DEFINING MOMENTS

The study of Germany in North America is relegated largely to campuses and scholarly journals. Yet the “ivory-tower” mentality does not entirely isolate academic activity from wider societal concerns that can encourage interest in German-speaking nations or sometimes detract from that interest. Defining moments in the evolution of German studies in North America are framed, on the one hand, by the politics and the policies of departments of German, history, and political science and the institutions that house them. On the other hand, the parameters are set by the whims and wonts of the society the departments seek to serve. The study of German literature and culture (Germanistik, Germanics, German, German Studies) also has different objectives than that of history or political science. The scholarly output of historians and political scientists is more easily influenced by and integrated into the political, economic, and diplomatic discourses of their colleagues with a different national focus. With the gradual disappearance of a broad and active community of German-heritage speakers, the study of German literature and culture has today less immediate relevance in the public mind. Another factor is the transformation of higher education in the past thirty years. Elite colleges, former havens for the select few, became accessible to a broad demographic mix of students, and public institutions grew rapidly. Thus, departmental structures, changing institutional missions, and societal “claims” on higher education have influenced the defining moments in the evolution of the study of Germany in the United States.