About the Department of German Studies

The Department of German Studies, founded in 1946, is one of the oldest philological institutes in the country. It offers courses in linguistics, literary and translation studies with special focus on synchronic contrastive linguistics, language history, language contact and translation phenomena, literary history, the specifics of German and Austrian culture (with respect to German culture in Bohemia and Moravia), and the cultural history of German-speaking countries.

The bachelor’s and master’s programmes in German Philology are both offered as single or double degree programmes (full-time day study, the single degree master’s programme as part-time distance study as well). Similarly, those interested in translation and contrastive linguistics can apply for bachelor’s or master’s programme of German for Translation and Interpreting. A minimum of B1 level German is required for anyone interested to study at the department. Graduates from bachelor’s programmes of other Czech or foreign universities are welcomed to study the single or double degree of both our master’s programmes.

The single degree bachelor’s programme “German as the language of the humanities” is interdisciplinary in its nature - the basic discipline “German philology” is interconnected to six other classical disciplines of the humanities (history, philosophy, general and comparative linguistics, comparative religion and Jewish studies, art history and medieval studies), which are taught in German. German and Austrian history and methodology of the disciplines are also a part of the curriculum.

The bachelor’s programme “German for Translation and Interpreting” has been offered since 2015 in order to meet the demand for acquiring practical language skills. It aims to teach both the necessary techniques and skills for translation and interpreting as well as the theoretical framework of translation studies. In this context, a close integration with contrastive linguistic research is also pursued. Additionally, the program reflects on the latest technological developments in artificial intelligence and their implications for translation work.

After completing an additional pedagogical module, master’s students qualify as teachers at all types of schools and educational institutions.

The graduates from the master’s programme can continue their studies choosing the PhD study programme “German Language” or “German Literature”.

Students of all levels (undergraduates, master and doctoral students) benefit from an elite academic environment: the large number of staff is composed of experts from all academic areas, a number of native speakers, a “family environment”, individual approach, a variety of other foreign languages which can be taken up as the other major or as optional courses, a modern system of organization with opportunities to specialize in different fields of interest, high influence of students in the academic affairs, an extensive network of international relationships with universities across Europe, and the opportunity to obtain scholarships to study abroad.

Location

Katedra germanistiky

Křížkovského 10

CZ-779 00 Olomouc

People

Head of the Department: Mgr. Milan Horňáček, Ph.D.; e-mail: milan.hornacek@upol.cz; tel.: +420 58 563 3260

Department Secretary: Mgr. Anna Mácová, e-mail: anna.macova@upol.cz, tel.: +420 58 563 3203

ERASMUS Coordinator: Mag. Dr. phil. Sabine Voda; e-mail: sabine.voda@upol.cz; tel. +420 58 563 3223

DAAD Coordinator: Mgr. Alexander Gruse, M.Ed., e-mail: alexander.gruse@upol.cz; tel.: +420 58 563 3225

BIP Project Coordinator: doc. Kristýna Solomon, Ph.D. e-mail: kristyna.solomon@upol.cz; tel.: +420 58 563 3224

In 1997 the Centre for Research of German-Moravian Literature (“Arbeitsstelle für deutschmährische Literatur”) was founged at our department. This centre focuses on researching German culture and literature from Moravia, which has been mostly neglected by scholars of literary history (for more inromation visit as.germanistika.cz/de/). In 2003, the German government funded the professoriate for research in German literature in Moravia and Bohemia. In 2013 the department was awarded the label of an Austrian Research Centre.

A traditional research focus of our linguistics department is German-Czech contrastive and translation studies. Numerous academic articles and teaching materials have been developed on this topic, incorporating modern corpus-linguistic methods as well. Another important area of research is the study of older forms of the German language, particularly Early New High German. The historical German-Czech language contact has also been repeatedly examined at our institute, sometimes in close collaboration with Czech studies scholars, together with the history of linguistics.

Projects

• “Concepts of Modernity in Moravian German Culture 1871-1939” GAČR P406/10/094, part of the research project “Moravia and the World” MŠMT ČR (2007-2013)
• “The European Dimension of Moravian German Literature”, IGA FF_2011_023
• “German as the Language of Humanities” Volkswagenstiftung (2009-2012), Improvement of German philology undergraduate programme, a new study module “German as the language of the humanities” ESF CZ.1.07/2.2.00/15.0320
• "The History of German Punctuation Theory", Czech Science Foundation/GAČR (P406/14-06106S) [2014 to 2016]
• "The History of Czech Punctuation Theory in the European Context", Czech Science Foundation/GAČR (P406/20-04735S) [2020 to 2023]
• "Linguistic Transfer in Czech 19th Century Manuals of Letter Writing" (IGA_FF_2023_028) [2023]
• "Linguistic Transfer in Selected Czech Textbooks of the 19th Century" (IGA_FF_2024_021) [2024]

As part of the Erasmus programme, the department cooperates with the following institutions:

Germany:

• Freie Universität Berlin, www.fu-berlin.de
• Technische Universität Berlin, www.tu-berlin.de
• Technische Universität Chemnitz, www.tu-chemnitz.de
• Technische Universität Dresden, tu-dresden.de
• Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, www.uni-greifswald.de
• Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, www.uni-mainz.de
• Universität des Saarlandes Saarbrücken, www.uni-saarland.de

Austria:

• Universität Wien, www.univie.ac.at

Estonia:

• Tallin University, www.tlu.ee/en

France:

• Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, www.-univ-montp3.fr

Italy:

• Universita degli studi di Palermo, www.dipli.unipa.it
• Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, www.uniurb.it

Poland: 

• Uniwersytet Wroclawski, www.uni.wroc.pl
• Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie, www.uwm.edu.pl/

Portugal:

• Universidade do Porto, www.up.pt

Romania: 

• Universitatea Bucuresti, www.unibuc.ro/e/

Slovenia:

• Univerza v Ljubljani, www.uni-lj.si

Other foreign partners and cooperations

• Adalbert-Stifter-Verein München Haus des deutschen Ostens, München
• Brücken. Germanistisches Jahrbuch
• Deutsch-Tschechischer Zukunftsfond
• Forschungsinstitut Brenner-Archiv, Innsbruck Internationale Charles-Sealsfield-Gesellschaft, Wien Institut für Germanistik, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz Institut für Germanistik, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
• Heiligenhof – Bildungs- und Begegnungsstatt, Bad Kissingen
• Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin
• Institut für Germanistik, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg Institut für Germanistik der Technischen Universität Dresden (GIP / Germanistische Institutspartnerschaft DAAD)
• Matthias-Kramer-Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Geschichte des Fremdsprachenerwerbs und der Mehrsprachigkeit (Bamberg)
• Mitteleuropa-Zentrum der TU Dresden Mitteleuropäischer GermanistenVerband
• Studienkreis ‘Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft’ (SGdS, Münster)
• Vladimir-Admoni-Programm: Konstanz – Prag – Olomouc – Brno – Wroclaw (2 doctoral scholarships for PU)

Medieval studies in Olomouc were from 2005 to 2014 part of the Erasmus Mundus programme GLITEMA-EMMC (German Literature in the European Middle Ages; http://glitema.up.pt) connecting 16 different universities in and outside Europe. Since 2014 the departments has been cooperating with nine other universities and three non-universitary partners in the TALC_me project (Textual and Literary Cultures in Medieval Europe; http://talcme.uni-mainz.de).