Events
On October 28, 2025, I will give a presentation (in German) on “New Weapons and New Wounds: Military and Medicine during the Russo-Japanese War, 1904/05” at the Institute of Modern History, Regensburg University.
In June 2025, I published an article entitled “The Scholarly Pathfinder: Andō Hideharu’s ‘Wēbā kikō’ (Max Weber – A Travelogue, 1972)” in the journal Historická Sociologi 1 (2025), pp. 91-114 (Charles University Prague, Karolinum Press; open access).
Abstract: In 1969/70, Andō Hideharu (1921–1998), a Japanese historian of ideas, was a visiting professor at the Max Weber-Institute in Munich, Germany, for a period of one year. He was a harsh critic of Marianne Weber’s 1926 biography of her husband. During his tenure, he travelled to a number of places associated with Max Weber, with the aim of reconstructing his personal history. Andō literally followed Weber’s path from the cradle to the grave, though not necessarily in a chronological order. In a travelogue published in 1972, Andō recounted his experiences in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France, with a particular emphasis on interviews conducted with contemporaries of Max Weber who were still alive in 1969/70. Andō’s primary concern was in the personality of Max Weber, with a secondary focus on Weber’s work and the adaptation of Weber’s sociology for the study of Japanese modernity. The following article reconstructs Andō’s travel experiences in Europe by analysing his “Weber Travelogue”. It then discusses a bitter controversy that arose between Andō and certain colleagues in the context of Japanese Weber studies upon his return to Japan. Finally, the article assesses the merits and limitations of Andō’s “time travel” into Max Weber’s life through the lens of “Motivenforschung” (study of motives), a concept he drew from Weber’s methodological writings.
On 20 February, 2025, I was invited by the War Studies Research Group at the School of History, University of Leeds, to present a paper on “The Lessons of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904/05 – Learned or Ignored?”
On 17 January, 2025, I presented a lecture titled “Life and Work in Contemporary Japan” (in German) to the members of the Lions Club, Hünxe, Germany.
In 2024 the Wilhelm Fabry Museum in Hilden, Germany, held an exciting exhibition on glass plate photography during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05. I was invited by the museum to participate in the accompanying programme. On 15 June, 2024, I presented a public lecture on “The Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05 in World History”.
My article “Ein umstrittenes Erbe: Abe Shinzō und die japanische Chinapolitik” appeared in: Daniel Fuchs/ Sascha Klotzbücher/ Andrea Riemenschnitter/ Lena Springer/ Felix Wemheuer (eds.), Die Zukunft mit China denken. Wien: Mandelbaum Verlag 2023, pp. 56-71
https://www.mandelbaum.at/buecher/daniel-fuchs-sascha-klotzbuecher-andrea-riemenschnitter-lena-springer-felix-wemheuer/die-zukunft-mit-china-denken/
On 16 June, 2023, I attended an event at the University of East London to mark the publication of “Otaka Tomoo: Foundation of a Theory of Social Associatian, 1932”, edited by Derek Robbins and published by Peter Lang. On this occasion I presented the key findings of my study about “Tomoo Otaka and German Sociology”, ibid, pp. 297-306.
On 24 March, 2023, I was invited by Professor Akita Shigeru and Professor Nadine Heé to present a seminar for the “Global History Studies Group” at Osaka University on “The Peculiarities of Japanese History: A Foreign Historian’s Perspective”.
On 18 March, 2023, I attended an academic memorial service for Professor Sumiya Kazuhiko (1925-2022) at Rikkyō University, Tokyo. Invited by the 住谷一彦先生を偲ぶ会 I briefly talked about my personal memories of Professor Sumiya and his achievements in Max Weber scholarship and Japanese social thought.
The results of the German-Japanese Study Group which gathered annually at the Werner Reimers Stiftung, Bad Homburg, between 2016 and 2022, were published by Bebra Verlag (Berlin). The volume was co-edited by Verena Blechinger-Talcott, David Chiavacci, and Wolfgang Schwentker under the title: Japan. Ein Land im Umbruch.
https://www.bebraverlag.de/rueckblick/veranstaltung/2155-japan-ein-land-im-umbruch.html
On 8 December, 2022, I presented the main findings of the study group during a book launch at the Werner Reimers Stiftung in Bad Homburg, Germany.
In November 2022 I was invited by the universities of Leipzig (Institute of Japanese Studies) and Frankfurt/O. (Historical Institute) to present the key features and main theses of my new book “Geschichte Japans”.
On 25 October, 2022, I attended a conference on “Central Government Agencies and National Socialism” at the Berlin Akademie der Künste. On a panel about post-dictatorial transformation in comparison I talked on “Japan’s government agencies after 1945”.
In September 2022 my new book titled “Geschichte Japans” was published by C.H.Beck.
https://www.chbeck.de/schwentker-geschichte-japans/product/30376671
On 14 June 2022 I was invited by ENS, Paris, to attend an online seminar on “Le Moyen Âge de Max Weber”. At a session on “Conceptions wébériennes de la commune au Japon” I gave a presentation on “Max Weber and Japan”.
On 9 December, 2021, I was invited by the German Institute of Japanese Studies, Tokyo, to attend an online conference on “German Social Sciences and Modern East Asia”. The title of my presentation was “Wechselwirkungen: Odaka Tomoo und die deutsche Soziologie um 1930”.
On 6 December, 2021, I was invited by the German Historical Institute, Paris, where I attended an international conference on new tendencies in world history writing. On this occasion I talked about the key concepts of the “Neue Fischer Weltgeschichte”.
In early October, 2020, I attended an international conference organized by the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, on the occasion of the retirement of the sinologist Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik. I gave an online presentation on “Abe Shinzō and Japan’s China Policy”.
In March 2019, on the occasion of my retirement the Department of Human Sciences, Osaka University, hosted an international conference on “Social Thought, Social Reform, and Social Sciences in Modern Japan”. I presented the results of my last kaken-project on Kuwata Kumazō and social reform during the Taishō period.
n February 2019 I was interviewed by the journal of the German Historical Association about historical sciences in contemporary Japan: “Über Kennzahlen und die Geschichtswissenschaft in Japan”, in VHD Journal 8 (2019), pp. 18-22.