German studies


German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the language and literature component. Approaches to the discipline vary by country. Modern German studies is usually seen as a combination of two sub-disciplines: German linguistics alongside Germanophone literature and cultural studies.
Common names for "German Studies" for the field within German-speaking countries are Germanistik, Deutsche Philologie, and Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft und Literaturwissenschaft. In English, the terms Germanistics or Germanics are sometimes used, but the subject is more often referred to as German studies, German language and literature, or German philology. Academics who specialize in German studies are referred to as Germanists.

German linguistics

German linguistics is traditionally called philology in Germany, though most German studies departments house linguists whose focus relates to German or Germanic language in both their historic and present forms. The periods of German's philological development are roughly divided as follows:
In addition, the discipline examines German under various aspects: the way it is spoken and written, i.e., spelling; declination; vocabulary; sentence structure; texts; etc. It compares the various manifestations such as social groupings and geographical groupings.

German literature studies

The study of German literature is divided into two parts: Ältere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft deals with the period from the beginnings of German in the early Middle Ages up to post-Medieval times around AD 1750, while the modern era is covered by Neuere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft. The field systematically examines German literature in terms of genre, form, content, and motifs as well as looking at it historically by author and epoch. Important areas include edition philology, history of literature, and textual interpretation. The relationships of German literature to the literatures of other languages and historical contexts are also important areas of concentration.
German literature studies benefits from the particularly rich printing tradition of the German-speaking world. Given Johannes Gutenberg and thus the modern printing press originates from German-speaking Europe, Germanic texts have historically enjoyed a heightened status among scholars. Other prominent historical figures, such as Martin Luther have also marked the history of literature through his dissemination of the Bible and thereby an early and strong German-speaking reading culture compared to other European publics.
Much like other literature-centered fields, German literature studies is concerned with ecocriticism, hermeneutics, feminism, narratology, psychoanalytic criticism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, post-structuralism, reader-response, semiotics, sound studies, spatial theory, speech acts, structuralism, symbology, and queer theory.

German cultural studies

The study of German culture encompasses issues related to German politics, German history, Holocaust studies, national identity, German art, art history, migration, film studies, museum studies, memory studies, German Literature, and media. The sub-field is highly interdisciplinary drawing from both the humanities and social sciences to examine issues related to contemporary German-speaking countries. Such approaches are often focalized through the lens of the German-speaking nation at present. Thus, the study of countries such as Austria and Switzerland, as well as other German-speaking groups, are often focalized not only through their shared German linguistic and cultural heritage, but for their distinct national and diasporic contexts. German cultural studies therefore incorporates the historical areas of German influence across Europe and overseas as it relates to both migration and colonization.
German cultural studies is most common in departments located outside of a German-speaking country, acting in many forms as a form of area studies related to the German Sprachraum. A heightened focus on German cultural studies became apparent following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and has increasingly been tied to the field of European Studies.

DAAD Centers for German and European Studies

In the years following the fall of the wall, the German federal government established Centers for German and European Studies throughout North America. This effort sought to increase transatlantic political, cultural, and academic cooperation between the United States and post-Soviet Europe, with a strong focus on Germany's increased importance within the European Union as a reunified state. Sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Services, these mark a distinct departure from traditional German studies programs and are often housed within broader internationally oriented departments dealing with international affairs, area studies, or public policy within North America. The DAAD Centers for German and European Studies in North America are listed as follows:
DAAD Centers for German and European Studies beyond North America include the following:
At least in Germany and Austria, German studies in academia play a central role in the education of German school teachers. Their courses usually cover four fields:
  • Linguistics of German
  • German language and literature of up to about 1750
  • German language and literature since approximately 1750
  • Specifics of the didactics of teaching German
Several universities offer specialized curricula for school teachers, usually called "Deutsch ". In Germany, they are leading to a two step exam and certificate by the federated states of Germany cultural authorities, called the Staatsexamen.

History

As an unsystematic field of interest for individual scholars, German studies can be traced back to Tacitus' Germania. The publication and study of legal and historical source material, such as Medieval Bible translations, were all undertaken during the German Renaissance of the sixteenth century, truly initiating the field of German studies. As an independent university subject, German studies was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century by Georg Friedrich Benecke, the Brothers Grimm, and Karl Lachmann.
The Nazi period, and immediate predecessor periods before and after World War I, left large parts of the field, which had drifted off more and more into race-biological thinking, greatly compromised and damaged, as major proponents on both the literature and the linguistics side were actively working for the Nazi Party and their racist goals While great efforts have been made in the denazification of the field, some biases are suggested by overseas Germanist to have remained. After all, post-war academia, with "Nazi party membership among university professors greatly exceed that of the population at large," was not a complete restart, least of all, in German philology, where 90% of university teachers were NSDAP members.

University departments and research institutions

;Austria
;Bénin
;Botswana
;Brazil
;Canada
  • Department of German Language and Literature, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
  • Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto
;China
;Czech Republic
;India
;Ireland
;Germany
"German studies" is taught at many German universities. Some examples are:
;Greece
;Russia
;South Africa
;Spain
;Uganda
;United Kingdom
;United States of America
;Zimbabwe