Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Harms

The SES mourns the loss of a senior scholar in our field, Professor Wolfgang Harms, Munich.  Since 1979 he served as a professor of German literature at the University of Munich, where he continued to teach and conduct research after his retirement in 2004.  With a keen eye for topics that crossed epochs and cultures, he opened fresh perspectives for the study of German literature.  With his readiness for conversations and intellectual openness, he enriched scholarly dialogs across disciplinary lines.  One of his chief achievements was to foster the next generations of scholars.  To this end he organized meetings with colleagues—and their students–at the University of Breslau and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  As president of the Society for Emblem Studies (1997-2002), he organized in 1999 the 5th international conference on emblem studies in Munich under the title of “Polyvalence and Multifunctionality of Emblematics.”  The select proceedings of this conference were published.  The members of SES remember gratefully his efforts on behalf of our field.