History of the Department

In 1840, the University of Greifswald was awarded the first ‘Extraordinariat’ for German philology (‘Professorship for Oriental Languages, Comparative Linguistics and Old German Philology’).

A Department of German Philology was founded in 1876 under the name German Language and Literature Seminar. The founder and first professor was the German scholar Wilhelm Wilmanns, who only taught in Greifswald for a few years (then in Bonn) - incidentally, a memorial plaque can be seen at his former home, very close to today's department (Domstraße 30).

Famous professors of the department included Gustav Ehrismann (professor in Greifswald 1909-1924), Paul Merker (1921-1928), Wolfgang Stammler (1924-1937), Leopold Magon (1928-1950), Hildegard Emmel (1956-1958), Bruno Markwardt (1952-1966).

During the GDR, the department was dissolved and incorporated into the "Department of German Language and Literature, Art and Musicology"; in 1990 it was re-established as the "Department of German Philology".