The purpose of the seminar is to promote the interdisciplinary study of historical, political, social and cultural aspects of modern and contemporary German affairs and to advance their understanding among scholars in the US and Canada. This year’s seminar will explore the relationship between German legal culture, violence, dictatorship, and democracy.

Discussions of the relationship between violence and law will proceed along two main axes: the “external legal culture” of society and the “internal legal culture” of professionals who perform technical legal tasks. Despite the fact that law is a technical system, it is always saturated with cultural content and political consequence. While conjoined explorations of external and internal legal cultures will focus on the history of modern German states from 1871 to the present, participants researching violence and law in German cultures of other historical periods may provide additional points of comparison for group discussion.

Applications are due by March 1, 2010. For additional information on stipends and fees, eligibility criteria, seminar content, and application instructions, please see the DAAD Web site at http://www.daad.org or contact Olga Petrova at Cornell University’s Institute for German Cultural Studies at ogp2@cornell.edu. The program will be administered by the Institute for German Cultural Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.