Klaus L. Berghahn

Curriculum Vitae

Personal

Date of Birth: August 5, 1937
Place of Birth: Düsseldorf, Germany (US Citizen)
Married to Doris E. Berghahn, nee Beyer (Aug. 10, 1966)
One Child, Marcus Jens Berghahn (Feb 19, 1969)

Education

Employment

Visiting Professor at the following Universities:

Free University of Berlin (1978), Bielefeld (1980-81), Gießen (1983, 1992), Michigan (1984), University of California-Davis (1989), Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1993), London (2005)

Offers from the following Universities

Bryn Mawr College (1970), Ohio State University (1972), Washington University (1978), Cornell University (1985), University of California-Davis (1989)

Numerous invited lectures in Germany, USA, United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, China.

Fellowships, Grants, Awards, Honors

Professional Activities

Member of the MLA, AATG, IVG, GSA, Lessing-, Herder-, Schiller-, Goethe Societies.

Review Editor of Monatshefte, 1984-1985 and 1991-1992.

Editorial Consultant for PMLA, German Quarterly, Modern Drama, New German Critique, and for the University Presses of California, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

MLA Executive Committee of the Division: 19th and Early 20th Century German Literature (1974-1978, Chair 1977)

MLA Executive Committee of the Division: 18th and Early 19th Century German Literature (1983-1988, Chair 1987)

DAAD Selection Committee (1985, 1994-1997)

Review Committee: German Department, University of Minnesota (1987)

AATG Program Committee (1990-1991)

Advisory Committee for the German Department of Harvard University, 1994/95 and 1996/97

IVG Program Committee, World Congress Vancouver 1995

Fulbright Commission (German Section), 1995-1998

German American Arts Foundation (Chicago), Advisory Board, 1995-1998

Advisory Board of MLA's Profession, 1996-1998

Advisor for a European Studies Center at the University of Cincinnati, 2001

Advisor for a German Studies Center at Beijing University, 2003/4.

IVG Program Committee, World Congress Paris 2005

Review Committee for International Studies: Freiburg Program 2005

Organizer of Special Sessions, Conferences and Symposia:

Special Sessions for MLA:
Peter Weiss (1983), Friedrich Schiller (1984), Ernst Bloch (1985), Perpetual Peace (1988)

Special Session for AATG:
Hugo Friedrich's Struktur der modernen Lyrik - Revisited and Revised. (1991)

Special Session for GSA: Interdisciplinarity (1992)

10th Burdick-Vary Symposium on "Utopian Visions", Institute for Research in the Humanities (1987)

International Symposium, "The Hidden Side of Weimar Classicism", University of California-Davis (with Karl Menges, 1990)

15th Burdick-Vary Symposium, "New Historicism", Institute for Research in the Humanities (with Paul Boyer, 1991)

18th Burdick-Vary Symposium, "The German Jewish Dialogue ‑ Reconsidered", Institute for Research in the Humanities (1993)

26th Wisconsin Workshop: "Responsibility and Committment - The Ethics of Cultural Mediation" (1995)

DAAD/ACLS Cooperation Project between the German Departments of the Universities of Bonn and UW-Madison on

"Representation and Reception of the Holocaust in Germany and the United States":
August 29/30, 1996: Workshop in Madison on Holocaust Films
March 24/25, 1997: Workshop in Bonn on the American Reception of the Holocaust
October 5/6, 1997: Symposium in Madison on Recent Debates about the Holocaust and Teaching the Holocaust

31st Wisconsin Workshop: "Goethe in German-Jewish Culture." International Symposium on the Occasion of Goethe's 250th Birthday. (Organized by the Center for German and European Studies in cooperation with the Department of German and the Center for Jewish Studies, Oct. 28-30, 1999)

Special Session of the GSA: "The DAAD in the United States: Past, Present, Future". (October 5, 2001)

35th Wisconsin Workshop: "Unmasking Hitler. Cultural Representations of Adolf Hitler from the Weimar Republic to the Present." (Organized by the Center for German and European Studies in cooperation with the German Department and the Mosse Center for Jewish Studies, September 19-21, 2002)

Internationale Sommerschule Literaturwissenschaft Marbach (SOLIMA, July 10 – August 1, 2003, co-organizer with Christoph Koenig)

Second Mosse Workshop: “The Roots of Antisemitism.” (Organized by the Center for German and European Studies in cooperation with the Mosse Center for Jewish Studies, September 12-13, 2003)

CGES Workshop: “Moral Choices in the Age of Terrorism. Kant on Religion, Ethics, and Politics.” (Organized by the Center for German and European Studies in cooperation with the Center for the Humanities and the departments of Philosophy, Political Science, and German, November 11-13, 2004)

CGES Workshop: Ansichten Schillers. Zum zweihundersten Jahrestag seines Todes. (Organized by the Center for German and European Studies in cooperation with the Department of German, April 8/9, 2005)

Zweite Internationale SommerschuleLiteraturwissenschaft Marbach (SOLIMA, July 17 – August 3, 2005, co-organizer with Christoph Koenig)

Special Session for GSA: On Friendship (Pittsburg, September 30, 2006)

Dritte Internationale Sommerschule Literaturwissenschaft Marbach (SOLIMA, July 14 - August 2, 2007, co-organizer with Horst Thome and Marcel Lepper)

Academic Services

All departmental committees, esp. Graduate-, Fellowship-, Budget-, and Awards- Committees,
Graduate Advisor (1973-1988)
UW-Senate (1974-1978, 1985-1987)

Review Committee for the Philosophy Department (1986)
Humanities Executive Committee (1987-1990, and 1991/92)
Graduate School Executive Committee (1991/92)
Jewish Studies Program: Steering Committee (1989-1993)
Jewish Studies Executive Committee (1993-)
Search Committees for German, History and Jewish Studies

Chair of the German Department (1994-1997)
DAAD Campus Selection Committee (Chair, 1994-1997)
Karl Schurz Professorship Committee (Chair, 1994-1997)
Markham Memorial Scholarship Committee (1994-1997)

Chancellor's Ad Hoc Committee for a DAAD Center (1997, Chair)
Founding Director, DAAD Center for German and European Studies (1998-2004)

Dean’s Committee for the Institute for Research in the Humanities (2001-2003)
Mosse Foundation: Program Oversight Committee (2001--)
Advisory Committee of the Center for the Humanities, (2004 --)

Advisor of twenty-nine dissertations, one in progress.

Biographical entries in:

Who's Who in America
Who's Who in the World
American Scholars
Kurschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender

Areas of Research and Teaching

History of German Literature and Culture since the 18th Century
History of Literary Theory and Criticism since the 18th Century
Theory of genres, esp. drama, poetry, and documentary literature
Utopian literature and Utopian thinking
History and Methods of Germanistik
History of German-Jewish Culture since the 18th Century
History of Modern Anti-Semitism

Professional Experience | Publications | Current Research