Open Letter to Aberdeen c.org/BZfBkGN8tV

This petition needs more signatures on it - please sign if you haven't already! www.change.org/p/open-lette...

🚨📽️ UK screening tour of acclaimed new German documentary Das deutsche Volk - NEXT WEEK!📽️🚨 There will be a Q&A with the director Marcin Wierzchowski after each screening. In cinemas in NEWCASTLE (Mon), LEEDS (Tues), GLASGOW (Wed), EDINBURGH (Thursday) & LONDON (Fri). Details & tickets below 🧵

#WordyWednesday: In 🇬🇧 we talk about April’s (typically rainy) weather as a blessing in disguise, helping along the beautiful May flowers soon to bloom! And in Germany, they really highlight the unexpected weather that the month entails, translating to “April, April, it does whatever it wants”. 🌦️

Frohe Ostern from the German Embassy London!

Publishing in May: a brand new translation of Thomas Mann's last short stories 📘 Available now for review – journals are welcome to get in touch Details here: www.mhra.org.uk/publications...

University of Aberdeen colleagues have been circulating this open letter to our court members ahead of the 29 April meeting that will decide on controversial restructuring plans. If anyone is keen to lend their support, please do have a read and add your name/ share if you agree. c.org/YRZjVJ6q4s

The Spring edition of WeimarCinema.org is here! The issue brings together three original essays and a new film dossier, each offering fresh perspectives on Weimar Cinema. www.weimarcinema.org

Sir Albert Sloman envisioned languages at the heart of the University of Essex. ❗ Now, his legacy is in danger. Sign the petition: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Alexander Kluge, author and key film-maker in the New German Cinema movement, dies aged 94 www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma... via @theguardian.com @philipoltermann.bsky.social

The University of St. Andrews' OeAD-Lektorin, Verena Latschbacher, is organising a wonderful showcase of Austrian cinema! A particular highlight of the showcase will be the Scottish premiere of Ruth Beckermann’s Favoriten! All screenings are generously supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.

When movies were shot on physical film, the film was measured in feet. This is why any recorded thing is now called ‘footage.'

Short-term savings, long-term national loss? When university “financial sustainability and future success” harms UK economic growth and diplomacy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

MHRA has been pricing our paperback monographs at £10 or not much above for many years 💁‍♂️ Not a campaign but a matter of principle. All our paperback prices are kept as low as possible.

Upcoming screening at the BFI of Alarm Notes by Anthea Kennedy & Ian Wilblin, centring on the work & experiences of pioneering German-Jewish sound recordist & innovator, Ludwig Koch.

Listen, Germans! A timely re-release of Thomas Mann's wartime BBC broadcasts, telling German listeners about the damage Hitler was causing, from S. Fischer. (This radio segment ncludes a transcript.) www.swr.de/kultur/liter...

I’ve just been informed that people are attributing my pronunciation of Nabokov on the pod to my being a dumb American, rather than the much more embarrassing fact that I spent four of what should have been my most productive years getting a degree in Russian

Brand new dance couple alert: Motsi Mabuse, best known to audiences in 🇬🇧 and 🇩🇪 as dance show judge, will dance with Elmo on the German version of Sesame Street. The new series will be broadcast in the autumn. "Sesamstrasse" has been produced in Hamburg for more than 50 years.

I don't know how many current UoA students follow me here, but perhaps there are some lurkers - if you are a current student and are interested in signing this letter in support of ruling out compulsory staff redundancies (no pressure!) please do so. forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Did you know that the University of Essex had a waiting list for their British Sign Language course? ❗ It is in danger now! ✍ Sign their petition to urge the Executive Committee to reconsider the large-scale restructuring proposal: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The University of Essex has proposed to discontinue most of their undergraduate language provisions as well as the Languages for All programme as part of large-scale restructuring. Sign their petition to urge the Executive Committee to reconsider the proposal: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Solidarity with Aberdeen @ucu.org.uk staff on strike! Pleased to join staff & students on today's picket line. Staff are on strike to oppose job cuts & uni restructuring - changes that could be as devastating as those in the 1980s. The uni cannot cut its way to growth! It must listen to staff!

Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany’s Most Influential Thinkers www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b...

Excellent student journalism covering the first day of strike action at the University of Aberdeen. www.gaudie.co.uk/wpress/index...

Hedy Lamarr, Austrian born Hollywood actress, was also a designer/inventor who created aviation designs for Howard Hughes and co-patented a “secret communication system” - the basis for modern WiFi #WomensArt #WomensHistoryMonth

This year marks the 115th anniversary of Germany’s first International Women's Day, held on 19 March 1911. Here’s a look at some of the women behind the women's rights movement in Germany.

Jointly with the Chair of W+IGS and the President of the GLA, the President of the AGS, @pdavies.bsky.social, has sent a letter to the Principal of Heriot-Watt University opposing proposed staff cuts to the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies and threats to close German and Chinese.

Please follow us on LinkedIn if you're a member: www.linkedin.com/company/mode...

It was wonderful to meet prospective postgraduate students, together with my School of LLMVC colleagues, at yesterday’s @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social Postgraduate Fair. If you missed my talk on the MLitt European and Latin American Literatures and Cultures, I’ve included the most salient slides here.

Volume 33 of 'Austrian Studies' is now out! 'Austria and Film in the Twenty-First Century' Edited by Katya Krylova (@katyakrylova.bsky.social) and Dora Osborne. 👉 www.mhra.org.uk/publications... Access via @projectmuse.bsky.social 👉 muse.jhu.edu/issue/55395

15 years ago today I arrived on Downing Street in a cage. I've seen off Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak and I'm still going strong. Only two Prime Ministers have ever done longer stints here: William Pitt the Younger and Sir Robert Walpole. Bill and Bob - I'm coming for you... (Photos AP)

Am 4. März hält Fatima Naqvi (Yale), Mitglied unseres Expert:innenrats, im ORF RadioKulturhaus die diesjährige Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler-Lecture. Der Titel ihres Vortrags lautet: „Die Stimmenimitatoren. Thomas Bernhard und die KI“. Herzliche Einladung!

#WhyLearnGerman? To appreciate the unique ways the language and culture expresses luck! In German, a lucky person might be called a ‘Glückspilz’, or lucky mushroom. It reflects how luck has found them as quickly as mushrooms appear from the ground. It’s even inspired this sweet garden decoration!

YOU SIGNATURE MATTERS! Help us save Modern Languages at Leicester. Sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-moder...

Language Explorers Scotland encourages language uptake in the senior phase with a short series of mentoring sessions led by university students with lived experiences of language learning and multiculturalism. Find out more: https://loom.ly/hHqAMlY

Not the first woman to "write herself out of a fragile state" but certainly one of the most interesting. Ingeborg Bachmann, on the occasion of what would have been her 100th year. blog.ogl.at/100-jahre-in...

A propos of a lecture I'm writing, here's film critic André Bazin taking the best possible break from thinking about realism and long takes. I think this might be the start of an occasional series (theme: cool people with cats).

Man, I forgot what it feels like to see actual good news on my feed. www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/6946...

DANKE to everyone who took part in #ShoutOutForGerman week! 🖤❤️💛 We loved seeing so much joy, enthusiasm and love for the German language!

Looking forward to Austrian author Kaśka Bryla’s residency at the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre (ILCS) in June and to discussing her latest novel “mein vater, der gulag, die krähe und ich” with her and translator Sheridan Marshall at the Austrian Cultural Forum #ShoutOutForGerman

The 78th National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies is coming up on 14 and 15 May, at ILCS. Do join us and tell us about your research! See the call for papers here – the closing date is 14 February! 👇 #ShoutOutForGerman

We asked guests to tell us their favourite German word at a reception for German-speaking civil servants, as part of #ShoutOutForGerman week. Alongside some top-notch animal names, we got some fantastic compound words and a few untranslatables too! What's yours? 🤔

The world's first Sesame Street traffic lights were turned on in Hamburg this week. German public broadcaster NDR (which is based in Hamburg) has co-produced the German version of the show for 50 years. Naturally, Bert is 🔴 and Ernie is 🟢!

Documents of the Nuremberg Trials can now be accessed online via: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu

From French and Spanish to Albanian and Farsi, languages have opened doors for me, grown understanding and taught me to see the world in full colour. Cutting them from schools and universities doesn’t just shrink the curriculum, it shrinks the life choices that all students should enjoy.

Resharing - please sign asap! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

22 November 1959: the Sandmännchen appears for the first time on East German television www.deutschlandfunk.de/vor-55-jahre...

Katya’s presentation concerned 5 recent films on Austria’s NS past, showing that progressive depictions of NS past was neither a lineal or even procress.