Bachelor in German Philology

German philology, also called Germanistik elsewhere, unites three areas in Basel: linguistics, modern German literature and medieval studies. In linguistics one looks at the different manifestations of the German language and asks how it developed, how it is structured, how it is acquired, used and processed by us. Literary studies have been exploring and interpreting literary works - and their respective cultural contexts - since the 16th century, with Basel focusing on 18th to 21st century literature. Finally, Medieval Studies looks specifically at the history of the German language and literature from the 8th to the 16th century. The subject of German Philology at the University of Basel claims to represent the entire breadth of the subject in historical and systematic terms.