The Department of Indology and Tamil Studies in Cologne University, Germany is one of the leading places in the world outside of India to study Tamil. The department, founded in 1963 by Professor Dr Klaus-Ludwig Janert, has over 40,000 Tamil books. This Tamil Department functioning was about be to be shut down when the University decided against the renewal of the professorship in Indology and Tamil studies after the retirement of Professor Dr Ulrike Niklas in September 2020.

Tamil Chair Inc. took upon the issue and paid a grant of $176,142 and extended TamilAsForeignLanguage – TaFL until June 2022 with the Scholarship of Dr Sven Wortmann. Subsequently in July 2021, Tamil Nadu government under the CM Thiru. M. K. Stalin had signed an MoU with the University of Cologne and paid $175,000 (Rupee 1.25 Crores) to extend the department!