Department of German Language and Literature

The Department of German Language and Literature is located in the beautiful Palais Boisserée in the centre of the old town, directly below Heidelberg Castle. Learn all that you need to know about studying, working, and living at our department.

We analyse the German language and German literature from the Middle Ages to the present day. Our research and teaching focus on popular and canonical works (as taught in schools), as well as on subjects that have barely been researched yet, which makes them particularly fascinating (e.g., political language and language criticism in European comparison, medieval manuscripts, magical things, language in the period of National Socialism, cultural contacts between France and Germany, language, literature, and knowledge, love and sexuality, witchcraft literature, language and medicine, storytelling in the early modern period (16th - 18th centuries), poetry, and music).

Students of German studies deal with the past and present of the German language, literature, and culture. They acquire the ability to approach current developments critically and constructively: The dangers and potentials of the present can be recognised and used, e.g., regarding media change, gender roles, or changing practices of reading and writing, by carefully studying and comparing the major and minor changes of the past.

Heidelberg University supports transfer activities and further development of forward-looking ideas. The primary goal is increasing society’s participation in scientifically generated knowledge. The Department of German Language and Literature implements this transfer in different ways.