KUrierNewsletter of Germanic Languages and LiteraturesThe University of Kansas, Lawrence, KSEditor: William Keel • Layout: Pam LeRow Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 2014

For Our German Studies Graduates: Undergraduate Achievement

Dear German Studies Graduates,On May 1, 2014, the Department of Germanic Languages

& Literatures celebrated your academic achievements. We were pleased that your parents, grandparents, and friends joined us for the awards ceremony and reception. The event was a won-derful opportunity to recognize your diverse interests, impres-sive academic achievements, and bright prospects!

The undergraduate awards began with an initiation cer-emony for Gamma Pi, the University of Kansas Chapter of the Delta Phi Alpha National German Honor Society: “Delta Phi Alpha seeks to recognize excellence in the study of German and to provide an incentive for higher scholarship. The Society aims to promote the study of the German language, literature and civilization and endeavors to emphasize those aspects of German life and culture which are of universal value and which contribute to man’s eternal search for peace and truth.”

We are excited that our chapter, established in 1949, has been reactivated this year with the membership of six outstand-ing students: German Studies majors Sara Anderson, Zachary Hader, and Joshua McMullen, and German Studies minors Laura Bondank, Joshua Lodoly, and Thomas Morrison. Sara is studying in Germany this spring and Joshua Lodoly had a job interview, so they could not join us for the ceremony. The oth-ers pledged to continue pursuing their interest in German lan-

German Studies minors Laura Bondank and Thomas Morrison and Ger-man Studies majors Zachary Hader and Joshua McMullen are initiated into Gamma Pi, KU's reactivated chapter of the Delta Phi Alpha National German Honor Society with Professor Lorie Vanchena.

Lawrence and Eutin Celebrate 25 Years as Sister Cities

Twenty-five representatives from Lawrence will travel to Eutin, Germany, at the beginning of June to begin the celebra-tion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of a sister-city relationship between the German community and the Lawrence. The delegation will be headed by Lawrence Mayor Mike Amyx and City Commissioner Bob Schumm and include representatives from the Sister Cities Advisory Board as well as German Department faculty, William Keel, Frank Baron and Joe Cunningham (Dr. Cunningham will also be directing the KU Summer Language Institute in Eutin this summer).

The sister-city relationship grew out of the KU Summer Language Institute in Eutin that was begun in 1966 following groundwork by Prof. Helmut Huelsbergen in 1964. In the nearly 50 years of the SLI, hundreds of KU students have lived and studied in the Rosenstadt and traveled throughout Ger-many and Europe.

In the late 1980s, the time was ripe for a more formal ex-change relationship between Lawrence and Eutin. Lawrence Mayor Mike Amyx, who also served as mayor in 1987, invited the citizens of Eutin to visit Lawrence. Following a visit by two representatives from Eutin in the fall of 1988, Frank Baron organized the “Friends of Eutin” in Lawrence and lobbied the city government to establish a sister-city relationship. The city government in Eutin followed suite in the summer of 1989 and agreed on July 4, 1989, to send a delegation to Lawrence in the following October to sign the official agreement.

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guage and culture, and each student received a certificate from the national organization. Congratulations, new members of the German National Honor Society!

We then recognized individual students who received spe-cial awards this past year at the University of Kansas. The Of-fice of Study Abroad awarded Scott Friesen the Drs. Dean T. and Elisabeth Collins Study Abroad Scholarship in the amount of $20,000 for academic year 2014-15. Scott will be studying German and Environmental Science at the University of Bonn. This scholarship is designed to provide funding to deserving, degree-seeking students to study in Germany. It was the Col-lins’ wish to provide dedicated students with the opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of Germany, its people and culture, while studying for a semester or year at a German in-stitution of higher education.

We are very proud to count among our majors and minors two students who have been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the United States. Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa embraces the principles of freedom of in-quiry and liberty of thought and expression. Mitchell Pruett, who is majoring in German Studies and Psychology and mi-noring in Business (and who will graduate in May 2015), was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. Thomas Morrison, who has earned a double major in Philosophy and Anthropology in addition to his minor in German Studies, was elected to membership not only in Phi Beta Kappa but also in Phi Kappa Phi, a collegiate honor society for all academic disci-plines—an honor reserved for students in the top 10% of their class. Congratulations, Mitchell and Thomas!

Mr. Jim Morrison, Coordinator of the German Business Language Program and Interim Director of the Max Kade Cen-ter, handed out certificates to students who passed the Goethe-Zertifikat B2, an internationally recognized exam requiring advanced skills in German: Joyce Bohling, German Studies minor and English/Creative Writing major; Robert Healey, who is earning a degree in Architectural Engineering; Joshua McMullen; and Thomas Morrison. Congratulations, Joyce, Robert, Joshua, and Thomas!

This year the department created Professional Develop-ment Awards for exceptional German Studies majors and mi-nors. The awards, $250 or $500, help students pursue educa-tional opportunities such as study abroad, research projects, conference presentations, internships, and service programs. Recipients are selected based on their academic record and the extent to which the educational opportunity will enrich their academic experience.

Three undergraduates received awards this year. Two are using the award to support their studies this spring at the Uni-versity of Regensburg: Sara Anderson, German Studies and Global & International Studies major, and Ryan Jackowski, German Studies major. John McGuire, a German Studies and International Business major, plans to take advanced course-work in German this summer at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Congratulations, Sara, Ryan, and John!

We then congratulated two students who graduated in De-cember 2013:

• Eliza Bowman majored in German Studies and Lin-guistics. This fall, she will begin graduate study in Lin-guistics at the University of Montana, where she has been offered a teaching assistantship.

• Zachary Hader completed a German Studies major and pursued his abiding interest in languages by tak-ing several courses in Russian.

Several of you are graduating in May and August:

• Joyce Bohling, German Studies minor and Eng-lish/Creative Writing major, wrote a thesis entitled “Grown-Up Girls: Essay for a ‘Post-Feminist’ Gen-eration” and completed an honors pro-seminar for Honors in English/Creative Writing. She has earned Highest Distinction in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for being in the top 2% of her class.

• Laura Bondank, German Studies minor and History major, will begin law school this fall at Michigan State College of Law.

• Morgan Kilgore has minors in German Studies and Public Policy in the U.S. as well as a major in Global & International Studies. He will graduate with honors from the Global and International Studies Program. Morgan has received a full scholarship to attend the University of Kansas School of Law.

• Thomas Morrison, in addition to a minor in German Studies and majors in Philosophy and Anthropology, has earned certification from KU’s Global Awareness Program (GAP). Next year he will attend the Univer-sity of Chicago to study philosophy in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, after which he plans to pursue a doctorate in philosophy.

• Jordan Pittz has completed a German Studies major.

• Hannah Wise is a Ger-man Studies minor and Journalism major. She has received the School of Journalism Award, given to an outstand-ing May graduate who exemplifies the high quality of students in the School of Journal-ism and Mass Com-munications. She also

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received the This Kansas Life award for her work on a special projects reporting team examining issues that affect all Kansans. Hannah will also serve as the graduation banner carrier for the School of Journal-ism. Right after graduation she heads to New York City, where she will be a digital intern at The New York Times.

• Keyu Wu will graduate in August with a German Studies minor and a degree in Mechanical Engineer-ing. He currently receives a KU Institute of Interna-tional Education Full Tuition Scholarship. He studied in Regensburg, Germany during the 2012-13 academ-ic year, supported by a School of Engineering Study Abroad Scholarship.

We congratulate all of our German Studies graduates!

Zachary Hader returned to the lectern to accept the first Award for Outstanding Service to the Department. Zachary served as the undergraduate representative to Germanic Lan-guages & Literatures during academic year 2012-13. He took his responsibilities seriously, regularly attending and partici-pating in meetings. Indeed, despite the 8 a.m. meeting time that year, Zachary was usually the first person to show up! He did a very good job of keeping his fellow undergraduates informed of relevant departmental activities and decisions, and we ap-preciated his participation in co-curricular activities, such as our first pizza party. Thank you, Zachary, for your outstanding service!

Joyce Bohling was selected as the recipient of the depart-ment’s first undergraduate Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Faculty in the department noted Joyce’s “truly outstanding” and “stellar” performance in class, her “exem-plary work” that “exceeded expectations,” her “thoughtful and creative” compositions, and her “valuable contributions” to class discus-sions. Joyce, who “has never skipped a class or an assignment,” is highly regarded by her peers and her instructors. Congratulations, Joyce, on your Outstanding Academic Achievement! This award and Zachary’s are accompanied by a check for $100.

As Director of Undergraduate Studies and Undergraduate Advisor, it has been a great priv-ilege and a lot of fun to serve as your advisor and to have many of you in my classes. The depart-ment is proud of your many achievements at the University of Kansas and we appreciate your in-terest and participation in our program. I hope that German Studies has helped prepare you for life-long learning, not just about the language and culture of German-speaking countries, but about all cultures, including your own.

Please stay in touch! I’ll be happy to post news and photos of your experiences and ac-

Morgan Kilgore, Laura Bondank, Zachary Hader, Keyu Wu, Joshua McMullen, Laura's friend Aubrey Hood, a Journalism major, and Scott Friesen enjoy the Awards Ceremony and Reception for graduating German Studies majors and minors, May 1, 2014.

In this issue:

Laurence and Eutin Celebrate 25 Years as Sister Cities ....................................1

For Our German Studies Graduates: Undergraduate Achievement .......................1

Chair’s Corner ...................4

Faculty News .......................4

New Faculty ........................5

Sigrid Nieberle Publishes Introduction to Gender Studies and Literature .......6

Graduate Student News .....6

The Elephant in theRoom ...................................7

Germanic Languages & Literatures: EventsSponsored 2013-2014 .........8

In Memoriam:Ernset S. Dick ...................10

complishments on our Facebook page, and we want to feature you in our departmental newsletter, the KUrier, and on our Web site. We will miss seeing you in the lovely halls of Wescoe, but we know you are moving on to the next important phase of your life. Please let us know if, down the road, the German department can be of any assistance.

Best wishes for the end of the semester,

Professor Lorie A. VanchenaDirector of Undergraduate Studies

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Faculty news

Nina Vyatkina has been awarded the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant to pursue her project Longitudinal learner de-velopment in German as a second language; Introduction to sec-ond language acquisition research in fall 2014. The synergistic research and teaching goals of this project are to conduct an international collaborative study of longitudinal learner devel-opment in German as a second language and to teach a gradu-ate course on second language acquisition research at the De-partment of German and Linguistics at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Prof. Vyatkina has also been awarded a sab-batical for spring 2015 to further pursue her research program.

Furthermore, Prof. Vyatkina has been named to the Edi-torial Board of two Applied Linguistics journals. The first is a new journal, International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, published by the leading Linguistics publisher, John Benjamins (Amsterdam). The second one is Language Learning and Tech-nology that has been ranking in the top 20 of all Linguistics and Education journals in five-year impact factor since 2007.

Prof. William Keel has recently published “German Set-tlement Varieties in Kansas: Some Unusual Phonological and Morphological Developments with the Approach of Language Death,” in Perspectives on Phonological Theory and Develop-ment : In Honor of Daniel A. Dinnsen, published by John Ben-jamins, Amsterdam. Keel also was the keynote speaker at the University of California-Berkeley Graduate Student Confer-ence “Linguistic Varieties and Variation” held March 1-2. In addition Keel spoke on the topic “Deitsch, Däätsch, Düütsch, Dietsch: Transplanted Varieties of German on the Great Plains.” Keel also presented a paper entitled “Residual German-Speak-ing Enclaves in Kansas: The Hungarian-German Settlement of Pesth (Herndon) in Northwestern Kansas” at the Annual Symposium of the Society for German-American Studies held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 10-12.

Chair’s CornerBy Marc L. Greenberg

This year in the Department was an eventful one. Of particu-lar interest to our readers will be the many accomplishments of our undergraduate students, which are too numerous to men-tion here, but you will read about them in the respective sections of this issue of the KUrier and, if you are a Facebook user, on the Department’s Facebook page

(https://www.facebook.com/kugermanic). Among the high-lights of our student achievements are undergraduate Ger-man major Scott Friesen, who earned a Collins Study Abroad Scholarship for AY 14–15 to study German and Environmental Science at the U. of Bonn, and Hannah Wise, German Studies minor and Journalism major, who received the School of Jour-nalism Award. She will intern this summer at The New York Times. These are just two of the students who have begun mak-ing good use of the benefits of the newly revised undergraduate curriculum put in place with our aptly renamed German Stud-ies major and minor. Prof. Lorie Vanchena, who also directs the European Studies Program, was the driving force behind this innovation in the department’s curriculum.

Several of our PhD students have defended their disser-tations this year. Of particular note is the accomplishment of D. Joe Cunningham (writing under the supervision of Prof. Nina Vyatkina), who was hired into a tenure-track position at Georgetown University, where he will continue in the domain of second-language acquisition studies pioneered by his pre-decessor, Prof. Heidi Byrnes, herself a KU B.S. in German and Education in the late 1960s.

We are pleased also to welcome our colleague Prof. Ari Linden (PhD Cornell, ’13), whose visiting appointment this year has been converted to a tenure-track assistant position to begin in Fall 2014. He will be among the first faculty at KU to lead a First-Year Experience for incoming freshman this fall with his course “GERM 177 – Thinking about Laughing: Comedy in Art, Literature, and Film.” First-Year Experience programs are designed to intellectually engage freshman and transfer students and to introduce them to campus resources and opportunities for experiential learning. In the coming aca-demic year we will welcome a new colleague, Andrea Meyer-tholen (PhD Indiana ’14), who will continue the work of Joe Cunningham in managing the German Language Proficiency Sequence as well as teach in the program. We are also pleased to announce that Prof. Lorie Vanchena and Mr. Jim Morrison will jointly direct the Max Kade Center, with Prof. Vanchena serving as Academic and Mr. Morrison as Managing Director.

Congratulations go to Prof. Nina Vyatkina, who will be on sabbatical during AY 14–15 in part holding a Fulbright Award to conduct research at the Humboldt University, Berlin.

The Department enjoyed a rich variety of lectures on many topics, including those connected with the beginning of the four-year-long commemoration of World War I. With contin-ued support from the Max Kade Foundation, New York, we enjoyed the visit in Spring 2014 of Prof. Per Øhrgaard (Copen-hagen Business School; Board of Directors, Carlsberg Founda-tion), who served as the Max Kade Visiting Professor. Inter alia, he gave a special public lecture at the Hall Center for the Humanities on 20 Feb. 2014 “The Elephant in the Room: The Story of the Carlsberg Foundation or Why Business Needs the Humanities.”

The latter talk underlines the multifaceted ways in which the study of language and culture inform real-life applications, for which Germanic’s successful internship program, under the direction of Jim Morrison, serves as model for new experien-tial-learning opportunities being developed for all of KU’s for-eign language programs. Stay tuned for more news: this time next year you will hear about further great things in this space.

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In Fall 2014, Andrea Meyertholen joins the Department as Lecturer of German. Although her work coordinating the language proficiency sequence officially begins in August, she has been warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by her colleagues and so already feels like an unofficial member of the KU community. A Hoosier by birth, Andrea spent most of her childhood in Indiana, but somehow ended up an honorary Texan attending high school and college in Austin. Upon

completing her B.A. at the University of Texas with a double major in German and General Linguistics, she spent the summer interning at a German business company in Munich before commencing her graduate studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. A Hoosier once more, Andrea wrote her MA thesis on gender representation in fin-de-siècle advertising art and received her PhD in German Literature and Culture in February 2014. Entitled “Blurring the Lines: The Invention of Abstract Art in German Literature since 1800,” her dissertation shows how the idea of abstract art emerged from 19th-century literary texts prior to its visual actualization in the 20th century with Kandinsky. Her engagement with modes of representation extends beyond literature and art to cultural sites and tourist spaces.

She enjoys not only researching exhibition techniques in museums and zoos, but experiencing them first-hand when traveling at home and abroad. In addition to her own overseas studies in Würzburg and Berlin, she taught on-site for study abroad programs in Krefeld and Graz. If not physically leading her students through German-speaking Europe, she does so virtually through instructional technology and visual materials in the classroom. Andrea has taught all levels of undergraduate German language and literature courses, and is excited to take advantage of the teaching resources available at KU (e.g., EGARC, the Spencer Museum of Art, the Max Kade Center), and play an active role in the Department’s co-curricular activities. She has previously published on Kleist and Caspar

New Faculty David Friedrich (German Quarterly 86.4) and Schinkel’s Altes Museum in Berlin (forthcoming by Camden House), and now looks forward to diving into the undergraduate curriculum and representing KU at the next GSA conference with her presentation on the “Pergamonaltar” in Die Ästhetik des Widerstands. Though she has been everything from a Hoosier to a Texan to a Berliner, Andrea can hardly wait to settle down in Lawrence, become an official member of the KU community, and start life as a Jayhawk!

Andrea Meyertholen at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, Germany.

Sigrid Nieberle Publishes Introduction to Gender Studiesand Literature

In Spring 2013, KU’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures had the pleasure of hosting Sigrid Nieberle, Professor of Modern German Literature at the Friedrich Al-exander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg, as a Max Kade Visiting Professor. During her stay here, Prof. Nieberle taught graduate seminars and gave public talks on her research. She was also able to complete a book titled Gender Studies und Literatur: Eine Einführung that has just been published by the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft in Darmstadt (2013).

The volume, pitched to advanced undergradu-ate and graduate students, serves as an introduction to the field of Gender Studies and its relevance for Ger-manistik. In six chapters, Prof. Nieberle lays out the development of the field of Gender Studies—includ-ing its institutionalization within a German academic context—and demonstrates how its core principles have been, and can be, applied to making sense of German literature studies. In doing so, the book both offers an accessible history of Gender Studies and shows how the study of German literature is enriched by the kinds of inquiries that Gender Studies’ perspectives make possible.

Prof. Nieberle’s review holds clear pedagogical value. First, it is clearly written and very well structured. Chapters are di-vided into multiple, labeled, sections for readers’ quick refer-ence to central topics. Second, students will benefit from the author’s clear exposition of theoretical positions, as well as her numerous examples of literary analysis. Finally, a comprehen-sive bibliography of key works in the field provides a valuable resource for students interested in pursuing further study in the area. Thank you to Prof. Nieberle for sending along a copy of her latest book!

Marike JanzenAssistant Professor

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Congratulations to James Landes who successfully de-fended his doctoral dissertation on March 10 with Honors. James’s dissertation “Goethe’s Urfaust and the Enlightenment: Gottsched, Welling and the ‘Turn to Magic’” explores the inter-connectedness of literary and scientific culture in the late 18th century.

On May 15, Melanie Piltingsrud defended her disserta-tion “Violence and Conflict Resolution in Hartmann von Aue’s Erec and Iwein, Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois, and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival” successfully. Her prin-cipal advisor was Winder McConnell, professor emeritus from the University of California-Davis, who is himself a graduate of the Department’s doctoral program in 1973.

Two of our doctoral students successfully passed the Oral Comprehensive Examination for the PhD during this past year: Gabrielle Frawley and Stefany Van Scoyk, both of whom will work with Leonie Marx on dissertations in modern German literature.

Congratulations are also in order for Megan Wehrman and Elisabeth Schneider who both completed the MA degree in Germanic Languages and Literatures during the year.

Graduate student news

Joe Cunningham defended his dissertation The Develop-ment Of Pragmatic Competence Through Telecollaboration: An Analysis of Requesting Behavior with Honors on April 16. Some results of Joe’s dissertation research were disseminated in a pre-sentation co-authored with Joe’s advisor Nina Vyatkina at the 2014 Annual Conference of the American Association for Ap-plied Linguistics in Portland, OR, in March. Joe’s dissertation is an excellently written work of professional quality, for which he received the departmental nomination for the KU Argers-inger Dissertation Award. Joe’s scholarly accomplishments cul-minated in his engagement for a highly prestigious position as tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University German Department, an international leader in German Ap-plied Linguistics, to start in fall 2014. These achievements re-dound significantly to the credit of our Department and to the University of Kansas. After the Spring Commencement cere-mony and directing the Eutin Summer Language Institute, Joe will move to Washington, DC, where he will begin his profes-sorial career that offers unlimited opportunities for his schol-arly endeavors. We wish Joe the best of luck and hope for our future inter-institutional collaboration.

With the successful doctoral candidate: Maria Carlson, William Keel, James Landes, Frank Baron, Per Øhrgaard and Leonie Marx.

Following Doctoral Hooding on May 17, Frank Baron, James Landes, Nina Vyatkina, and Joe Cunningham.

William Keel, Winder McConnell, Melanie Piltingsrud, Ann D. Hedeman following Melanie’s PhD Defense. Not pictured, Caroline Jewers.

Lorie Vanchena, Joe Cunningham, Nina Vyatkina, William Comer, William Keel and Amy Rossomondo following Joe’s PhD Defense.

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The Elephant in the Room

Max Kade Visiting Professor Per Øhrgaard, renowned scholar of German literature and contemporary German so-ciety, presented a talk “The Elephant in the Room. The Story of the Carlsberg Foundation or Why Business Needs the Hu-manities” on 20 February 2014 at the Hall Center for the Hu-manities. Introductory remarks were made by Dean Danny Anderson, who spoke about the role of the liberal arts in shap-ing the workforce in a knowledge economy and Prof. Melissa Birch, standing in for Dean Neeli Bendapudi, whose remarks focused on Dean Bendapudi’s vision for a comprehensive busi-ness education that includes international knowledge as part of a liberal arts background (the Dean’s father was a scholar of English).

Marc Greenberg, John Giullian, Al Mauler, Lorie Vanchena, Per Øhrgaard, and Jim Morrison at the opening of the Watson Library Exhibit of Prof. Øhrgaard’s books.

Max Kada Visiting Professor Per Øhrgaard at the Hall Center for the Humanities on February 20.

From Mike Putnam (PhD 2006), who was just promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure at Penn State Uni-versity—congratulations!: Lawrence and KU have always been like a second home to me and my family, and this relationship continues to this day. My research in the area of German heri-tage dialects and first-language attrition often brings me back to Kansas to work with various German language-speaking communities. The relationships that I have with these commu-nities began during my graduate work back in the early 2000s at KU and continue to this day. In addition to these connec-tions that I have with these communities throughout Kansas, I am also thankful to the unique training I received as a gradu-ate student here at KU in heritage linguistics that have led and shaped my research path thus far in my academic career. As an Associate Professor of German and Linguistics at Penn State University, I now have the opportunity to bring my own gradu-ate students along with me to enjoy field work with these Ger-man language heritage speakers in Kansas and other venues throughout the world. Rest assured, every time that I come to Kansas, I never pass up the opportunity to visit the department and Old KU. RCJHKU!

Prof. Øhrgaard, who has served as a member of the Carls-berg Foundation until his retirement this year, outlined the structure of the Carlsberg Foundation and Brewery, the fourth largest brewery in the world. In 1876 the Carlsberg Foundation was established by J. C. Jacobsen to manage the Carlsberg Lab-oratory and to support Danish scientific research. The Carls-berg Foundation donates yearly nearly $37 million though its three branches—the Carlsberg Foundation focuses on science, the New Carlsberg foundation on art, and the Tuborg Founda-tion on social causes.

The second part of his lecture focused on the value of lib-eral arts and, specifically, humanistic education and its benefit to business and society. In Denmark, he pointed out, by tradi-tion a rich person has been referred to not as such, but by one’s status as a “high taxpayer,” i.e., a person who contributes to the good of society. He also noted that the Scandinavian countries boast the highest standard of living in the world, despite the widespread belief that high taxation retards economic develop-ment. In a lecture rich with challenging observations, he noted that it is perverse that business leaders are asked to serve on ad-visory boards of universities, but academics are rarely, if ever, asked to serve on advisory boards of businesses. He also noted that international business opportunities are often forsaken under the logic that partners in other countries “do not speak English well enough,” highlighting the need for language and cultural education in the business world.

Prof. Birch noted KU alumnus Edward Kangas, former CEO and Chairman of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu advice to her: “We can teach them to calculate anything we need cal-culated. Teach them about the world’s religions. Teach them about culture. That’s the hard part. That’s what we need KU for.”

Prof. Øhrgaard also spoke on “Literature, Intellectuals and Politics in Post-War Germany: The Impact of the Gruppe 47 on the Development of German Democracy,” on March 25 at the Max Kade Center.

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Germanic Languages & Literatures:Events Sponsored 2013-2014

25 September 2013: Coffee @ The Commons with Artist Joachim Schmid.

3 November 2013: WWI Centennial Commemoration 2014-18, Lecture by Sir Max Hastings, “Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War,” Hall Center for the Humanities.

18 November 2013: Professor Marille Hahne, Zurich Univer-sity of the Arts, Switzerland, Award Winning Student Docu-mentary & Short Fiction Film, Kansas Union

28 January 2014: WWI Centennial Commemoration 2014-18, Lecture by Professor Sean McMeekin: “July 1914: Countdown to War,” Lied Center.

20 February 2014: Lecture by Max Kade Distinguished Visit-ing Professor Per Øhrgaard, “The Elephant in the Room: The Story of the Carlsberg Foundation or Why Business Needs the Humanities,” Hall Center for the Humanities.

21-22 February 2014: 18th Annual Conference of the Graduate Association of German Students at the University of Kansas, “Un/heimliche Orte: Uncanny and Familiar Places in Language, Literature, and Culture,” Max Kade Center.

24 February 2014: Lecture by Assistant Professor Ari Linden, “The Messenger in the Old Engravings: Walter Benjamin on Karl Kraus,” Max Kade Center.

8 March 2014: Kansas Association of Teachers of German Schülerkongress, Wescoe Hall.

25 March 2014: Lecture by Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor Per Øhrgaard, “Literature, Intellectuals and Politics in Post-War Germany: The Impact of the  Gruppe 47  on the Development of German Democracy,” Max Kade Center.

3 April 2014: WWI Centennial Commemoration 2014-18, Lec-ture by Professor Nathaniel Wood, “All For You, Franz? From the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Total War,” Spencer Museum of Art.

3 April 2014: 5th Annual Mid-America Humanities Confer-ence, Bruce Robbins, Film Screening and Q&A, Some of My Best Friends are Zionists, and lecture, “Blue Water: Inhumanity in Deep Time.”

9 & 30 April 2014: KU WWI Twitter Project

22 April 2014: The White Ribbon (2009), World War I Film Se-ries, University Honors Program and Peace & Conflict Stud-

ies in the Humanities & Western Civilization Program, Kansas Union.

1 May 2014: Undergraduate Awards Ceremony and Reception, Kansas Union.

25 Years as Sister Cities (continued from page 1)

In the ensuing 25 years, a couple of hundred Lawrence high school students have spent their summers in Eutin and a similar number of high school students from Eutin have stayed in Lawrence during the fall semester for several weeks. In addi-tion to photographic and art exchanges over the years, a num-ber of young people have completed professional internships in the partner cities. Most recently, the KU School of Music has played a major role since 2011 in the revival of the Eutin Sum-mer Opera Festival. As KU Chancellor Berndette Gray-Little says in her congratulatory letter on p. 9 of this issue, the two cities “have built educational and cultural bonds which in turn have led to enduring personal friendships.”

During the seven-day stay in Eutin beginning June 5, the delegation from Lawrence will visit the vocational high school for the county of Ostholstein, tour the historic city of Lübeck and visit an artist’s studio in Travemünde on the Baltic Sea, at-tend a special chamber concert in at the Duke’s Hunting Lodge in the forest near Eutin as well as tour the historical sites and the castle in Eutin itself. Formal events include a reception at City Hall on June 6 followed by a cruise on Lake Eutin, a lun-cheon hosted by Eutin Mayor Klaus-Dieter Schulz on June 10 and the highlight of the visit: The German-American Night fea-turing the opening of a special historical exhibit at the County Library in Eutin on the evening of June 10.

At the beginning of October, a delegation from Eutin led by Eutin Mayor Klaus-Dieter Schulz and Martin Vollertsen, chair of “Friends of Lawrence,” in Eutin will travel to Lawrence for one week to conclude this anniversary year’s festivities.

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November 21, 2013

City of EutinMayor Klaus-Dieter Schulz

Friends of Lawrence in Kansas e.V.Martin Vollertsen, Chair

Dear Friends of Lawrence in Eutin:

On behalf of the entire University community, I am pleased to congratulate you on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the partnership between Eutin, Germany, and our city, Lawrence, Kansas. We also note that it was fifty years ago that the Department of Germanic Languages at KU established a summer language institute in Eutin for our students learning German. Following Professor Helmut Huelsbergen’s initial visit to Eutin in 1964, nearly 800 KU undergraduates and graduate students in German have participated in that program. The University is most grateful for the friendship, hospitality and generosity extended by the citizens of Eutin to our students.

With the signing of the sister-city agreement in 1989, Lawrence and Eutin have continued to build on that relationship by instituting exchange visits between the high schools in our two communities. Since that time, both cities have hosted over two hundred students for an extended period of study and cultural activities during the annual exchange visits. More recently, KU students have begun to participate in professional internships with businesses in Eutin while at the same time Lawrence has hosted a number of young professionals from Eutin in a variety of commercial endeavors.

Just three years ago our sister-city friendship brought out our true character. When the Eutin Summer Opera Festival needed assistance, the KU School of Music provided student musicians and even a full opera production of Hänsel und Gretel to enhance this outstanding cultural tradition in Eutin. Under the leadership of Dean Robert Walzel, our students continue to offer their musical talents to the summer festival and gain invaluable experience as future professional musicians.

As the most famous son of Kansas, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, envisioned in creating Sister Cities International, Lawrence and Eutin have built educational and cultural bonds which in turn have led to enduring personal friendships. May you continue to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation for many years to come.

Sincerely,

Bernadette Gray-LittleChancellor

Office of the Chancellor

Strong Hall, 1450 Jayhawk Boulevard, Room 230 - Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7535 - (785) 864-3131 - Fax: (785) 864-4120 – www.ku.eduMain Campus, Lawrence – Medical Center, Kansas City and Wichita – Edwards Campus, Overland Park

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In Memoriam: Ernst S. Dick (1929-2014)

Professor Emeritus Ernst S. Dick died peacefully at his home in Lawrence on March 11, 2014. Born April 7, 1929 in East Prussia, Ernst, together with half of his family, survived the horrific “Trek” to the West in 1945. At the University of Münster, he studied under the renowned philologists, Karl Schneider and Jost Trier, receiving his Dr. phil. “summa cum laude” in 1961.

The “stations” of Ernst’s academic career included the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Montana, the Uni-versity of Virginia, and the University of Wisconsin. He joined the faculty of the Department of Germanic Languages and Lit-eratures at the University of Kansas in 1968. His courses and seminars on topics ranging from Old High German, Middle High German, Gothic, Old Saxon, Arthurian Romance, Heroic Epic, Spielmannsepik, to the Novelle, Germanic Mythology, Idi-omatic Expressions, and Friedrich Dürrenmatt never wanted for participants – on the contrary!

Despite his scholarly brilliance, Ernst was a remarkably modest man, and it is unlikely that he would have desired more than just a few lines, if that, about himself in an epitaph. He might well have agreed with Martin Heidegger’s remark that the most important aspects of a biography (in this case, of Ar-istotle) could be summed up in the laconic formulation that he “was born, lived, and died.”

Scores of former students, colleagues, and friends, how-ever, can provide eloquent testimony to the way in which Ernst Dick lived, to his dedication to medieval Germanistik and his erudition, to the effect he had on their lives in more than four decades as a teacher and scholar, as well as to his professional-ism and integrity, and the high respect he enjoyed among his peers in the academic world. His guidance of a Medieval Stud-ies Group in the early Seventies was only one of many examples of the time and effort he devoted to his students outside the classroom. Whether they elected to specialize in Medieval Ger-man Literature, or simply participate in his seminars, Ernst’s students were drawn by his infectious enthusiasm, his dedica-tion to his charges, and his profound erudition, complemented by his superb and lucid presentations.

Ernst extended his assistance, and his mentoring, to young-er colleagues beyond the University of Kansas. He was a strang-er to none in his discipline at the annual Medieval Congress held each May in Kalamazoo, Michigan. When the news of his death had spread, former students and colleagues responded with comments such as “a model mentor,” “a most cherished colleague,” “a great human being,” “modest, disinclined to draw attention to himself,” “indeed someone special.” We are, as one former student stated, “deeply, deeply saddened” by the news of Ernst’s death. We are consoled, however, by the realization that his life was an incredibly full one, that he touched so many people through his selflessness and his dedication to his stu-dents, his profession, and his family.

He was my mentor, my adviser, my friend. When Ernst ar-rived on the KU campus in Fall, 1968, I had already decided to pursue a Ph.D. in History upon completion of the M.A. After one semester of courses with Ernst, I withdrew all of my applications to other departments, and from that time on, never left “Ger-manistische Mediävistik.” Once again, I find myself reading—studying—his “AE Dryht und seine Sippe. Eine wortkundliche, kultur- und religionsgeschichtliche Betrachtung zur altgermani-schen Glaubensvorstellung vom wachstümlichen Heil.” A bril-liant work of scholarship by a man to whom I owe whatever I have achieved in my career. Carl G. Jung once stated: “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with grati-tude to those who touched our human feelings.” Ernst was such a person and it is as such that he will be fondly remembered by all who were fortunate enough to have known him.

Winder McConnellProfessor Emeritus

University of California-Davis

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Giving to the DepartmentSince 1887, when William Herbert Carruth became the first professor of Ger-man at KU and was joined in the 1890s by Elmer Franklin Engel and Alberta Lincoln Corbin, KU’s tradition of German studies has offered students at all levels the opportunity to learn one of the world’s great languages and to study the literature and culture of Central Europe. Under J. Anthony “Toni” Burzle’s tenure as department chair in the 1950s and 1960s, the department was in the forefront of establishing opportunities for our students to study language and culture in Germany. Our programs in German at KU, however, rely very much on the generosity of our former students. For many of you, a summer, semester, or year in Germany during your KU years was the highlight of your studies. This experience has

been and continues to be a truly life-changing event for so many of our students. Each year study abroad becomes more and more expensive. It is imperative that we support our students and enable them to study abroad. Norm Fahrer, attended both of our summer institutes as a KU undergraduate (Holzkirchen in 1965 and Eutin in 1966). Before he died, Norm contributed $150,000 to establish an endowed scholarship fund, in memory of his father who had taught German at Bethany College in Lindsborg, for KU students to participate in the summer program in Holzkirchen. It is very gratifying to hear from former summer institute students. With your help we can continue to offer such high quality summer experiences in Germany for our future students. We are also very proud of our record of achievement in educating and training our future professionals in German Studies. With the support of the Max Kade Foundation, we have been able to offer year-long dissertation fellowships to our doctoral students in German. These fellowships enable our advanced doctoral students to devote themselves full-time to conducting their research, writing their dissertations, and support the presentation of their research at professional conferences. Additional support for our graduate students and the research programs of our Max Kade Center are greatly appreciated. [With thanks to Prof. William Keel, who composed this historical narrative.]

Herzlichen Dank und beste Grüße! Marc L. Greenberg, Chair

Ways to give to the department You can donate online with a credit card by going to http://www.kuendowment.org/depts/german/dept Online giving is secure, speedy, and simple. Click the area you would like to support and you will be redirected to the website of KU Endowment, the non-profit fundraising organization that supports KU. For information on other ways to give, please visit the KU Endowment web site. For information on other opportunities to assist the Department, please contact the Chair, Marc L. Greenberg at mlg@ku.edu or (785) 864-9171.

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