Klaus Vondung

Klaus Vondung (born 16 July 1941) is a German scholar on the fields of cultural and German studies. The focus of his academic work lies on the interplay of literature, politics and religion during the German Empire, Nazi Germany and beyond.

Early live and education

Klaus Vondung was born in Ulm. He studied German, history, philosophy and politics at University of Tübingen and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), where he passed the Staatsexamen during the winter semester of 1965/66. Three years later he received a Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil.) of LMU and spent the next two years as a lecturer. Having been granted a scholarship of the German Research Foundation, he spent two years of post-graduate research at Stanford University.

Academic work as a professor

Following a habilitation about the more recent history of German literature, Klaus Vondung was appointed a professor of German studies and literature at University of Siegen in 1976, a post which he held until becoming an emeritus in 2006. During intervals of his time in Siegen, he also served as dean and prorector.

Vondung's academic research interests are expressed by the premise of the graduate school "Forms of Communication as Forms of Life", of which he was the speaker. Other scientifc projects headed by him include "Turn of the millennium: Fears and Visions" (1998--2000, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation) and "Mysticism and Modernity" (as part of the larger "Key Issues of the Geisteswissenschaften").

During his academic career, Vondung was guest professor at the universities of Florida, of Houston, and of Osaka, as well as Kwansei Gakuin University and Zhejiang University, the last one on unlimited terms.

Publications

Klaus Vondung is the author or editor of books covering the following subjects (the titles being translated from German)

• Magics and manipulation: ideological cults and the political religion of nazism (1971)
• Theoretical aspects of Völkisch and national socialist literature (1973)
• The Bildungsbürgertum of the Wilhelmine period: its ideas in the context of social history (1976)
• Experiencing the war: the nations' literary composition and symbolical interpretation of World War I (1980)
• History of German literature: The 19th century (1980)
• The Apocalypse in Germany (2000)
• An open beginning: literary transitions into the 21st century (2002)
• Beyond a disenchanted world: natural sciences and mysticism in the modern times (2006)
• German paths to salvation: forms of religiosity in nazism (2013)

External links

Information about Klaus Vondung, including a CV and publication list, by University of Siegen