DFG President from 1992 to 1997

Curriculum Vitae

Wolfgang Frühwald was born in Augsburg on 2 August 1935 and studied German languages and literatures, history, geography and philosophy at Munich. He gained his doctorate in Modern German Literature in 1961 and his habilitation (venia legendi) in 1969, both at the University of Munich. He then worked as research assistant and lecturer at Munich, Bochum, Erlangen-Nürnberg and Münster/W. In 1970, Frühwald was appointed as Full Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Trier-Kaiserslautern. In 1974, he took up a chair at the University of Munich. In 1985 he was a visiting professor at the University of Indiana (Bloomington, USA).

Wolfgang Frühwald died on 18 January 2019.

Positions, Memberships and Distinctions

• 1982-1987 Member of the German Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat)
• 1989 Deputy Rector of the University of Munich
• 1992-1997 President of the DFG
• 1994-1997 Member of the Chancellor's Council for Research, Technology and Innovation
• 1994/1995 Chairman of the European Association of Research Organisations (Europäischen Vereinigung der Wissenschaftsorganisationen)
• since 1999 President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Memberships

Corresponding member of various academies of sciences and humanities: Göttingen, Düsseldorf and Berlin; Member of the Academia Europaea (since 1992), Chairman of the Commission "Society 2000" of the State of Baden-Württemberg (Kommission "Gesellschaft 2000"), of the Scientific Commission of the State of Lower Saxony (Wissenschaftliche Kommission des Landes Niedersachsen) and of the Advisory Board of the Bavarian Minister for Research, Science and the Arts (Wissenschaftliche Beirats des Bayerischen Staatsministers für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst).

Distinctions

Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1998), Bavarian Order of Merit (Bayerischer Verdienstorden) (1995), Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and the Arts (Bayerischer Maximilians Orden für Wissenschaft und Kunst) (1999), Honorary Member of the American Association of German Studies

Honorary doctorates

Universities of Dublin and Bristol (1995)the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1997)the University of Münster/W. (1999)

Major Research Fields and Publications

Religious prose of the Middle Ages, German literature of the age of Romanticism, modern German literature, history of science, exile research, science organisations

Major Publications

• Die St. Georgener Prediger (1963)
• Clemens Brentano: Briefe an Emilie Lindner (1969)
• Ruhe und Ordnung. Literatursprache - Sprache der politischen Werbung (1976)
• Eichendorff-Chronik (1977)Das Spätwerk Clemens Brentanos (1977)
• Der Fall Toller (1979)Geisteswissenschaften heute (1991)
• Der Zerfall des Individuums (1993)
• Zeit der Wissenschaft. Forschungskultur an der Schwelle zum 21. Jahrhundert (1997)
• Co-editor of several journals and book series; Lead editor of the complete works and letters of Clemens Brentano and Adalbert Stifter.