Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Martin Tamcke
It is with profound sadness that we write to inform you of the passing of our beloved colleague and friend, Professor Martin Tamcke, on November 02, 2024. His departure leaves an immense void in our academic community, one that will be felt not only within our university but across the whole Euroculture family, and in his immense network of collaborators, colleagues and friends.
Martin Tamcke's life embodied the very essence of bridge-building – not merely as an academic pursuit, but as a way of being. As a scholar of intercultural theology, he possessed the remarkable ability to bring different faiths into dialogue, creating spaces where diverse spiritual and intellectual traditions could engage in meaningful exchange.
What made Martin Tamcke truly exceptional was that his bridge-building endeavour was not only part of his professional ethic, but his way of being as a “Mensch”, a human being in the most fundamental sense. In an academic world often divided by disciplines and departments, he moved with natural grace across boundaries, bringing people together not through formal protocols, but through genuine human connection.
As a mentor, Martin Tamcke shaped countless students' lives, guiding them not just in their academic pursuits but in understanding the profound importance of remaining authentically human while engaging with different worldviews and traditions. His approach to mentorship, like his approach to theology, was fundamentally integrative – seeing the whole person, not just the academic mind.
In the often-rigid structures of modern academia, he showed us that one could navigate institutional requirements while keeping one's humanity not just intact, but radiantly visible. His presence in a meeting would somehow always remind us that behind our professional roles, we are all human beings seeking understanding and connection. We hope that in the Euroculture programme, his spirit of bridge-building will live on.
With deep sadness and gratitude for having known him,
The Euroculture Göttingen Team
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Martin Tamcke, born 1955, studied Theology, Philosophy and Oriental Studies at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. In 1981, Mr. Tamcke became lecturer at the University Göttingen for three years. He held the same position at the Philipps-University Marburg afterwards and obtained his Ph.D. (Dr. theol.) there at 1985. In 1993, Mr. Tamcke finished his Habilitation and became Associate Professor the same year. From 1994 on, Mr. Tamcke taught Church-History in Hermannsburg; in 1999 he went back to Göttingen as Professor for Ecumenical Theology and Oriental Church and Mission History at the Faculty of Theology. In the same year, he was the Co-Founder of the Master of Arts in Euroculture Programme in Göttingen and went to Chennai/Madras, India, as a Visiting Professor. During 1999 and 2003 he was External Examiner at the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He also founded the MA programme "Intercultural Theology", of which he was Director until his retirement. Prof. Dr. Tamcke was the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen between 2007 and 2009 and Vice-Dean subsequently.
Prof. Dr. Tamcke has been the Director of Studies of Euroculture from 2008 to 2017.
Prof. Dr. Tamcke was conferred Honorary Doctorates by the Faculty of Theology of Joensuu University / Finland (2009), the Åbo Akademi University, Turku / Finland (2014), the Lucian-Blaga-University, Sibiu (Hermannstadt) / Rumania (2017) and Mahatma-Gandhi-University Kottayam / India (2018).
Among other functions, Martin Tamcke was founding president of the Society for the Study of the Christian East (GSCO), founder of the German Syrology Day (Deutsches Syrologiesymposium), board member of the World Congress of Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), and president of the German-Finnish Makarios Symposium.
You will find an orbituary of the Faculty of Theology here here.
A list of Prof. Tamcke's publications can be found here here.