这些活动进行评估。这项研究的基础是特拉茨非常庞大的遗产，位于德国和日本的不同地方，几乎完整地记录了他生命中不同阶段的努力。这些资源的区别在于它们的媒介多样性，因为Trautz不同于他那个时代的主流日本研究，它强烈依赖视觉和光学媒介。因此，在很长一段时间里，他的遗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的传记方法，以多维重建他的活动以及他们的历史背景。本文的研究主要集中在三个方面：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，有可能以特劳茨的全面传记的形式弥合日本研究史学和德国与日本之间的文化和政治交流方面的巨大空白。

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.