The Department of German language and literature was established in 1872, under the guidance of the Transylvanian Saxon Hugo von Meltzl. The first rector of the Romanian university, Sextil Puscariu (1877-1948) recognized the importance of germanistics as a cultural mediator between Romanians and Transylvanian Saxons, a role that afterwards had been assumed and well accomplished by the linguist and theologist Gustav Kisch (1869-1948) as head of the department he led for 17 years. The succesor of Gustav Kisch was Karl Kurt Klein (1897-1971), a well known personality in germanistics. As a professor, researcher, editor and culture promotor, he represented one of the most important moments in Romanian germanistics, especially in literary studies. …more