From 1888 to 1894, he studied at the universities of Munich and Göttingen, and afterwards worked as an assistant curator and librarian in the Indian Institute at Oxford University. In 1898, he became an associate professor at Göttingen, then five years later relocated to Rostock, where in 1905 he was named professor of Indo-European linguistics and Sanskrit. In 1909, he was appointed professor of ancient Indian languages and literature at the University of Berlin, where in 1931–32 he served as academic rector. In 1935, he retired from teaching and devoted himself entirely to research.[2][3]
From 1920 to 1938, he served as secretary of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.[3]
In 1932 he was recipient of the Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Goethe Medal for Art and Science).[2] He was also appointed to the "Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission" (Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission) for his expertise in the languages Bengali, Pashto, and Gurung. The purpose of the commission was to record the approximately 250 languages spoken by the prisoners of German WWI PoW camps.[4]
Published works
Bruchstücke buddhistischer Dramen, 1911.
Weitere Beiträge zur Geschichte und Geographie von Ostturkestan. Berlin 1930.
Ernst Waldschmidt (1943). Heinrich Lüders. In: Forschungen und Fortschritte. Nachrichtenblatt der Deutschen Wissenschaft und Technik, Organ des Reichsforschungsrates 19 (23/24), 250–252
