In a mansion formerly frequented by Goethe, German language and literature is taught in all its richness and historical dimensions, from Old High German through medieval German language and culture, the literatures of the Renaissance, Baroque and the Classical Age, all the way up to modern literature and present-day literary theory. The Heidelberg Germanic Studies department attaches very great importance to this bid to represent the entire range of Deutsche Philologie on a scale largely unparalleled at other universities. The Department is engaged in a number of prestigious research enterprises, including noted dictionary projects, scholarly series, historical overviews and editions of individual authors. The curricula reflect an in-depth concern with historical and systematic aspects of linguistics, intercultural perspectives on medieval studies, drama research and aspects of literary criticism. Affiliated with the Department is a chair of computer linguistics with a curriculum revolving around the latest concerns and progress in machine language-processing.
History is about living.
The various courses offered in the Departments of English and American Studies, Romance Languages and Slavic Languages build on the history of the respective languages and literatures from the Middle Ages to the present. Accordingly, the central research interests are equally diversified. The literature divisions of the various departments display a marked commitment to the traditional domains. Major emphasis in literary studies is given to Shakespeare and English drama, American Transcendentalism, the Italian and French Renaissance and 19th century Russian prose. Teaching and research also extend to a wide variety of non-European literatures.