Vincenz Hundhausen

Vincenz Maria Hermann Hundhausen (15 December 1878 – 18 May 1955) was a German who was a German-language professor at Peking University and a translator of Chinese works into German. He used the Chinese name Hong Taosheng (traditional Chinese: 洪濤生; simplified Chinese: 洪涛生; pinyin: Hóng Tāoshēng; Wade–Giles: Hung T'ao-sheng).

Hundhausen owned the Poplar Island Press, based out of his Beijing house. In addition, Hundhausen saw himself as a poet and an artist.

In 2001 Annette Merker, author of a book review of Vincenz Hundhausen (1878-1955): Leben und Werk des Dichters, Druckers, Verlegers, Professors, Regisseurs und Anwalts in Peking, wrote that he was "little known by non-sinologists".

Hundhausen was born in Grevenbroich on 15 December 1878. His father, V. Hundhausen, was a factory owner. V. Hundhausen's grandfather, Vinzenz Jakob von Zuccalmaglio (), was a friend of Ernst Moritz Arndt.

Hundhausen studied law in the cities of Bonn, Berlin, Freiburg, and Munich. In 1909 in Berlin Hundhausen began practicing law and working as a notary. During World War I Hundhausen initially served as an officer. He became a prosecutor serving in Eastern Europe for the Commander-in-Chief of the East.

By the year 1923, Hundhausen had become a specialist in property administration and guardianship. In 1923, Hundhausen was the executor of the Pape-assets in Tianjin and he had been asked to settle an inheritance case there. He stated that he had a lack of knowledge and awareness of China when he traveled there at age 45. Hundhausen stayed in China, living and working there for 31 years, with one short interruption. In 1946 Hundhausen stated that after he first arrived in China he decided to stay there because he foresaw political developments that would occur in Germany. He worked for the State University of Peking as a professor of German literature. From 1924 to 1937 he taught "German and World Literature" at the university.

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