Professor honored for German language work
Ahn Sam-huan
Ahn, an honorary professor at the Department of German Language and Literature of Seoul National University, received the Federal Cross of Merit at a symposium hosted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. The symposium took place from Wednesday till Friday at the Grand Ambassador Hotel of Seoul. Rolf Mafael, German Ambassador to Korea, awarded Ahn with the order on behalf of German President Joachim Gauck.
The 68-year-old scholar, who earned a doctoral degree in German literature at the University of Bonn in the 1970s and attended the University of Augsburg as a Humboldt Foundation research fellow in the 1980s, was praised for his contributions to German language and literature studies in Korea. He served as a German language and literature professor at Yonsei University from 1976 to 1991 and joined Seoul National University in 1992.
A former chairman of the Humboldt-Club Korea, Ahn headed various academic societies, including the Korean Comparative Literature Association, the Korean Society for German Linguistics and the Korean Goethe Society.
Ahn translated important works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Mann, Martin Walser and Gunter Grass from German to Korean.
This year marks the 130th anniversary of the diplomatic establishment between Korea and Germany. According to the German Embassy in Seoul, various events to celebrate the bilateral tie will take place throughout the year, the international symposium hosted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was one of them.
At the three-day seminar, 200 scientists and scholars from Korea, China, Japan, Germany and the United States as well as those who got scholarships from the foundation participated in the exchanges on various disciplines. ?
BY SER MYO-JA [myoja@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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