University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Germanic Languages and Literature Department | University of Illinois Archives
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From 1868, when German was first taught at the University, 1 until 1913, the German Department was part of the Colleges of Literature and Science and Literature and Arts, which, in that year, united with the College of Science to form a department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.2 From 1913 to 1935, the German Department had its own head or chairman and departmental budget. In 1935, the Department became part of the Division of Languages and Literature, including the Departments of Classics, English, German and Romance Languages. 3 In 1954, the German Department's faculty requested a chairman, rather than a head. 4 In 1963, the Trustees approved the change of the Department's name to Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures.5 In 1966, the Department returned to the head system.6
The Department teaches German with its older forms of Old and High German, Gothic, Old Icelandic and modern Scandinavian literature.7
1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 2nd Report, 1868, p. 9.
2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 27th Report, July 5, 1912, p. 71.
3. Board of Trustees Transactions, 38th Report, April 20, 1935, p. 162.
4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 48th Report, December 20, 1954, p. 180.
5. Board of Trustees Transactions, 52nd Report, October 26, 1963, pp. 851-52.
6. Board of Trustees Transactions, 54th Report, December 8, 1966, p. 270.
7. Undergraduate Course Catalog, 1972/1974, pp. 188-93.