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Ich verdiene mit einem Wort mein tägliches Brot durch Denken, Grübeln, Bohren, Graben, Sinnen, Dichten, Untersuchen, Forschen und Spazieren so sauer wie irgendeiner. Robert Walser

In a word, I earn my daily bread by thinking, brooding, drilling, digging, contemplating, poetizing, examining, researching, and walking – just as bitterly as anyone else. (The Walk, 1917)

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Views from Weimar

Weimar - Bauhaus Stairway

Protest against clearing the Hambacher Forst for coal mining (2018) Hambacher Forst is one of the last primeval forests

Woamn holding pack of Valie cigarettes - Smart Export

VALIE EXPORT - Smart Export II (1967)

Diagram of electronic schematic for a synthesizer in pen on graph paper

Diagram for Self-built Synthesizer (1988) Friedrich & Wolf Kittler

The Princeton German Department explores the language, literatures, intellectual history, arts and media of Germany and German-speaking cultures from the Middle Ages to the present. Our highly diverse and distinguished faculty employ the critical tools of multiple disciplines to investigate and appreciate the wide range of German cultural production, its significance for–and reception of–other cultures, and its continued importance for our current historical moment.

Read about the history of the Department

Message from the Chair

Why major in German?