News
2008
The Institute is very proud that its former Co-Director, Professor Francis G. Gentry has been
awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdiesntkreuz am Band) that
will be presented by Dr. Horst Freitag, the Consul General of the
Federal Republic of Germany at a ceremony on November 14, 2008.
Professor Gentry was instrumental in making the initial overtures to
the Max Kade Foundation that resulted in the founding of the Institute
at Penn State during Gentry's term as Head of the Department of
Germanic Languages and Literatures. He served as Co-Director until his
retirement from the department, and has continued to take an interest
in the on-going projects and activities of the Institute. We offer him
our sincere congratulations and gratitude for his service to the
Institute, and to the strengthening of the cultural and intellectual
ties between the United States and the Federal Republic.
The Co-Directors
2007
After a hiatus of
some years, the MKI is pleased to announce the resumption of the Max
Kade Visiting Professorship at Penn State. With the approval of
the Max Kade Foundation, we extended an invitation to Professor Dr.
Hermann Wellenreuther to teach at Penn State during the Spring
semester, 2007. Professor Wellenreuther has just finished a
distinguished career as Professor for the Seminar in Early Modern
History at the University of Göttingen. Educated at
Heidelberg and Cologne, he is the author of numerous book, essays,
review articles, and edited volumes on topics that range from the
history of the British colonies in North America to the urban history
of Göttingen, the exchanges between Moravian missionaries and
Native Americans, and the landholding practices of the gentry in
eighteenth-century Britain. During his semester at Penn State, he
will offer an interdisciplinary graduate seminar on the History of the
North Atlantic Work in the Department of History, and an advanced
undergraduate course for the Department of Germanic Languages and
Literatures on German Immigrants and their relationship to the
political and religious world of eighteenth century Pennsylvania.
He will also deliver a lecture for the Institute for the Arts and
Humanities. Professor Wellenreuther's visit has been made
possible by a generous grant from the Max Kade Foundation in New York
City, the College of Liberal Arts, the Institute for the Arts and
Humanities, and the Max Kade German American Research Institute.
We will be announcing the exact date and title of his Institute lecture
early in the Spring semester.
