About
1890-1943
Heinrich Zimmer Jr. was influenced by the writings of John Woodroff and C.G. Jung in his interpretations of Indian myths and legends. He also studied philosophy and yoga.
Heinrich Zimmer was born in Greifswald on 6.12.1890. His father, Heinrich Friedrich Zimmer (1851- 1910) was a professor of Indology and comparative linguistics.
Heinrich Zimmer Jr. studied Hebrew literature, German philology and history of art in Berlin. Later, he devoted himself exclusively to Indology. He obtained a doctorate in 1913 for the thesis Studien zur Geschichte der Gotras ("Studies on the History of the Gotras"), 1913. He served in World War I. He qualified as a university professor in Greifswald with a thesis on a Buddhist text found in Central Asia. In 1922 he became reader in Heidelberg. The Nazis dismissed Zimmer in 1939 because of his Jewish wife. He went to Oxford where he lectured at Balliol College. In May 1940, he emigrated to America with his family. He lectured at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore before he became a visiting professor in Columbia University, New York. He died of pneumonia on 20.3.1943 in New Rochelle, New York.