The Department of German Studies is very grateful to the family of Professor Hellmut Ammerlahn (1936-2022) for making a generous donation in his memory. Prof. Ammerlahn was a much-loved teacher at the University of Washington for fifty years, from 1963 to 2012. He was also a well-respected scholar, especially of Goethe’s famous genre-setting bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre. According to Prof. Ammerlahn’s wishes, half of the gift will go toward supporting research into German Literature, and the other half will foster work that is comparative across literatures, languages, and cultures. All of it will help the Department of German Studies continue to its mission to nurture critical scholarship in literary studies.
The family also plans to dedicate a bench and plant a dogwood in Prof. Ammerlan’s honor on the UW campus. Some day you will be able to sit near Denny Hall under the shade of a lovely tree and contemplate the same thoughts of the unity and diversity of nature that animated Prof. Ammerlahn’s beloved Goethe.