German Department Princeton

Unser schreibzeug arbeitet mit an unseren gedanken. Friedrich Nietzsche
Our writing tools are also at work on our thoughts. (Friedrich Nietzsche in a letter to his secretary Peter Gast. February 1882)
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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.

Events

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Asylum seekers protest in Berlin
Lecture

Mercurial Mediterraneans: Nation, Narration, and Migration from Däubler to Erpenbeck

January 22, 2025
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Two artful book cover jackets
Lecture

Rethinking Heimat and Trauma: Meral Kureyshi’s Elefanten im Garten and Mehrnousch Zaeri-Esfahani’s 33 Bogen und ein Teehaus

January 24, 2025
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Artwork print of houses in cubism style
Spring 2025 Lecture Series

Gender and the Genres of Postwar Memory Culture: Novels of Domestic Decay from Haus ohne Hüter to Altes Land

February 10, 2025
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Two men outside having discussion
Reading Group

There is a crack in everything. Introduction to the Frankfurt School, Critical Theory and Negative Dialectics.

February 13, 2025
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Old tone photo image Susman
Graduate Student Conference

Mysticism & Modernism: The World of Margarete Susman

February 21, 2025
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Artwork of 1920's style woman behind wheel of automobile
Spring 2025 Lecture Series

The German “Auto-“. Fiction, Theory, and the Essay in the First-Person Singular

March 31, 2025
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Illustrative painting of Lady Danvers pursued by her footmen
Spring 2025 Lecture Series

From Empathy to Resentment: A Short History of Identification

April 14, 2025
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East Pyne Hall arch
Graduate Student Workshop

Albrecht Koschorke, Universität Konstanz

April 15, 2025