India & Hamburg

Relations between India and Hamburg

Relations between India and Hamburg reach back well beyond our founding. A few of the moments that shaped them.

  1. 1896

    Kiel & Hamburg

    Swami Vivekananda in northern Germany

    “The Prophet of Modern India” travelled to Hamburg and Kiel to meet the Sanskrit scholar Professor Paul Deussen — one of the earliest personal encounters between Indian thought and Hanseatic academia.

    Studio portrait of Swami Vivekananda, 1896, standing with arms crossed, wearing a turban and a high-collared robe.
  2. 1926

    Hotel Atlantic, Hamburg

    Rabindranath Tagore visits Hamburg

    The Nobel Laureate in Literature came to Hamburg and stayed at the Hotel Atlantic — the same house in which, sixteen years later, his composition would be heard as India’s future national anthem.

    Rabindranath Tagore (left) during his visit to Hamburg, 1926, standing on stone steps with companions.
  3. 1942

    Hotel Atlantic, Hamburg

    Our founding — and the first performance of “Jana Gana Mana”

    On 11 September 1942 the Deutsch-Indische Gesellschaft was founded in Hamburg. At the same ceremony “Jana Gana Mana” was performed publicly for the very first time, in an orchestral arrangement by Dr. Majumdar.

    Subhas Chandra Bose speaking at a podium in the Hotel Atlantic, Hamburg, 1942.
  4. 1953

    Stuttgart

    Re-established after the war

    The Deutsch-Indische Gesellschaft was re-founded in Stuttgart. Branch societies followed in many German cities — Hamburg among them.

  5. Today

    Hamburg

    A meeting place between two cultures

    Regular meetings, excursions, lecture series, concerts and the celebration of Indian and German festivals — a forum for everyone engaged with India and interested in its people, languages, religions, history, politics, economy and society.

Read about our founding in 1942