The Department of Germanic Languages and Literature is the University’s center for the study of German culture as well as the German language itself. From the early medieval period, through the Renaissance and Reformation, to the Enlightenment and Romanticism, down to the twentieth century and beyond, the course of human civilization is inseparable—both for good and for ill—from the impact of German and other German-speaking thinkers, writers, artists, scientists, and politicians. The department views an encounter with this heritage and the influence it continues to exert in the world of today in a host of different fields as an integral component of a liberal arts education, whatever the particular area of concentration.