German Orient Institute bids fond farewell to librarian who called Beirut home for nearly a quarter-century

01 November 2006

INTERVIEW

BEIRUT: "I really don't feel as if I'm leaving," Wolf-Dieter Lemke smiles, "only shifting my center to someplace else. It's unlikely to be always in Berlin. It's very dark there in winter." Over the past 22 years Lemke has become an institution in Beirut's scholarly and cultural circles, or rather an institution within an institution. Many know him as the librarian of the German Orient Institute Beirut (OIB), which - based in a 19th-century villa in Zoqaq al-Blat - has itself been a cornerstone of scholarly life here since 1961.

Others might recognize him as the author of "Staging the Orient: Fin de Siecle Popular Visions." His learned coffee-table book on late 19th-century European representations (and selective absorptions) of "the Orient" - based on his own extensive collection of assorted visual media from the period - was published by Dar an-Nahar in 2004.

Al-Jazeera viewers may recognize him from the profile of his life and work that ran in a recent episode of the series "Friends of the Arabs."

"A regrettable title," Lemke winces slightly. "Very condescending sounding."

It so happens Lemke's time in Beirut has been bounded by Israeli aggression. He arrived here shortly before the 1982 invasion and was ordered to evacuate during the siege of 2006. Many Lebanese have been talking about quitting Lebanon since this last war, having lost confidence in the country. Though bewildered that this war was allowed to happen, Lemke doesn't share their sentiment.

Lemke-the-librarian never studied library sciences formally. An orientalist by training, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on 20th-century reform at Cairo's Al-Azhar University. His habilitation [the second doctorate demanded of German academics who want to teach] was on the Egyptian poet Amal Dongol.

"A political poet," Lemke recalls. "His output was quite small but he was much appreciated by students and revolutionaries."

He was still working on his habilitation when he first set foot in Beirut in 1982, to attend a conference at the American University of Beirut.

"The institute's director asked if I'd like to work at the institute as a researcher. Some days later, the Israelis invaded," he recalls. "I finally took the job and returned to Beirut in 1984, becoming the institute's librarian in 1986. Then in 1987 someone affiliated [with] Hizbullah was arrested in Germany and it was considered too dangerous for Germans to remain in Beirut.

"It's like the story of so many people in this country," he shrugs. "You started out with a set of plans and had them changed by the war."

Lemke moved to Istanbul. Assuming he'd stay for a few months, he set about collecting titles on Ottoman and Turkish studies. He remained until 1994, his acquisitions forming the basis of the Orient Institute Istanbul. That library's collection now has 25,000 to 30,000 volumes, next to the Beirut library of around 130,000 volumes.

"In 1994," he smiles, "the new OIB director insisted I come back to Beirut."

The years have altered the face of both his discipline and his adopted profession.

"The whole outlook of orientalism has changed," he says. "When I began working, institutions were mainly interested in classical Islamic culture. My main interest was in the modern period. Because my early education was based in classical humanism, I wanted to work on something that was both outside Europe and modern.

"German orientalism was different from the disciplines in Britain and France. Germany didn't have any overseas colonies in the Muslim world, so the focus was on religious and cultural studies.

"One strand grew out of an interest in the life of Jesus, which produced a desire to compare early Christianity to other religions. Another strand was interested in philology [the study of the relationship between languages and their history, based on textual analysis], literature and cultural studies. Interest in the modern Middle East flourished briefly with Germany's efforts to extend its influence in the Ottoman Empire.

"Nowadays it's reversed. Ninety percent of students are interested in the modern Middle East but of course there are still some interested in the classical period. As a librarian I've tried to provide for both sides.

"I was asked to compile these libraries because of my knowledge as a scholar. There's still this need for knowledge of course but the librarian's work is much more technical now, while the discipline of oriental studies is exploding.

"When I started the library, there were a few authors in each country, a few presses that you kept in touch with. Nowadays it's difficult for an institution to do what we originally set out to do.

"Centers for European studies have their own specialized libraries and the same is true of Middle East libraries. To expect to have a specialized knowledge of everything published on and from the region from Morocco to Iran is impossible, much as you aspire to do so."

This diffusion of knowledge may be one of the factors behind the OIB's decision to spit Lemke's job in two. In the future there will be independent librarians in Istanbul and Beirut.

Beirut too has changed since Lemke first landed here.

"In the late 1980s," he recalls, "Downtown was a dangerous ruin. There were snipers. To make the five-minute walk from the institute to Riad al-Solh meant running into gunmen."

Lemke finds that the greatest change to come over the city hasn't been the war but rather the reconstruction.

"Many people remark upon how Beirut's character is being changed from a Mediterranean city to a Gulf city. You could have both, of course, but there seems little will for this."

As Beirut changed, so has the role of the OIB in the city's cultural life. The institute remained open throughout the 1975-1990 Civil War, though its role in the city was necessarily proscribed.

From 1984 to 1987, Lemke recalls, "the director warned scholars interested in the contemporary Middle East to say they were studying language or literature rather than politics."

When Angelika Neuwirth became director in 1994, she brought an activist's ethic to the post that was reflected in the OIB's mission.

"As an academic discipline," he says, "German orientalism has always had difficulties with the present. The thrust was in learning to read oriental languages, to read classical texts. There was no interest in contemporary literature or in learning to speak these languages. There was an urge to keep a distance from the contemporary Middle East.

"Sometimes you happen upon scholars like Angelika, who are based in classical literature but are very strong in contemporary literature as well."

"She believed the institute must be locally rooted and involved in contemporary Arab culture as well as classical culture. If the institute is only interested in the past, there's no reason for it to be in Beirut. I could just as easily fulfill that role in Germany.

"By the late 1990s, the OIB had become a lively meeting place. We had a dormitory frequented by visiting scholars and students whose interests extended beyond the grounds of the institute. When the [now defunct] Ayloul Festival started, the organizers used the OIB grounds as a staging area for events.

"One of my interests has been modern art - both Western and Eastern - and that's been reflected in the library's collection. I think it's vital that the institute serve the needs of people living here today as well as scholars studying the region."

One of the highlights of his tenure, he says, was the Conference of Middle Eastern Librarians (MELCOM), which the OIB co-hosted with the Bibliotheque Orientale in 2003 - the first time the conference was held in the region in 12 years. Its timing made the gathering more engaged than you might expect.

"During MELCOM," he recalls, "we prophesied what a disaster the Iraq invasion would bring to America - an invasion planned and executed by an administration that knows virtually nothing about the Middle East."

Lemke finds US ignorance of the region to be one of the sad continuities of his career.

"Lebanon's place in the region in terms of education, book production and a relatively free press means it could be so very influential in encouraging the spread of democracy in the Middle East," he says.

"What I found striking during this last Israeli attack is that Washington, which claims to want to encourage the spread of democracy, didn't protect this country. Instead of encouraging Lebanon, protecting it, allowing it to flourish, the Americans let the Israelis attack it. It's a nightmare."

In the meantime, the role of the OIB has changed. With the new director, Manfred Kropp, came different priorities. Originally associated with the German Society of Oriental Studies - which is funded by the German Ministry of Research and Technology but independent of it -the institute has shifted in recent years to fall under the administrative umbrella of the German Humanities Institutes Abroad Foundation.

Lemke has seen many good things come and go, but he isn't maudlin about the future.

"I don't see myself in the park feeding pigeons," he laughs. "I don't really feel like retiring, so this change means a new start more than an ending. When I return there are plans to make some exhibitions on European pictorial representations of the Middle East - from my collection.

"To be honest, I'm looking forward to opening the books that I bought here but never had the chance to read."