Life outline

Omar, or as he later chose, Umar Rolf Ehrenfels was born 28 April 1901 in Prague, Austria. His father was Baron Christian von Ehrenfels (1859- 1932) professor of philosophy at the German part of Prague University. He is known as the founder of the Gestalt theory. His mother was Emma von Ehrenfels (1862- 1946) born André, in Bratislava (Pressburg). In her parental home both German and Hungarian was spoken. During World War I she worked for the Red Cross caring for Hungarian wounded soldiers. Widowed of her first marriage she brought her daughter Elfriede (Elfi) Hartmann into their home. The second daughter, known as the author Imma von Bodmershof (1895- 1983), was born in Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

. Born in 1901 Rolf as the only son of Christian Freiherr von Ehrenfels inherited the title but Rolf discarded it after new Austrian rules in 1920. He was baptised Rolf Werner Leopold von Ehrenfels. As a convert to Islam he took on the name Omar or Umar, kept Rolf and omitted the others. 1932- 37 he was a student of social anthropology (Völkerkunde) at Vienna University and got a doctorate there. At the Nazi occupation of Austria, Anschluss, 13 March 1938, he escaped to India. There he lived until 1961, since 1949 as lecturer later professor of social anthropology at the University of Madras. Umar Rolf Ehrenfels died 7 February 1980 in Neckargemuend, Germany having been guest professor at Heidelberg University and co- founder of its South Asia Institute 1961-71. With Ellen Feld he had a short "comrade marriage". Elfriede Bodmershof (1894- 1982) was his wife 1925- 1938, formally 1948. The couple was separated due to the Nazi occupation of 1938. In Madras 1960 Ehrenfels met the French social scientist Mireille Abeille (1924- 2007).

An Austrian citizen with strong family ties

Rolf Ehrenfels was an Austrian citizen all his life. Lichtenau

Lichtenau

Lichtenau may refer to:In Germany:* Towns and municipalities:**Hessisch Lichtenau**Lichtenau, Baden-Württemberg**Lichtenau, Bavaria**Lichtenau, Saxony**Lichtenau, Westphalia* Localities:**Lichtenau, Feuchtwangen**Lichtenau, Lübbenau...

 near Krems

Krems

-History:Krems was first mentioned in 995 in a certificate of Otto III, but settlement was apparent even before then. For example a child's grave, over 27,000 years old, was found here...

 and Gföhl

Gföhl

Gföhl is a town in the district of Krems-Land in the Austrian state of Lower Austria....

 in Lower Austria was his home parish. Since 1813 the Ehrenfels family were settled in Schloss Lichtenau. Also the castles Brunn im Walde and Rastbach were family properties. Rolf's eldest sister "Elfi" Elfriede Hartmann married a widower with three children and had her own home from the early 1920's. His sister Imma Ehrenfels married Wilhelm "Willy" (von) Bodmershof (Schuster)and they settled at Rastbach castle for life. In 1925 there was a double wedding as Rolf Ehrenfels married Willy's sister Fridl who became Elfriede Ehrenfels She was born in Trieste, Austria.

A young intellectual in the Berlin of the 1920's

For a period Rolf lived in Berlin. His first wife Ellen Feld can be seen as she has a part in a film, Das grosse Sehnen , for which Rolf wrote the manuscript. Rolf and his friend Willy Bodmershof worked on it together and shot it partly in a studio in Berlin, partly on location in Istanbul in 1923. On this trip, partly by bicycle, Rolf's interest in Islam was kindled. Also Christian von Ehrenfels appears in it, as a wise man. There are still photos in Ehrenfels archive, Lichtenau. The film is now in the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna. The film was reviewed by Kurt Bauchwitz as press clippings in the Ehrenfels archive show. Kurt was one of the intellectual Jews in the Berlin Wilmersdorf area. With him Rolf Ehrenfels developed a friendship for life. Kurt called himself Roy C Bates when he had escaped to the USA after 1933. Their relationship is documented in the Roy C Bates papers in the Grenander Collections at Albany University, USA.

A European Muslim

Around 1926 Rolf made up his mind to convert to Islam. He took on the name Omar, used in his Muslim circles, Rolf in the family. (Later he turned a Sufist using different invented Sufi names.) In Berlin Omar got attached to the Wilmersdorfer Moschee of Ahmadyya Anjuman located in Brienner Strasse near Fehrbelliner Platz. Philosophy and religion were common interests to Rolf and his wife from 1925, Elfriede Ehrenfels. She contributed to academic journals of philosophy. She was never a Muslim but attracted by Baha'i. Christian Ehrenfels major work Kosmogonie (Jena 1916. English translated by M. Focht New York: Comet Press, 1948) fascinated them. Together Omar and Fridl made car tours in Muslim Europe, Bosnia and Albania, in 1929 and 1935. In 1931- 38 Omar wrote several important articles for the Berlin mosque journal started in 1924, Moslemische Revue, after he got a copy of it from the Imam Abdullah Effendi Kurbegovic (1873-1933) at the Great Mosque in Sarajevo

Sarajevo

Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....

. Living at Lichtenau Omar was one of the editorial board. He also wrote for Muslim Journals in English, connected to the Lahori Ahmadiyya e.g. at Woking. At his death in 1980 Umar Rolf was said to be the oldest Muslim by choice, "Wahlmuslim", in Europe. He wrote Muslim (Sufist) articles until the end (Sifat, Zuerich,1978).

Young writers at fruitful work

Like brother and sister Willy and Fridl Bodmershof did, Rolf tried his luck both as free lance journalist and fiction writer. Kurt Bauchwitz and the circles in Berlin (Wilmersdorf?) encouraged him. He got many articles published, mostly under different pseudonyms. His best known one was Othmar Steinmetz. Soon Rolf and Fridl became a writing couple. "My wife and literary co- worker since 1925, has assisted considerably in the planning and laying- out of the book, and Count and Countess Coudenhove- Kalergis in the completion of the manuscript as well as productive criticism". This Rolf Ehrenfels writes in his doctoral disseration, written 1937 in German, as it was printed in English in 1941. The Preface is dated "Hyderabad, Deccan June 24th 1940".
From 1927 (?) the two married couples, Imma- Willy Bodmershof and Fridl- Rolf Ehrenfels, lived mostly at Lichtenau and Rastbach, doubly occupied with farming work on the estate and writing. The Ehrenfels parents' home was in Prague, the Bodmershof's in Trieste. Both Willy and Rolf managed to finish doctorates: Rolf Ehrenfels in Vienna in 1937, Wilhelm Bodmershof at Graz University in 1933. Thanks to connections with his father's students in Prague and his mother's friends in cultural, feminist circles in Prague and Vienna Rolf got the opportunity to publish articles and also a serialized novel in Prager Tagblatt in 88 parts called Ein Kriegskind sucht das Glück by Othmar Steinmetz. The date of the complete manuscript in the Lichtenau archive is 13 March 1930. In the archive there are other manuscripts and letters, among others to Tal Verlag, which confirm that Rolf and Elfriede Ehrenfels wrote novels together. They agreed to put one of their names on the text in turns. Evidently with the Kurban Said's novels it was Elfriede's turn . After Rolf had escaped to India February 1939 after eight months in Greece together there was no more Kurban Said.

Coyright debate on Kurban Said

The copyright sign is, or rather should be, the ultimate proof Elfriede Ehrenfels born Bodmershof has the right to be called the originator of the two novels by the pseudonym Kurban Said

Kurban Said

Kurban Said .Kurban Said is the pseudonym for the author of Ali and Nino, a novel originally published in 1937 in the German language by the Austrian publisher, E.P. Tal...

. Ali und Nino published in 1937 by Tal Verlag in Vienna is the best known. In Europe the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Work of 1886 gives the person whose name is behind the copyright sign the right to be identified as the author of a book. Both publishers and authors had an interest not to have their work stolen. The publisher's right is/was something else, drawn up in a contract. National bibliographies were printed yearly. For years the massive American National Union Catalog NUC, listing books in the Congress library, was printed. Both NUC and the German bibliography Gesamtverzeichnis GV give the information that Kurban Said is Elfriede Ehrenfels. The convention is different in the USA. Americans are not always aware of this. It is a misunderstanding that "authorities" gave away copyright after Austria was occupied by Nazi-Germany. The occupation power printed its sign, the swastika, wherever they wanted. And they wanted it everywhere.
Professor Gerhard Hoepp's (1942- 2003) research is a major source to Tom Reiss

Tom Reiss

Tom Reiss is an American author and journalist who lives in New York City. He has written for The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times...

as he elaborated an article of 1999 into a book 2005. However in his article of 2001 Who wrote Ali and Nino: to the archaeology of a legend Hoepp sums up competing theories in a review of new editions (Overlook, New York, 1999; Ullstein, Berlin 2000) of Ali and Nino combined with Tom Reiss' article. Hoepp states "dass Elfriede von Ehrenfels- Bodmershof, die auch den Vertrag fuer Ali und Nino unterzeichnete, Kurban Said war, steht inzwischen ausser Zeifel." (That EEB, who also signed the contract for A&N, was Kurban Said, is since then beyond doubt.) The contract for Ali und Nino was made with Mr Tal, who only signed Tal..

His widow Lucy in 1973 tried to take over the copyright owned by Elfriede Ehrenfels. The issue in the 2000's has become, as if a woman could not have achieved a novel on her own: Who was her co-writer? Essad Bey was a guess from the 1930s according to Hoepp. This guess was adopted and developed by Reiss (1999, 2005). The second wave of publication from 1970 introduced the Azerbaijan author Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli

Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli

Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, , sometimes spelled Chemenzeminli, born Yusif Mirbaba oghlu Vazirov Russia.Chamanzaminli was an Azerbaijani writer and statesman remembered for his novels, short stories, essays, and diaries...

 as the sole Kurban Said. "Obwohl diese Annamhe nicht halten lässt" (although this belief does not stand to tests), However, it should be noted that Hoepp dismissed Chamanzaminli though he had not investigated any of the Azerbaijani materials related to Chamanzaminli. Hoepp says, it was spread by the Turkish publisher and later in the Soviet Union of the Glasnost. There was no more talk of Elfriede Ehrenfels.

The Chamanzaminli

Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli

Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, , sometimes spelled Chemenzeminli, born Yusif Mirbaba oghlu Vazirov Russia.Chamanzaminli was an Azerbaijani writer and statesman remembered for his novels, short stories, essays, and diaries...

 theory was researched by the magazine Azerbaijan International

Azerbaijan International

Azerbaijan International is an independent magazine committed to the discussion of issues related to Azerbaijanis around the world. It was established in 1993 shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when Azerbaijan gained its independence. Since then, it has been published quarterly in...

. AI exhibits the covers of about a hundred editions of Ali and Nino and has published an extensive analysis of their research.

On a few, a portrait of Elfriede appears, on one (German 2001), she is shown together with Omar Rolf, from a portrait in the film Das grosse Sehnen. Fridl Ehrenfels' obvious co-writer, if any, was her husband Omar Rolf . His inside knowledge of Islam was significant.

Gerhard Hoepp does not go into this. He is a scientist and has done no research on Ehrenfels, but he has published research on Lev Noussimbaum

Lev Nussimbaum

Lev Nussimbaum was a writer and journalist, a Jew, born in Kiev, who spent his childhood in Baku before fleeing the Bolsheviks in 1920 at the age of 14...

. Hoepp in 1997 considers Essad Bey as the co-author of Ali and Nino. One of the informants he mentions is Professor Dr. Heinz Barazon. Reiss 2005 shows that he is the legal adviser of Rolf Ehrenfels' widow Mireille Ehrenfels. Some of the data on Ali and Nino from 1970 into the 2000s build on gossip running in Vienna after Anschluss 13 March 1938 and also distorted memories of aged informants. Mireille Ehrenfels gave the wrong year (1937) and causes for the separation between Rolf and Fridl (conflicts) to her lawyer Dr Barazon.
Rolf Ehrenfels in Mother- right in India (1941) says they wrote together since 1925. In Kadar of Cochin he states that Fridl was with him during the first eight months of his exile spent in Greece. She did her own research in Greece and her interest continues. They correspond on topics even 1952.

Tom Reiss’ distorted argumentation of 1999

Tom Reiss’ article ‘’The Man from the East’’ in The New Yorker 4 October 1999 (p. 68-83) is digitalised. His main purpose is to “outwit the Nazis”. The mainline is to write up his man Lev Nussimbaum, known as the author Essad Bey, and write down not only the legal copyright holder Elfriede Ehrenfels but also the Ehrenfels family. Reiss has become convinced that the publisher of Kurban Said’s two novels has been exposed to the Nazi Aryanisation of companies with the effect that Jewish Nussimabaum’s work was given to the Aryan noblewoman Baroness Elfriede von Ehrenfels. This may be a valid theory about the second novel but not Ali and Nino. It appeared in Vienna 1937, a year before the Nazi occupation, but Reiss treats the publication as if the Nazists had already taken over.The Gesamtkatalog that had existed since the 1880’s Reiss refers to as “the Third Reich’s equivalent of Books in Print.” He goes on to treat it as “Nazi documents”. He repeats it in the caption to Elfriede’s photo. Reiss prints Heinz Barazon’s (1914- 2002) version of undocumented gossip. Himself a Jew Dr Barazon was in exile and returned after the war. Reiss lets Barazon say: “By 1936 the marriage between Elfriede and Baron Rolf, Leela’s father, was kaput, and he suspected that Elfriede had had an affair with Essad Bey and that “Kurban Said” had grown out of this romantic relationship.” (p.71) Compare this to Rolf’s own words printed 1941 in the preface of Mother-right in India and in Kadar of Cochin (1952). They were separated by the war but had continued to write letters.
Instead of stating the death threat to Omar Rolf when the Nazis marched into his home town Vienna 13 March 1938, Reiss writes: “during the war Omar Rolf went to India”. Elfriede’s stay in Greece Reiss describes arrogantly. Instead of one sentence about Rolf Ehrenfels’ professional career Reiss writes (p.74) “the Baron’s strange forty- year ride through the Islamic world”. What is he “out-witting”?

No need for de- Nazification

Reiss’ argumentation builds on his theory that there was a need for “the family´s de- Nazification”. This can be compared to documented facts visible also on the dust jacket of Umar Rolf Ehrenfels’ “The Light Continent” (1960). “Escaping the Hitler terror when the Nazis occupied Austria, Dr. U.R. Ehrenfels, born at Prague in 1901, took refuge in India in 1939.” After respect to his father Christian we are informed of travels to the East and studies. “/In Vienna/ Ehrenfels became founder- president of Der Orientbund, an Afro- Asian students’ federation.” After a trip to India 1932- 33 “he went back to become the co- editor of Gerechtigkeit (justice) in Vienna, a journal which stood for the integrity of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and for Human Rights when Italy invaded that country.” The book has a printed dedication: “In memoriam the victims of Sharpeville and Lunda” and to his wife Mireille called Mie.
Tom Reiss did not go deep enough into the documents shown to him when he visited Lichtenau in 1998. “De- Nazification” was a British invention that all prisoners of internment camps had to go through after 1945. Also Jews who had escaped to India to save themselves from Holocaust were exposed to the process. Not all succeeded. Facts about this are not on the Internet. It seems to be a taboo subject to historians. Reiss solves a “mystery” by turning victims of Nazism into Nazists.

A legal copyright owner and defender of authorship

The Berne Convention copyright law is the reason why Elfriede Ehrenfels in her will could let her right go on to Rolf's and Mireille's daughter Leela Ehrenfels at Fridl's death in 1982.

Alternative point of view regarding actual authorship of "Ali and Nino"

For those wishing to examine the question of the actual authorship of the novel "Ali and Nino", see Azerbaijan International. The staff of Azerbaijan International

Azerbaijan International

Azerbaijan International is an independent magazine committed to the discussion of issues related to Azerbaijanis around the world. It was established in 1993 shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when Azerbaijan gained its independence. Since then, it has been published quarterly in...

 magazine spent six years of extensive research in 10 languages (Azeri, Russian, English, German, French, Italian, Georgian, Turkish, Persian and Swedish) before publishing their results, which are meticulously documented from research carried out in the National Archives of various countries including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Germany.

There is no doubt that Elfriede Ehrenfels registered the pseudonym Kurban Said]] in her own name for "Ali and Nino"

Ali and Nino: A Love Story

.Ali and Nino: A Love Story is a charming love story published under the pseudonym Kurban Said. The novel now has been or reprints. The book was first published in Vienna in the German language in 1937, by E.P. Tal Verlag...

 and "Girl from the Golden Horn." See photos of registration . But the dispute focuses on a deeper issue: Who actually wrote the novel, given the political, racist, and religious prejudices that existed in Germany and Austria at that time?

Elfriede Ehrenfels facilitated the registration of the book with German authorities but there is no proof at all that she wrote the novel herself or that she co-authored the novel or that she even was interested in the independence movement in Azerbaijan which is the historical setting of the novel. Neither Baron Omar Rolf Ehrenfels nor his wife Elfriede ever visited Azerbaijan and the novel is quite detailed in its description of actual personalities as well as locations in Baku and the countryside. Nor does the castle at Lichtenau, Austria, where the Ehrenfels lived provide any links with Azerbaijan.

Yes, there are first edition copies of Kurban Said's

Kurban Said

Kurban Said .Kurban Said is the pseudonym for the author of Ali and Nino, a novel originally published in 1937 in the German language by the Austrian publisher, E.P. Tal...

 books in Elfriede's metal chest at the Lichtenau Castle but that is not proof of authorship. It would be quite natural for someone who had registered the novels to have copies.

Correspondence exists in the personal correspondence of the publisher of the book - Lucy Tal - indicating she had never met Elfriede Ehrenfels and was totally surprised to find that the Elfriede Ehrenfels had registered the pseudonym in her name. Lucy Tal's husband Peter died of a heart attack on November 30, 1936, several months before the book was printed.

A passage to India 1932- 33

In an attempt to overcome the grief at his beloved father's death Umar Rolf made a journey to India in 1932-33. Together with the Imam of the Wilmersdorfer Mosque in Berlin, former professor in Lahore Dr S.M. Abdullah, Baron Omar made a lecture tour from Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 in the north to Hyderabad in the south as an advocate of the Ahmadiya movement. He sent reports from the tour printed in newspapers. At home again he lectured. The tour affected him so much that Umar Rolf decided to give his life a new turn. He made India his main life project. His interest was deep. His father's colleague the Indologist professor Moriz Winternitz

Moriz Winternitz

Moriz Winternitz was an eminent Austrian Orientalist.He received his earliest education in the gymnasium of his native town, and in 1880 entered the University of Vienna, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1886...

 (1863- 1937) had taught Rolf as a boy. He had met high ranking Indians in his home among them the Nobel Prize Laureate Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...

 (1861-1941). Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

's close man Vallabhai Patel

Patel

Patel is a surname of Indian origin, originally meaning "headman" or"village chief". Patels are socially, economically and politically the most dominant caste in Gujarat Patels are basically Kurmis or Kunbis and are found in various geographical locations. The Kunbi are an Indian subcaste...

 (1875- 1950) was the patron of Der Orientbund in Vienna, which Umar Rolf founded 1932 and presided until his escape to India 1938. What Ehrenfels saw of women's position on the tour 1932-33 made him choose to study social anthropology at Vienna University. In 1937 he got his doctorate with the dissertation "Mutterrecht in Vorderindien". It was translated by himself and published in Hyderbad/Dn in 1941 as "Mother-right in India".

Refugee from Nazist Austria in British India

In 1938 Umar Rolf Ehrenfels lived in Vienna. He was known as a convert to Islam and founding president of the multiracial students' society in Vienna called Der Orientbund or Islamischer Kulturbund. His doctoral dissertation of 1937 built on a strongly anti- Aryan theory. As an active anti- fascist Umar Rolf had to flee to save his life after the Nazi occupation of Austria 13 March 1938. His wife Elfriede did not want to leave Austria. Rolf tried to protect her from harassment by a divorce in 1938, which was denied. Franz Kafka's friend and biographer Max Brod (1884-1968) was editor of Prager Tageblatt that had published many texts by Rolf. Brod managed to warn Rolf, who was lecturing in Prague, not to go back to Vienna, where he was on the Nazi death list. In 1939 Brod fled to Tel Aviv. He stayed in contact with Umar Rolf for life. They were engaged in JCM, an organisation to near the three religions. This was a recurrent theme of the Moslemische revue from 1924 on.
Ehrenfels left his home by way of Greece trying to find solutions. His wife went with him and friends came to support him. Thanks to Sir Akbar Hydari

Akbar Hydari

Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari, KCIE, CSI was the last British-appointed and the first Indian governor of the Indian state of Assam. He entered the Indian civil service in 1919 and began his career in Madras Presidency. He held many administrative positions in the states and at the centre...

 (1869- 1941) Baron von Ehrenfels in 1939 could escape to be the guest of The Nizam of Hyderabad Deccan in South India. Motherright in India has a printed dedication saying: "To Sir Akbar Hydari, the Chancellor of the Osmania University

Osmania University

Osmania University , , since 1918, is a public university located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established and named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. It is one of the oldest modern universities in India. It is the first Indian University to have Urdu and...

, the distinguished promoter of science and learning in India." According to plans Ehrenfels was to become professor of a new department of anthropology but a Nazi party member from Vienna came in his way. One trace of this plan is Ilm-ul Aqam. It is anthropological textbook for students in two volumes translated from Ehrenfels' manuscript in English into Urdu by Dr. Syed Abid Hussain. A letter to Max Brod 1941 says: “General and Indian Ethnology for the layman”.
The situation in India changed at the outbreak of World War II September 1939. Austrian passports were considered "German" from March 1938. The war meant that antifascist refugee Umar Rolf Ehrenfels was now an "enemy alien". Also treason played its part. Ehrenfels was deprived of his liberty until 1946 in two British India internment camps most of the time at Yercaud, a hill station. He managed to do some anthropological fieldwork - under police escort. He learnt languages and created art as he was a gifted painter, having his first exhibitions in Prague and Vienna. A great amount is in the Lichtenau archive. His art contributed to his living in the hard times after release. His anthroplogical eye was trained. A camera supported his memory.

Respected in India .. and East Africa

In 1949 Ehrenfels lectured before the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

(1889-1964) and got an honorary Indian citizenship. He was awarded the Sarat Chandra Roy Golden Medal for original contributions to Anthropology by the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. Ehrenfels had suffered hardships as a British Empire political prisoner like other freedom fighters. A forced exile had brought him back as the Nizam’s guest but he became an active builder of the new republic. He used anthropology with a historical and interdisciplinary outlook to strengthen the self-esteem of Indians particularly women. He wrote many anthropological articles and gave radio talks. He took part in social work. Always infused with his passion for women's rights, not only in theory but in implemantation in real life.
In 1949- 1961 Ehrenfels was head and professor of the Department of Anthropology, founded in 1945, at Madras University. He held several grants from the Viking Fund, New York and did field work reinforcing the theories he had presentad in his dissertation 1937. In 1957- 58 he held a Swedish grant to make his longed for field work in East Africa, described in the bok The Light Continent (1960), translated into German and Telugu: Kaanti Seema.

Back in Europe

From Madras Ehrenfels and his newly wed wife Mireielle Ehrenfels moved to Heidelberg in 1961. Together they went to do a last fieldwork in India in the mid 60's. Apart from a small book in 1969there is a great amount of unpublished material in the Lichtenau archive. After her husband's death Mireille Ehrenfels made Lichtenau her home. She made great efforts in restoring the Lichtenau and Rastbach castles after the damages during the war as well as organising the Ehrenfels Archive.

Published material

1. Omar or Umar Rolf Ehrenfels, 1925- 1978. The bibliography of printed works contains over 300 numbers, made up by Siv Hackzell 1994- 2011, not yet published. Books:
   1. 1941. Motherright in India. Introduction by W. Koppers. 229 p. Ill. Revised transl. of Ph.D. diss. Hyderabad-Deccan: Oxford Univ. Press in Osmania Univ. series. Reviews in Internet.
   2. 1942. Ilm-ul Aqam. Vol. 1-2. An anthropological textbook for students translated from URE’s manuscript in English into Urdu by Dr. Syed Abid Hussain. Delhi: Anjuman Taraqqi-Urudu.
   3. 1952. Kadar of Cochin. Tribal monograph. Preface P.W. Schmidt. Ill. University of Madras Anthropological Series No 1. Reviews n Internet.
   4. 1960. The Light Continent. Bombay, London, New York: Asia Publishing House. Reviews in Internet. Translations:
   5. 1962. Im lichten Kontinent: Erfahrungen eines Ethnologen in Ostafrika. Translated by Dr. H. Venedey. Register by URE & M.S. Gopalakrishnan. Darmstadt: Progess Verlag.
   6. 1963. Kaanti Seema. Translated into Telugu by Smt. Ramalakshimi Arudra. Madras/ Machilipatnam/ Secunderabad: M. Seshachalam & Co.
   7. 1969. Innere Entwicklungshilfe: eine ethnologische Studie in Südindien. Schriftenreihe des Südasien-Instituts der Univ. Heidelberg.
2. Leela Ehrenfels, 2004. Reader's Forum: Ali & Nino Copyright'' in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 12:4 (Winter 2004), pp 10 ff.
3. Eric Germain & Nathalie Clayer eds, 2008. Islam in Inter-War Europe. New York: Columbia University Press. See google books
   1. Eric Germain, 2008. ”The First Muslim Missions on a European Scale: Ahmadi-Lahori Networks in the Inter-War Period” pp. 89-127 in Germain- Clayer eds. Chapter also printed in The Light- Islamic Review, Lahore 2009/ 1-2.
4. Siv Hackzell, 2011. Umar Rolf Ehrenfels: Mother-right Anthropologist of The “Vienna School” in the Cultural Triangle Europe- India- East Africa. BA- thesis at Stockholm University, Department of Social Anthropology. Copy also in the Royal/ National Library.
5. Gerhard Hoepp.
   1. 1997. Mohammad Essad Bey: nur Orient fuer Europaeer? in Asien Afrika Lateinamerika, Berlin, Vol. 25:1, pp. 75-97.
   2. 2002. Wer schrieb Ali und Nino?. Zur Archaeologie einer Legende in Zenith: Zeitschrift fuer den Orient, Hamburg, no 2 pp.59-61.
6. Karl Jettmar, 1980. Umar Rolf von Ehrenfels (1901- 1980) in Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien CX Band S. 199- 201.
7. Tom Reiss.
   1. 1999. The Man from the East in The New Yorker p.68-83.
   2. 2005. The Orientalist. Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life New York: Random House.
8. Ferdinand Weinhandl, ed. 1960. Gestalthaftes Sehen. Ergebnisse und Aufgaben der Morphologie. Zum 100-jährigen Geburtstag von Christian v. Ehrenfels. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
9. Lalita Prasad Vidyarthi, 1978. Rise of anthropology in India: a social science orientation. Volym 1. Delhi: Naurang Rai. NB Writes Ehrenfel/Ehrenfel's. See Google books.
10. Azerbaijan International, Vol. 15:2-4 (2011). Edited by Betty Blair. "Who Wrote Azerbaijan's Most Famous Novel: Ali and Nino. The Business of Literature". Two separate volumes, in English and in Azeri, 364 pages, approximately 1200 photos.

Unprinted documents

1. Documents in the Ehrenfels archive at Lichtenau that Siv Hackzell organised and worked with 1994, 1995 and 1998 for a biography of UR Ehrenfels. Mireille Ehrenfels in 1998 gave Tom Reiss access to this material. He used it for his article in the New Yorker 1999 extended into his book 2005.
2. Copies of some of the documents in the Ehrenfels archive can be found in the Roy C Bates papers at the Grenander Collections, Albany. Ehrenfels and Kurt Bauchwitz stayed in contact by writing letters, from 1939 on, preserved in the archive. It also has copies of Ehrenfels' prints.
3. The Women's History Collections in Gothenburg, Sweden has letters and copies of prints.