This fall/winter semester, the series will feature lectures on canonical authors such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Friedrich Schiller and works such as the Nibelungenlied. It will also depict authors such as Sophie von La Roche or Rahel Varnhagen whose texts are important for a better understanding of German literary history and German intellectual history. The lecture on the German-Jewish author Rahel Varnhagen will be given by the editor of the first complete edition of Varnhagen’s letters and notes, Barbara Hahn, a professor of German studies at Vanderbilt University. Scholars from Freie Universität Berlin will also be involved during this semester, for example, the dance studies scholar Professor Gabriele Brandstetter will give a talk on Arthur Schnitzler. Following each lecture, Hebrew University students will participate in compact seminars led by the person who gave the lecture. They will have an opportunity to discuss in more detail the works presented in the lecture. This should give them a better understanding of the authors and their works and help the students gain a personal relationship to the canonical works of German literature.

The lecture series was designed and is being coordinated by Professor Susanne Zepp along with Professor Anne Fleig (German literature) and Professor Joachim Küpper (comparative literature) at Freie Universität Berlin, in close cooperation with their colleagues in Jerusalem, Professor Yoav Rinon, head of the School of Literatures, and Dr. Karin Neuburger, who coordinates the project at the Hebrew University’s Division of German Language and Literature. The interdisciplinary DAAD Center for German Studies, the Center for Austrian Studies, and the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center for German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem were also involved in getting the series started. The two-semester lecture series was launched with a special ceremony in February of this year.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Freie Universität Berlin are cooperating within the framework of a strategic partnership, which includes exchange programs and joint research projects in the humanities and natural sciences.

In sponsoring this lecture series, the Axel Springer Foundation, 60 years after its founding, aims to contribute further to German-Israeli understanding. Beginning in the 1960s the publisher Axel Springer used his foundation to contribute to social, cultural, and academic projects in Israel. This commitment is continued by the foundation to this day.

Times and Locations

• The first lecture will be on October 29, 2014. After that there will be weekly lectures followed a day later by workshops. Lectures on Wednesdays, 6:30-8:00 p.m.; Workshops on Thursdays, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus; Lectures: Humanities Building, Room 2401; Workshops: Humanities Building, Room 2504