The Department of Baltic Studies at the University of Greifswald is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Since 1991, students here have had the opportunity to study the languages, literatures and cultures of Lithuania and Latvia.
In 1991, Baltic Studies was established as a subject at the University of Greifswald. Just two years later, an independent Department of Baltic Studies emerged from it. The founding document was signed on 18 May 1993 by the then rector, Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Zobel. This was essentially a political and higher education policy decision in the wake of the German reunification. Under the first head of the department, Prof. Dr. Rainer Eckert, the Greifswald Department of Baltic Studies quickly made a name for itself in Latvia and Lithuania, but also in Scandinavia. In April 1997, Prof. Dr. Jochen Dieter Range from the University of Munich was appointed to Greifswald. During his term of office, he changed the department’s profile so that it increasingly opened up to socio-political issues in addition to philological research and teaching. The current head of the department, Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler, studied at the University of Münster, where he also acquired postdoctoral qualification. He had already earned his doctoral degree in the field of Baltic Studies in Greifswald. When he took up the position as third head of the Department of Baltic Studies, he aimed the chair in the direction of Modern Linguistics and Literary Studies. Being home to the only Baltic Studies chair in Germany, the University of Greifswald regularly seizes the opportunity to present the subject and the cultural diversity of the Baltic region. In addition to research, the current challenges in teaching include the expansion of the Baltic Studies bachelor degree programme and the design of interdisciplinary Master programmes that meet the expectations of students not only from Germany and the Baltic states, but also from other countries around the world.