Rudolf G. Wagner, born on 3 November 1941, passed away on Friday 26 Oktober 2019. Rudolf G. Wagner obtained his PhD in 1969 at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Münich, with the dissertation entitled “Hui-yüan’s Questions to Kumârajîva”. In 1981 he received his Habilitation with the work entitled “Philology, Philosophy and Politics in the Zhengshi Era”. From 1981 to 1982, he was a Fellow at Cornell University, and in 1984 and from 1986 to 1987, he was a Research Fellow at Harvard University. From 1984 to 1986, he was Research Linguist at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1987 on, he was professor at the University of Heidelberg. In 1993, he obtained the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation. Rudolf G Wagner was General Secretary of the European Association for Chinese Studies from 1992 to 1996, and President of the EACS trom 1996 to 1998.