Publisher's Synopsis
English summary: The collected lectures presented in this work were almost all part of a yearlong lecture series that was held in order to introduce students of German philology, especially beginning students, to their teachers. The goal was for the teachers to talk openly about what they were working on and, at the time, how they thought that they were going to present that work to the public. The beginners were to be taken as seriously as the old-timers. Or perhaps as un-seriously. Indulging in productive doubts was more important part of the series than results. For the beginners it was necessary that they see what things the teachers were interested in, especially for those things in which they also had their own interest: but it could also have been entirely different. And: it could also have gone very differently. German description: Die hier versammelten Vortrage waren fast alle Part einer alljahrlichen Ringvorlesung. Die wurde einmal eingefuhrt, um Studierenden der Germanistik, besonders den Anfangern, ihre Lehrpersonen in actu vorzustellen. Sie sollten sich von ihnen erzahlen lassen, womit sie sich zur Zeit beschaftigen, und wie sie meinen, dass das unter die Leute zu bringen ware. Anfanger sind so ernst zu nehmen wie Grundervater. Oder so unernst. Sich produktive Zweifel gonnen ist wichtiger als Ergebnisse sind. Fur Anfanger ist es notig, dass sie sehen, wofur sich jemand interessiert, nicht dass sie gesagt bekommen, wofur sie sich gefalligst zu interessieren haben: Es konnte doch auch ganz anders gewesen sein. Und: es konnte doch auch ganz anders gehen.
