President of Mongolia visits Leipzig University
Press release 22/10/2026. Leipzig. The President of Mongolia, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, visited Leipzig University on 22 October. Rector Professor Eva Inés Obergfell welcomed him to the Paulinum – Assembly Hall and University Church of St. Paul, where he signed the University’s Golden Book. Together, they unveiled a commemorative plaque honouring the Mongolian writer Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj and Leipzig sinologist and Mongolian studies scholar Professor Erich Haenisch. Leipzig University and the National University of Mongolia also signed a memorandum of understanding on academic cooperation. “Mongolian was being taught at Leipzig University as early as 1882. The collaboration between Erich Haenisch and Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj demonstrates how important exchanges with Mongolian scholars were to this research. Our partnership with the National University of Mongolia builds on this tradition. Together, we aim to make Mongolian Buddhist texts digitally accessible for international, AI-assisted research,” said Rector Obergfell. The visit to Leipzig University was part of President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa’s four-day state visit to Germany, which reciprocated Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s visit to Mongolia in February 2024. His itinerary in Saxony included Leipzig and Dresden.
Commemorative plaque honours academic collaboration
The plaque commemorates the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Mongolian students in Germany in 1926. Among them was Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj, who is regarded as one of the founders of modern Mongolian literature.
Natsagdorj lived in Germany from 1926 to 1929 and continued his studies under Haenisch in Leipzig. Their collaboration led to the reconstruction of the Mongolian text of The Secret History of the Mongols from a Chinese transcription. This 13th-century chronicle is central to Mongolia’s understanding of its own history. Haenisch published the first German translation in 1941.
The commemorative plaque was commissioned at the initiative of the Embassy of Mongolia and cast in bronze in Mongolia.
New partnership brings together Buddhist studies and artificial intelligence
The President of the National University of Mongolia (NUM), Ochirkhuyag B., and Leipzig University Rector Eva Inés Obergfell signed the memorandum of understanding on academic cooperation. One specific initiative planned under the agreement is a German–Mongolian research network combining expertise in artificial intelligence and Buddhist studies.
Mongolian language and text resources will be digitally processed, made accessible for academic research and integrated into Dharmamitra, an AI-assisted research platform for Buddhist studies. The aim is to improve the representation of the Mongolian language in modern AI technologies. At Leipzig University, the partnership is being developed at the Institute for South and Central Asian Studies under the leadership of Professor Jowita Kramer.
International conference explores Natsagdorj’s life and work
An international academic conference held in the Old Senate Hall on the same day explored the life and work of Natsagdorj. To accompany the conference, the University Library displayed its copy of the first German-language edition of The Secret History of the Mongols.
Mongolian students in Leipzig
Students from Mongolia have been coming to Leipzig to take preparatory German language courses since the 1950s. In the winter semester 2026/27, 13 students with Mongolian citizenship are enrolled in degree programmes at Leipzig University. The University also promotes its degree programmes through the Saxon Science Liaison Office in Ulaanbaatar, which opened in July 2024.
