The writer and translator Janheinz Jahn is considered the most important agent of African and Caribbean literature in post-war Germany. His extensive literary legacy includes stories, essays, radio features and a large number of translations of African and African-American works. His papers were acquired in 2005 by the Department for African Studies - where they are the focus of academic and editorial work - and are now kept in the University Library.

Jahn’s work-related correspondence, comprising around 8000 letters documenting his activities as a translator and editor as well as his professional friendships, has been fully digitized. Correspondents include personalities such as Aimé Césaire, Langston Hughes, Abiola Irele, Wole Soyinka and Léopold Sédar Senghor.

Large parts of the correspondence cannot be presented online due to legal reasons.

See contents here: Janheinz Jahn Archive

Further details are available on the website of the Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften (German only)