As an anthropologist, Prof. Terwiel is very interested in the decipherment of documents, his regional specialisation being the language and culture of the Ahom in Assam. Together, they offer regularly full degree courses both in Thai and Vietnamese which is quite unique in Germany. Libraries Of great importance for visitors are the diverse libraries with special collections on Southeast Asia. It is known especially for rare old books on Austronesian linguistics published before the war. In addition, as the Seminar is the only academic institution in Germany with a specialisation on the South Pacific, there might be volumes that cannot be found elsewhere.
Good collections are also available for the literatures of modern Indonesia and Malaysia.
As the Seminar is the only institution in Germany where the literatures and languages of the Philippines are studied, since the beginnings of Tagalog courses in 1927 there has been developed an interesting Philippine collection. A new large book donation from the Philippines will be integrated into the library in the next years. In addition, other aspects of Southeast Asian cultures and societies are represented quite well in other libraries of the University of Hamburg, like the library of mainland Southeast Asia with its specialisation on history and literature, the theological collection, the old library of the museum of anthropology, and the central library. A speciality of Hamburg is the presence of several important research institutions covering Asia, Africa and Latin America from a political point of view. These institutes are partly financed by the city-state of Hamburg and the federal government, and, in fact, they act in their fields as the main official think tanks of Germany.