Germanistik II - Department of Modern German Philology

In the Department of German Studies II, we study modern German literature in a systematic, historical manner. This scholarly approach is based on the classical and romantic philological and hermeneutical priniciples established in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and interrogates these principles in critical dialogue with recent theoretical developments. In close cooperation with the Heine-Institut, the Goethe-Museum, the Thomas Mann collection at the Duesseldorf University Library, and the Max-Herrmann-Neiße-Institut, the deparatment continues Duesseldorf's traditions of Heine, Goethe, and Thomas Mann scholarship and (historically inflected) transcultural studies. Our thematic foci include: Literature of the Early Modern Period and Enlightenment, Literature of German Classicism and Romanticism, Literature of the 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries, German-Jewish Literature, Inter- and Transcultural Literature, Intertextuality and Intermediality, Gender Studies, Studies of Aging.