K O D I K A S / C O D E 44 (2021) · No. 1 - 3 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen You know my method! Achim Eschbach ’ s path as an academic Viktoria Eschbach-Szabó Budapest 1985 At the end of June 1979, several well-known semioticians went to Budapest to deal with questions of semiotic terminology and with the future direction of semiotics in a small and very illustrious setting before the second major international semiotics conference in Vienna. This pre-conference was organized by Vilmos Voigt of Eötvös Loránd University and György Szépe of the Academy of Sciences, who had already felt the fresh wind of semiotics at the groundbreaking first conference in 1974 in Milano. When I met Achim in Budapest in 1979, it was immediately clear to me from his talk that he would dedicate his whole career to semiotics. Achim Eschbach not only wanted to do research in the field, but he also drew up grand plans for how to shape the discipline. This included steps such as editing and publishing past and present authors, creating bibliographies, defining and translating the Canon, and building special series and journals. He awoke early every day and wrote down his ideas with pen and paper, and then, with many scholarly contacts in the East and West, he got down to business. As Jürgen Trabant, one of his comrades-in-arms, described it, the aim was to expand the subject matter of the humanities and not only to focus on highly cultural objects as signs (Trabant 2021). At the same time, semiotics as a science of hermeneutics, linguistics, cultural studies, communication studies, to name a few, should also be better grounded theoretically. The enthusiasm of many was to grow. Semiotics fed from very different branches of science and ideally asked for a forum to bring the brave new modern world of signs into the research of global communication. Achim wanted to develop his theory specifically on the ideas of philosophers of language to understand how signs are used, reinterpreted and reinvented. His enthusiasm probably also had to do with the fact that he could best combine the emotions and inspirations from his childhood and youth in this subject. Role models Joachim or Achim Eschbach was born as the second child of Dr. phil. Josef Eschbach, from Eschweiler, and Helga York, from Breslau, on October 20, 1948. What he received from his two parents was very different. His father was a former Jesuit, who earned a doctorate in literature at the University of Vienna during the war and lived a life for literature. He wrote many books under his own name for boys and under female pen names for girls. Later he became a bookseller and then a secondary school teacher, where he made contributions to education in the city of Eschweiler, including the promotion of education for disadvantaged children. As a Rhinelander, he felt at home in Eschweiler and was at ease to be able to speak in his native dialect. His wife Helga York came from a wealthy family from Breslau, who lost everything during the Second World War that several generations had built up. She had to adapt considerably in the Rhineland as a displaced person and as a Protestant. She spoke only High German and had an uncanny knowledge of flora and fauna. She passed this enthusiasm on to Achim. The most important hobby of Achim was, as of his mother, to make explorations in nature. His extensive knowledge about species, naming, and categorization impressed every forester or biologist. About his choice of profession he said that he could not study his Roland Posner, Achim Eschbach, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi and Jerzy Pelz in Vienna, 1979 Draft of a scientific discipline 18 Viktoria Eschbach-Szabó favorite subject biology because of the not so good Abitur results in Aachen at that time, so he finally decided to choose philosophy instead. But maybe the reason was that there was already a well-known researcher in the field of biology in the family. His father ’ s brother Dr. Walter Eschbach showed him how to live as a researcher. Professor Walter Eschbach was a professor of medicine in Rostock. At the same time, he worked as a gynecologist and cancer researcher at the Charité Clinic in Berlin Buch. After the experiences of the Second World War, he remained in the GDR after the construction of the Wall in order, as he used to say, to help those who had worse medical care. His struggle for recognition of his groundbreaking research findings on papilloma viruses were never duly acknowledged in the West, in his view. His fighting nature and his absolute identification with medicine determined his entire life. Medicine being the discipline that was originally considered the source of semiotics. His ambition and researcher ’ s ability to correctly interpret certain elements as signs made an indelible impression on Achim. He was also the one who personally introduced him to the philosopher Georg Klaus (1912 - 1974, Humboldt University), who was very innovative in many areas of semiotics (logic, systems theory, cybernetics, game theory, and Marxism). Picture of his car “ Silberpfeilchen ” You know my method! Achim Eschbach ’ s path as an academic 19 Besides concentrating on thinking, Achim also had a hobby of driving fast cars, which he also shared with his uncle. He even tried to become a professional racing driver for a while. He designed and had his own racing car built, which he christened “ Silberpfeilchen ” ( “ little silver arrow ” ). However, after several accidents, which he did not cause himself, he retired. I mention this only because he wanted to make advances in semiotics sometimes with perhaps too great a speed. Apprenticeship years and first beginnings His studies at the RWTH Aachen in German language and literature, philosophy, political science and sociology had fascinated him. In addition to his studies (1969 - 76), Achim had been intensively involved in politics as part of the generation of ‘ 68. The inner tension of this generation - the deeds of their fathers - was a preoccupation for him. One of the famous cases of Nazi perpetrators who made a career again under a new name also worked in Aachen, the literary scholar Hans Schwerte (1970 - 1973), alias Hans Ernst Schneider. Achim had come to know him well as a teacher and as a university rector. His identity was not unmasked until the 1990s. Achim also researched the past in his own family. In his family research, he discovered that Erich Maria Remarque was a family relation through Rheinish- Belgian kinship. Semiotics of the Social Achim ’ s methods developed alongside his studies. In the beginning it was the historical reappraisal of semiotics. In his Aachen symposium, in the ‘ Arbeitsgruppe Semiotik Aachen ’ , which formed a lively interdisciplinary discussion group, many of his ideas emerged. He wrote his dissertation, which dealt with social relations of signs, on the pragma semiotics of theater. At the same time he started translating and publishing great semioticians. For example, he established a contact with one of the most important representatives of behaviorism Charles W. Morris, from whom he translated some works into German. In order to finally finish his dissertation in 1976, he then retired to Saint Jean de Buegés in France, where he supported his research by working in the local vineyards. Forums for Semiotics While still a student, he also ventured to start his own journal. During his studies he had established a network of Greek contacts and the idea arose to start his semiotics journal in the country of origin of semiotics in Greece with Haris Kamabouridis in 1975 and to call it Kodikas in Greek. After the great earthquake in Thessaloniki in 1978 in which many publications and documents were destroyed, the remains were brought to Peter de Ridder Press and published in English as Kodikas/ Code, and then from 1980 with the new team of Jürgen Trabant, Ernest Hess Lüttich and, temporarily, Michai Nadin, published in German and in English by Gunter Narr. The cooperation with Jürgen Trabant and Ernest Hess- Lüttich ran successfully all these years, so that this semiotics journal achieved a global 20 Viktoria Eschbach-Szabó distribution and was recognized in the Anglo-Saxon world as a benchmark “ reference journal ” . Image from the anniversary party of Kodikas/ Code in Tübingen, 2003 Special positions for semiotics were established at that time in some technical universities. After applications for an assistant position with Max Bense in Stuttgart and with Roland Posner at the TU Berlin, he finally started to work in an art department. He became an assistant to the art scholar Hermann Sturm at the University of Essen in the spring of 1977. This newly founded university or college was a great opportunity for him, because at that time, it lacked the patriarchal constraints of more established institutions, and he could freely follow his own ideas and projects. Hermann Sturm and other designers and artists in Essen understood him as a professor, because they were also enthusiastic about the founding spirit of a newly formed university. Publication opportunities for semiotics All this time Achim had systematically searched for publication possibilities for old and modern semiotic research in the original and in translation in different book series. He made constant contacts and felt very comfortable with Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt, with Gunter Narr in Tübingen, with the publishing couple John and Claire Benjamins in Amsterdam, then with Brockmeyer Verlag in Bochum, with Shaker Verlag in Aachen, to mention only a few of his publication partnerships. Later, until the end of his life, at Herbert You know my method! Achim Eschbach ’ s path as an academic 21 von Halem Verlag, he was very much at home. He also co-founded publishing houses, such as Syndikat Verlagshaus in Frankfurt and Rader Verlag in Aachen. At these and other unmentioned places he managed alone or with an editorial team the publication of about 200 volumes on semiotics. Semiotics and researching like Sherlock Holmes What the method mentioned in the title had been used for becomes visible from Achim ’ s topics and thesis that appear in this volume. The method and the title of this essay is taken from Achim ’ s translation of Thomas Seboek ’ s semiotic analysis, who explained the principle of abduction by means of Sherlock Holmes ’ research method. The connections between semiotic analysis and epistemology also, at this time, received a popular exposition in Umberto Eco ’ s In the Name of the Rose, perhaps, in part, a result of their friendship and shared interests. Achim searched for the secret with all his strength in the classics as he sought to develop semiotics further. Besides editing many classics of semiotics, like William Morris, Charles Sanders Peirce and Thomas Seboek, he is considered in the field above all as a connoisseur of Karl Bühler. This research is due to a historical coincidence, explained below, because Bühler was certainly not in the center of semiotic interest in the seventies. Together with Prof. Dr. György Szépe, Márta Dovala and Prof. Dr. Viktoria Eschbach-Szabó in Sweden, 1981 After Achim Eschbach visited Thomas Seboek in Bloomington and the Peirce Editions Project Indiana, he started looking for great figures also in semiotics in Europe. The idea to focus on Karl Bühler started actually from a passing recommendation by my stepfather György Szépe, a linguist, semiotician, and language advocate. When Achim came to Hungary in the 1980 summer semester to do research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and on the history of semiotics, we discussed many topics. One conversation is then crucial to his work, which took place during a walk. In early summer we walked with György Szépe in the Budapest Castle and talked about Karl Bühler in connection with the Prague Linguistic Circle, who also had contacts with this group of researchers. Achim wondered 22 Viktoria Eschbach-Szabó why the sign model and other great ideas of Bühler hardly appear in the discussion. Szépe had an excellent historical knowledge of many disciplines and suspected that his work had been forgotten due to his expulsion to America. Szépe provided some subtle suggestions as to where certain materials might be located and sources that might be consulted. Achim immediately set about the task of sifting through Bühler ’ s estate, which was only possible using detective methods. In order to understand Bühler ’ s work more precisely and to trace his legacy, we planned a conference entitled “ Bühler Studies ” . In preparation for the Bühler Studies conference, we did a lot of research and tried to reconstruct what Karl and Charlotte Bühler did in Vienna and in America. We contacted his children and his former students and learned more and more. Achim ’ s interest grew as, in addition to his scientific interest, the historical events in the history of science increasingly preoccupied him. He also saw the work as making amends for the sins of his father ’ s generation in the Third Reich. In the process it became clear that the estate, like the life of Karl and Charlotte Bühler itself, had been torn apart and we tried to slowly reassemble it according to the traces. Through a tip from the Hungarian psychologist Lajos Kardos, who was a student of both Karl Bühler and Siegmund Freud, we were able to sift through Bühler ’ s special print collection in Budapest in the corridors of the Eötvös Loránd University in front of the Department of Psychology with the help of Csaba Pléh, the then full professor of psychology. Bühler had been able to bring this to safety shortly before his escape. The children of Karl Bühler, whom we were able to contact through Charlotte Schenk-Danziger, who had lived in Norway and in Stuttgart, had assembled the estate from what remained in Vienna and what was found in America, and made this available to Achim, in order to release the most important items for research purposes and for publication. The unforgettable Bühler conference took place in Essen in 1984 and was published by Suhrkamp-Verlag in 1984. Conclusion and new beginning in the realm of signs The years 1984 - 1985 were significant in Achim ’ s career, because besides his habilitation he was also elected president of the “ German Society for Semiotics ” and then organized the 5th International Conference under the framework theme “ Creativity and Tradition ” in Essen. After this great effort, he continued to work in Essen and became an associate professor in 1990. At this time the question arose for him how the semiotic method relates to existing and new disciplines and where he should set Together with Rolf Bühler in Stuttgart You know my method! Achim Eschbach ’ s path as an academic 23 his focus. During this time a surprise came to Achim. At the request of the Japanese semiotician Ikegami Yoshihiko, we both received a visiting professorship to Japan at Tokyo University in 1993. In this project, similar to Bühler ’ s, we were able to research a displaced person from Germany to Japan, and we put our skills together. We were greatly assisted by the work of Kurt Singer, an economist and cultural semiotician, who had to flee to Japan because of his ancestry. He worked at Tokyo University as an economist and wrote a significant book entitled Mirror, Sword and Jewel as a Cultural Semiotician. For me as a Japanologist, it was particularly interesting to understand German-Japanese relations in Japan before and during World War II. For Achim it was very interesting how much enthusiasm and knowledge about German philosophy and semiotics can be seen in Japan. His take on Kurt Singer ’ s cultural semiotics was again published in Japanese. At the same time, it was an interesting experience for Achim as a semiotician to move in a written culture circle where he could hardly recognize the pictures and letters. From this time on, he turned to the theories and archaeological evidence of the written word ’ s proto-history. Back in Essen in communication science His way to a position at a German university was enabled by a teaching position in Hungary. He spent a guest semester in 1994/ 95 at the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs for semiotics and communication science, where he received a titular professorship. Here he managed to lecture in Hungarian, which he had taught himself inconsistently, once he realized his students lacked sufficient knowledge of German or English. In 1997, he received a call to a professorship in communication science at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Achim worked, as always, very enthusiastically with colleagues and students. He always enjoyed the dialogue and the opportunity to encourage young people. According to the task now to work on a new applied discipline, he had tried to place semiotics in communication sciences properly. For the possibilities for young people to publish they started with Walter H. Schmitz the series Essener Studien zur Semiotik und Kommunikationsforschung 2000. Following the possibilities for reviews for semiotics, he later founded with Horst Pöttker (Dortmund, Hamburg) a review website Rezensionen für Kommunikation at Herbert von Halem Verlag. Harvesting and opportunities Parallel to these other activities, the Bühler research developed and the material was made ready. The publication of the complete works of Karl Bühler seemed, after the preliminary work with the support of Wolfgang Klein in Nijmegen at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and in Essen, slowly to become possible. Due to the scope of the material, not everything was able to be published, but despite this, I would claim that Achim ’ s efforts were successful in the sense that the estate was restored. Later, it was possible to find an appropriate place for the material in Marbach and in Vienna. Secondly, he had achieved the Bühler renaissance with his numerous activities and publications, and Karl Bühler was again established in the discourse as a classic. Of particular importance was certainly the English translation of The Theory of Language. Achim initiated and supervised, which he 24 Viktoria Eschbach-Szabó accomplished with Donald Goodwin. Perhaps the idea at that time also came from Achim ’ s time in Japan, as the Japanese translation had appeared in 1983. Achim discussed many Bühler issues with one of the translators with Ueda Yasunari from Hiroshima. Several translations into Western languages followed. In East Asia, Bühler also became well known, because in China the translation of The Theory of Language appeared in 2017. In his last years, Achim was even able to help shape the Chinese reception with Professor Wen Renbai in Xian. His race car driver method Achim continued to work on his projects in Essen after his retirement in 2014. He continued to research extensively and took great pleasure in compiling material in paper form. After formulating his thoughts in multiple iterations of tables of contents for a new essay or lecture, he would then sit down one morning with his Gitanes and then write the entire piece in pencil without any changes in very small letters. I know of very few people who can formulate such long texts with all the notes without corrections like a race driver at the track. Surely his race car driver training helped him, because as in a race car, any deviation from the track could have incalculable consequences for the train of thought. The only distractions Achim accepted were his children or the little birds on the windowsill. You know my method! Achim Eschbach ’ s path as an academic 25