Walter Rindfleisch Collection - Handover Ceremony in SAI

On April 27th, 2026, took place the Handover Ceremony of the prized Walter Rindfleisch Collection of historical Nepali documents over to the Nepali state, represented by the hargé d’affaires of the embassy of Nepal in Berlin, Sagar Phuyal, in the presence of Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius (HCTS, Head of Nepal Heritage Documentation Centre), Prof. Emeritus Axel Michaels (Head of Nepal Research Unit at Heidelberg Academy of Sciences), Executive Director of SAI Prof. Dr. Hans Harder, Dr. Manik Bajracharya (Deputy Leader, NRU) and Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda (Coordinator NHDP).

Known as the Walter Rindfleisch collection, the items comprise 460 palm-leaf scrolls, including specimens from the 13th century. The collection’s stock is supplemented by royal documents, court records, Sanskrit manuscripts as well as personal testimonials from several centuries, including diaries and travel books of Nepali rulers. When the collection reached Axel Michaels, there was hardly any reliable information available about how the documents had been acquired and taken out of the country. Before the manuscripts could be returned to Nepal, which had also been the wish of the collector, the priority was to ensure the conservation of the partially fragile material. Many items in the collection were acutely endangered due to their age alone.