Professor Grucza, German is one of the most popular subjects studied at universities in Germany. How attractive is German today outside Germany?
German studies also has a reputation as a rather attractive subject outside Germany. It is currently represented in almost all countries of the world, although not equally strongly everywhere. German studies is today not merely an international, but a global subject par excellence. As a rule, it is flourishing where new economic or political contacts are being established or old relations deepened with the German-speaking countries, above all Germany – and where the subject’s representatives have recognized in good time that they should not merely convey knowledge about their traditional areas of learning, but must train students in such a way that they can become sought-after and successful specialists on their respective labour market.
Do you see differences between German studies in Germany and abroad?
It’s impossible to answer that question with a simple “yes” or “no”. German studies outside Germany is neither a homogeneous, nor a unified subject, and it should also not be based on one and the same model worldwide. It has to realize very different goals from German studies in Germany – not only in terms of its output, but also in terms of its input. In the German-speaking countries German studies does not have to fear that it will one day have no more applicants nor that these candidates will not know any German. These are developments that German studies outside Germany must reckon with. In order to prevent disastrous trends of this kind, it has to itself ensure that the teaching of German in local schools is carried out as successfully as possible by well-qualified teachers.
What do you find most fascinating about German studies?
I became a German studies specialist by accident. Initially, the subject didn’t fascinate me at all, but because I had the prospect of continuing my studies in Leipzig, I stayed on board. It only began to fascinate me much later, when I discovered that my knowledge of German studies could contribute a great deal to Polish-German reconciliation and understanding and when I began to recognize the immense structural complexity of human languages and the language potential of human brains and began preparing myself to contribute to an understanding of that complexity and potential.//
