Salamat Schiftah Biography

Salamat Shiftah was born on 20 December 1938 in Nauabad /De Afghanan in Kabul/Afghanistan. His father Gulam Mohammed worked as a civil servant, his mother Hawa was a housewife and worked for the literacy of the neighbourhood children. Salamat Schiftah attended the German-Afghan Nedjat Amani School in Kabul, from which he graduated.

His versatile interests and talents led him early on to occupy himself with different subjects, such as musical-poetic and scientific-mathematical topics.

Even as a teenager, he was active as a singer and actor at various theatres in his native city. He won first prize twice in school painting competitions, directed the school choir and directed several theatre performances.
As top of his class and a graduate of a special examination, he was entitled to study abroad.
Before Salamat Schiftah came to Germany in 1959, he studied law in Kabul and later took part in oil exploration in northern Afghanistan.

Initially, Salamat Schiftah studied different subjects at the University of Munich. He became a graduate geologist and doctor of natural sciences in palaeontology, chemistry and biology. He worked at various universities in the field of research and was involved in the production of the Geological Map of Baden-Württemberg/Oberschwaben as well as in the evaluation of samples from the research vessel Meteor before he decided to take up a teaching position at the Staatliches Westerwald-Gymnasium in Altenkirchen.

Here he worked as head of the biology department for 10 years during the last part of his career. The decline of his eyesight led to his early retirement from professional life, also in order to pursue his cultural and artistic activities more intensively. Salamat Shiftah expanded his knowledge of music and learned singing and numerous musical instruments, including string and percussion instruments, from great Afghan and Indian masters. This was followed by countless, multi-faceted concerts in Germany, including France, Italy and
Switzerland.

A small excerpt from his performances in Germany:

Concerts at the universities of Munich and Frankfurt
Active participation in the Peace Festival in the Golden Hall of the Augsburg Town Hall
Performance at the Gala Concert for Afghanistan at the Tempodrom Berlin
Participation in musical contributions to the Documenta in Kassel in 2002, 2007 and
2012.

He is a recipient of the Medal of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.

His work includes numerous CDs and DVDs dealing with classical , mystical and folkloric themes, also presenting poems by old and other new poets. In addition to the Afghan Duo, the Afghan Trio and the Afghan Ensemble, he has founded other musical groups, such as the Triton Ensemble, the Indo Afghan Trio and the East-West Ensemble.

Salamat Schiftah sees his task in international understanding and in the cultural East-West comparison. His event Goethe and Hafiz on the 250th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is just one example.