«Սուրբ Աուրելիուսի հետմահու կյանքը» - Հարցազրույց Կլաուս Պետեր ՀԱՐՏՄԱՆԻ հետ

Armen Khechoyan's article is devoted to an interview with Klaus Peter Hartmann, long-time director of the Volkshochschule (Higher Public School) in Calw, an orientalist and specialist in the religious geography of the Middle East, focused on the history of the veneration of St. Aurelius and the Armenian connections of the Calw–Hirsau region.

Introduction and Methodology
The material is structured as a biographical interview in which the interlocutor consistently unfolds his scholarly path — the study of Islam, theology, and religious studies at the University of Tübingen, a decade of living in the East (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen), and many years of work on the theme of Christian-Muslim relations, including research on the Armenian communities of Julfa, Isfahan, Tabriz, Aleppo, and Antelias. Particular attention is given to Hartmann's participation in the creation of the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East (TAVO, 1973–2005), a large-scale cartographic project comprising about 500 maps, including those on the history of Christian, in particular Armenian, communities.

Key Argument
The central subject of the article is the legend of St. Aurelius — a fourth-century bishop of Armenian origin, whose story links Armenia, Milan, Vercelli, and the Hirsau monastery. The article recounts the tradition of the friendship between the Milanese bishop Dionysius, exiled to the eastern border of the empire for opposing Arianism, and the Armenian bishop Aurelius, their mutual vow to be buried together, and the subsequent translation of their relics.

The historical reconstruction includes the following stages:

the translation of St. Aurelius's relics from Milan to Vercelli, and then, in 830, to Hirsau at the initiative of the local counts' family;
the transformation of the modest monastery of St. Aurelius into a center of the medieval ecclesiastical reform of the 11th century, parallel to the Cluniac reform, which changed the system of monasticism in Central Europe;
the transfer of the relics to a new, larger monastery of Hirsau after its expansion;
the sale of the relics during the Reformation era and their journey through the possessions of the Zimmern and Hohenzollern families all the way to Zwiefalten;
the return of the relics to Hirsau in 1955 thanks to the restoration work of the architect Professor Hayek.

The article also describes Hartmann's contemporary efforts to revive the memory of St. Aurelius: organizing an Armenian Week in Calw and Hirsau, establishing contacts with the Armenian communities of Germany, the Mekhitarists of Venice, the Catholicosate in Etchmiadzin, and Armenian bishops of the Middle East, as well as partnership ties with the Italian community of Gabiano (Piedmont), which bears the name of St. Aurelius.

Conclusion
The key conclusion of the article is the assertion of a deep historical and cultural continuity between Armenia and Southwestern Germany, embodied in the figure of St. Aurelius: his posthumous journey — Armenia, Milan, Vercelli, Hirsau, the possessions of the Zimmern and Hohenzollern families, Zwiefalten, and back to Hirsau — is viewed as a symbol of the cultural and spiritual bridge between the Christian East and medieval Europe, while Hartmann's personal research and public activities are presented as a contemporary continuation of this centuries-old connection.