The Orient in the Occident

“A Friend of India”

The philologist Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) from Dessau

Lecture and exhibition opening
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Dessau Archive Network (Old Water Tower),
Heidestraße 21,
06842 Dessau-Roßlau

When he died in 1900, people around the world mourned his passing. Obituaries described him as “a friend of India” and “the world’s greatest philologist.” They were referring to Friedrich Max Müller, a philologist born in Dessau in 1823 who had achieved such international renown as a professor at Oxford through his research into Sanskrit and numerous seminal publications. Friedrich Max Müller will be the focus of an event on Tuesday, January 10, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the lecture hall of the Dessau Archive Network, Heidestraße 21 (Alter Wasserturm). The event will feature a lecture by archive director Dr. Frank Kreißler on the life and scientific work of the great philologist, as well as the opening of a cabinet exhibition entitled “Orient im Okzident, Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900). A Friend of India,” in which numerous documents, pictorial evidence, and books from Friedrich Max Müller’s estate, located in the municipal archives (Anhaltische Landesbücherei Dessau), will be on display.

Friedrich Max Müller was born on December 6, 1823, in Dessau, the son of poet Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827) and Adelheid Basedow, a granddaughter of Philanthropinum founder Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–1790). After attending school in Dessau, Friedrich Max Müller prepared for his Abitur (university entrance qualification) at the famous Nicolai Gymnasium in Leipzig from 1836 onwards, which he then took at the Francisceum in Zerbst. From 1841 to 1844, he studied philology and philosophy at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin, with a particular interest in Indology and Sanskrit. His academic work took him to Paris in 1845 and London in 1846. In 1854, he was appointed full professor of modern languages and literature at Oxford, where he became the first holder of the chair of comparative religious studies in 1868. Friedrich Max Müller published many outstanding academic works, including the 50-volume “Sacred Books of the East” and “India What Can It Teach Us?” (London, 1883), his most popular book. Friedrich Max Müller received numerous orders and awards for his life’s work. He died on October 28, 1900, in Oxford. His works are still used by students of Indology and Sanskrit research all over the world. The German Goethe Institutes in India operate under the name “Max Mueller Bhavan.”