Ernst Schwarz (chinese 恩斯特·施華滋 / 施华滋, 6 August 1916, Vienna – 6 September 2003, Münichreith) was an Austrian sinologist, translator and author.
Life
Ernst Josef Schwarz was born as the youngest of four siblings in Vienna-Hietzing. His Jewish parents, Berta (née Stern, 1881–1926) and Desiderius Schwarz (1872–1935), owned a prosperous merchant business on Mariahilfer Straße. Having grown up in a sheltered environment, he began to study medicine in 1935 and changed later to the Faculty of Philosophy – Egyptology, at the University of Vienna. After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, he was forced to leave the universitySee also Johannes Koll (ed.): "Säuberungen" an österreichischen Hochschulen 1934–1945. Voraussetzungen, Prozesse, Folgen. Böhlau, Wien [u.o.] 2017 and, shortly thereafter, the country, as he was doubly endangered – as a Jew due to the racial policies and additionally due his prohibited social democratic activities. While his two sisters Lilli (married Hofstätter) and Francisca (married Fischl) managed to move to the United States, he emigrated with his brother Egon by sea to Shanghai. This city was one of the very few places in the world that took in Jews and other refugees without visas or financial resources at that time. Initially, Schwarz lived with his also Jewish fiancée from Vienna, then his wife Annemarie (née Hecht, later married Pordes)Her father committed suicide in Vienna in December 1938, her mother was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp (in 1942?), and her uncle "killed himself" in Dachau concentration camp in May 1938. Gedenkbuch Her memories of Shanghai were published in an [sic] German audiobook: ""Wir waren voller Hoffnung."" von Lerke von Saalfeld – Hörbuch Download – 2016. See also Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in the French Concession. In Shanghai he learned Chinese through self-study, while he worked as a physical education teacher. Occasionally he stayed in Buddhist monasteries, where he began studying classical Chinese. However, during the Japanese occupation in World War II, living conditions for Jewish emigrants and exiles changed dramatically in the Shanghai Ghetto from 1941 onwards (Pacific War). Survival became increasingly difficult, there was hardly any food,For the situation, see, for example, the "Aufruf an alle juedischen Maenner und Frauen Shanghais des Vorstandes und der Repraesentanz der Juedischen Gemeinde vom 11. Januar 1942" (Emergency Proclamation from the Jüdische Gemeinde to residents of the Ghetto), reprinted in Ernst G. Heppner: Shanghai Refuge. A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln & London 1993, illustration between pp. 76/77. and racial persecution threatened once again.Testimonies of contemporary witnesses and literature references can be found, for example, in Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Search Results For two years, he found protection from persecution in a Buddhist monastery in southern Shanghai, led by Fan Cheng (范诚).Chang Kai (常恺), original in China Media (华传媒), accessible among others at: "谍影重重 "的奥地利汉学家——我所认识的施华滋教授（上）_中国 However, the marriage fell apart during this difficult time of war and occupation.
In 1945, after divorcing his wife, he worked in Nanjing as a translator. During his employment at the National Central Library in Nanjing (Zhōngyāng túshūguǎn, now Nanjing Library), he collaborated with the poet Mao Yumei (茅于美)For the literary scholar and her later lyrical work, see for example, 中国人民大学文学院 and 茅于美的诗词全集、作品集(共140首)_古诗词名句_国学荟. Her father was the famous bridge construction expert in China, Mao Yisheng; he prevented a marriage with Ernst Schwarz ("谍影重重 "的奥地利汉学家——我所认识的施华滋教授（上）_中国). on the prestigious project of translating Shen Deqian's extensive collection of ancient poetry sources (古詩源, Gǔshīyuánhttps://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%8F%A4%E8%A9%A9%E6%BA%90) into English.Ernst Schwarz: So sprach der Weise, p. 676. In 1946–47 he also taught English literature at the Private University of Nanking. From 1947 to 1950, he was secretary at the Austrian Legation in Nanjing.卷名:奧國公使館人員動態(020-990600-1606)(4748728) He was involved here when, in 1949, with the help of US Ambassador John Leighton Stuart, good relations were to be established between the newly founded People's Republic of China and the USA.See K. Hermann (2012) p. (63–)64: The role of mediator involved signals from the Chinese Communist leadership to the US government. American Ambassador Leighton Stuart had concluded from the clearly emerging victory of the communists at the turn of 1948/49 that it would be necessary to come to terms with them, but was ultimately rebuffed by the Truman administration, which had committed itself to the Cold War with the Soviet Union. As early as 1949/50, the Chinese leadership did not want to commit itself unilaterally to the Soviet Union, but placed great hopes on cooperation with Western countries. During his visit to Moscow in 1950, Mao Zedong had just experienced Stalin's dictates toward China. (Zhou Enlai and J. L. Stuart knew each other well from their university days and held each other in high regard. To the political situation see also John Leighton Stuart and U.S.-Chinese Communist Rapprochement in 1949: Was There Another "Lost Chance in China"? | The China Quarterly | Cambridge Core.) In addition to his official duties, Ernst Schwarz initiated the establishment of the Sino-Austrian Cultural Association (SACA) with the support of envoy Felix Stumvoll.Regarding the person of Dr. Felix Stumvoll (1883–1951) and his role during this time of political upheaval, including the goals of the Sino-Austrian Cultural Association (SACA), see Gerd Kaminski Vergessene Verdienste. Dr. Felix Stumvoll: erster und letzter österreichischer Gesandter in der Republik China, in: China-Report 111–112/1991, pp. 40–71 and the Journal of the Sino-Austrian Cultural Association (SACAJ) SACA-journal | WorldCat.org. Zhu Jiahua, Minister of Education in the Kuomintang government, played a major role in establishing important contacts for this purpose. Among the renowned supporters of SACA was Zong Baihua (宗白華 / 宗白华),For his work see also the essays in An Aesthetics Anthology. Routledge, 2023. with whom Schwarz would share a lifelong friendship. But the legation was closed in 1950 (in this phase of the Cold War, particularly after the beginning of Korean War, also Austria breaks off diplomatic relations with the now Maoist China).For the history, see also the article by Gerd Kaminski: Hans H. Hajek, Architekt, „Konsul" und Tausendsassa, in: China Report 155–156/2009, pp. 47–70. Subsequently, he worked again as a translator, this time for the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing. From 1958 to 1960, he taught English at the Hangzhou University (Hángzhōu Dàxué, now Zhejiang University). Here he met Xia Chengtao (夏承焘) in 1958, who is considered a pioneer of Chinese philology. As a professor and member of the Academy, he conducted research on the poetry of the Tang and Song dynasties and became an important discussion partner and friend to Ernst Schwarz. But during the Great Leap Forward, he was physically ill, increasingly mentally and morally exhausted, and once again politically persecuted, he knew that he had to leave People's Republic of China as quickly as possible. But only a few – socialist – countries still had diplomatic representations in China, but which were necessary for obtaining permission to leave China. The consulate of the GDR offered rescue and promised at the same time work at a university.
Together with his wife, Amina Agischewa, whom he had married in 1953, and his little daughter, via the cargo ship route North Korea, Burma, Great Britain, and Belgium, he finally arrived in the GDR. Between 1961 and 1970, he taught Chinese language and literature as a research assistant and later as a lector at the East Asian Institute of the Humboldt University in East Berlin. In 1965, he received his doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on the problems of Qu Yuan research. After he retired from the University, he worked as a freelance translator and held occasional lectures at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. Chancellor of Austria Bruno Kreisky arranged him a teaching position at the Diplomatic Academy. He was personally acquainted with Trade Minister Fritz Bock, a childhood friend, Foreign Minister Rudolf Kirchschläger, Science Minister Hertha Firnberg, Health Minister Ingrid Leodolter, Friedrich Hoess diplomat, and Chief Magistrate Josef Bandion, among others. Over the years, Schwarz made various efforts to expand cultural and economic relations between the GDR, Austria, and China.This also applied to the personal support of Chinese writers in the GDR and Austria, who greatly appreciated his experiences and classical education, see for example Jin Tao's (金弢) reminiscing about "恩斯特 施瓦茨" (ēnsītè shīwǎcí = Ernst Schwarz, the family name is not in the original Chinese transliteration) in China News Weekly (2021-05-10 08:52): 回忆施瓦茨-中新网. His numerous contacts, in connection with his Austrian citizenship, but also partly his memberships in the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists, in the Writers' Association of the GDR, and in PEN International (PEN Center of the GDR or German PEN Center East)1978–1995, see Dorothée Bores: Das ostdeutsche P.E.N.-Zentrum 1951 bis 1998: Ein Werkzeug der Diktatur? (de Gruyter, Berlin 2010) and the archive of Akademie der Künste (Berlin) – easydb.archive. were helpful. After Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening-up policy allowed direct contact and travel again, Schwarz met up with an old friend from his time in Nanjing: Wang Zhimin (王志民), who had survived the various persecutions and deportations as a "rightist deviant". The two developed various exchange projects with China.
In 1993, Schwarz returned from Berlin to Vienna. In 1994, it came to light that he worked for the Ministry of State Security of the GDR (called "Stasi"); he admitted his activities as an unofficial collaborator, without publicly repenting it. He retired to Münichreith in the Waldviertel, Lower Austria, where he spent his latter years.