Year of the Humanities

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Official logo for the 2007 Science Year

The Year of the Humanities was the eighth in the series of Science Years . The Science Years have been organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Science in Dialogue Initiative (WiD) since the year 2000 with changing focus areas . The year of physics (2000) started. This was followed by the year of life sciences (2001), the year of geosciences (2002), the year of chemistry (2003), the year of technology (2004), the year of physics 2005 (Einstein year) and the year of computer science (2006). The Science Years should enable an exchange between science and the public and arouse the interest of as many people as possible in scientific topics. In the 2007 Science Year, which was held under the motto “The humanities. ABC of Humanity ”, attention should be drawn to the diversity and achievements of the humanities. Science year 2008 is the year of mathematics .

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Humanities in Germany

The Science counts based on the system of the Federal Statistical Office 17 fields of study, and 96 subjects for the Social Sciences. The criterion for the assignment is the examination of the areas that make up human beings as spiritual beings: language and communication, philosophy and religions, arts and cultures. The linguistics and cultural studies include the old and new language philologies , which are dedicated to the language, literature and regional studies of all European and non-European countries and cultures. Even philosophy , religious studies , history , archeology and communication sciences are classified in the linguistics and cultural studies. They are divided into further specialist disciplines. In addition to the frequently represented subjects such as German , English and Romance studies , this also includes areas such as Sinology , Japanese Studies and African Studies . Further components of the humanities subjects are art studies , theater studies , film studies and music studies , as well as the courses in fine arts and design , jazz music and church music as well as directing and acting .

Student numbers

In 2006, almost 87,000 people began studying the humanities. That is 25 percent of all 345,000 first-year students. The number of freshmen in the humanities has increased by around 25 percent over the past ten years. Of the nearly two million students in 2006, one in four (499,000) was enrolled in a humanities degree. In 2006, 59,000 graduates, i.e. 22 percent of all German university graduates, were humanities graduates. The public image of the humanities is determined by a few large subjects. The highest number of students in 2006 was recorded in German (92,000 students), English / American (48,000) and history (40,000). In contrast, very small numbers of students were found in non-European linguistics and cultural studies (12,685 in total), classical philology (4,017), theology (approx. 8,000 each) and regional studies (2,223). Humanities subjects are predominantly studied by women. More than two thirds of the humanities students in 2006 were women, 73 percent of the graduates were women (2006). However, only one in four professorships was occupied by a woman.

Support measures

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) introduced concrete measures to strengthen the humanities in the 2007 Science Year with the funding initiative “Freedom for the humanities”. This includes the establishment of the Käte Hamburger Kollegs for research in the humanities , which are intended to function as nodes for European and international networks. At the same time, humanities scholars were expressly invited to participate in the 7th Research Framework Program of the European Union for the first time. With the help of advisory services and development phases lasting several months, the BMBF accompanies German humanities scholars through the European research landscape, with the aim of encouraging young researchers in particular to set up cross-border research groups. Another focus of the funding initiative is the cooperation between the humanities and natural sciences, which will work together in research networks. By 2009, around 64 million euros will be made available for the humanities.

The main topic "Language"

Language in all its forms is of great importance as an object and medium for the entire spectrum of humanities research and was therefore the main topic in the year of the humanities 2007.

For example, in linguistics, the universal characteristics and functional mechanisms of language are analyzed. Phonetics and phonology , as sub-areas of linguistics, deal with the documentation and explanation of different sounds. Not only do the languages ​​currently spoken come into focus, but also their change over time. The historical science wins over the language change indications of the change of social and power structures, written records and inscriptions thus play an important role in historical research. In addition, changes in language use , grammar and pronunciation can be used to track the development of different language families over thousands of years. In literary studies , on the other hand, the focus is on aesthetic and semantic aspects.

Language is not limited to speech and writing , but can also be found in facial expressions and gestures , music and dance . Thus it is not only the subject of linguistics or literary studies, but also theater studies , musicology and art studies . The main topic “Language” is reflected in the motto “The humanities. ABC of Mankind ”and acts as a motivic bracket for the Science Year 2007, through which all events and partners are connected to one another. The motif appears in different events, e.g. B. in the competition “The most beautiful ABC in the world” or in the central exhibition contribution of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin “ The ABC of Images ”.

ABC installations

"D for democracy" at Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Haus Berlin in July 2007.

The motto of the science year “The humanities. ABC of Mankind ”was made visible through letter installations on prominent public buildings in Berlin . The installations, up to 26 meters high, consisted of white pieces of film and were attached to the three-dimensional building facades by facade climbers in such a way that they appeared as a single letter to the observer from exactly one point. If you left this point of view, the letter disintegrated again into a collection of white areas.

The letters, made up of many individual parts, functioned in several ways as analogies and symbols for the humanities. On the one hand, they reflected the multiple character of the humanities faculty , in which more than 90 subjects are connected with different research subjects or perspectives on reality . On the other hand, they referred generally to the synthesis achievements of the humanities reflection , in which partial statements and insights are put together to a whole. Their distribution in public space expressed how the importance of the humanities extends into different areas of society.

Events

Kick-off event in the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin on Jan. 25, 2007.
“Humanities meets the features section”, v. l. No. Dr. Wolfgang Hagen (Deutschlandradio Kultur), Jens Jessen (Die Zeit), Andrian Kreye (SZ), Eckhard Fuhr (Die Welt), Patrick Bahners (FAZ) and presenter Dr. Wolfgang Herles (ZDF Aspects).

A total of 331 partners from science and culture (schools, universities, foundations, research institutions, companies, theaters, museums and media) got involved in the 2007 Science Year and organized 1064 events nationwide. The kick-off event in Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau (January 25, 2007) was opened by the then Federal Minister of Education, Annette Schavan . The keynote speaker was Professor Wolf Lepenies , the recipient of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade .

From April 23rd to 25th, an interdisciplinary conference took place at the TU Braunschweig under the title " Entrepreneur Spirit - Humanities and Economics ", which focused on the question of the humanities as an economic factor. On May 8, 2007, the Federal Minister of Research opened the discussion event “ Humanities meets feuilleton ” in the Maxim-Gorki-Theater , at which leading scientists discussed the importance of feuilleton and the relationship between the humanities and the public with the heads of the major German feuilleton editors.

Introduced by the “ Long Night of Science ” in the Ruhr area , the “ Science Summer ” took place in Essen from June 9th to 15th , which around 35,000 people visited to find out more about the individual humanities at 40 “knowledge stations” . The exhibition ship MS Wissenschaft headed for over 30 cities along German rivers and accompanied the Year of the Humanities with an exhibition on language and communication . The rap poet Bas Böttcher went on a reading tour across Germany and visited 16 schools as “Ambassador of the Year”. On November 27, 2007, the year of the humanities was celebrated in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. All events from across Germany can still be viewed on the official website www.abc-der-menschheit.de.

ambassador

Prominent personalities appeared as supporters for the year of the humanities , including the rap poet Bas Böttcher , the publisher Manuel Herder , the entrepreneur Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller , the actress Franka Potente , the writer Rüdiger Safranski , the actress Nadja Uhl and the choreographer Sasha Waltz .

Competitions

Seven nationwide competitions were held as part of the 2007 Science Year. In the university competition “ Geist Inspired ”, 49 project ideas from over 170 submitted applications - from the video competition “I am in the picture!” To illustrate the humanities to “ museum suitcases ” for Weimar museums - received awards and each received 15,000 euros for implementation.

A total of 70 projects on the subject of language were awarded 2,000 euros each in the school competition “ What do you speak ?”. Schoolchildren from Wulfen have decided to decipher the enigmatic clay disc from the Palace of Phaistos on Crete , children in Riegelsberg try their hand at the Tower of Babel with a video installation and in Stuttgart the limits of SMS language are being explored. “ I am in the picture ” was a competition for student filmmakers that called for the visualization of humanities topics. The U20 poetry slam competition was a multi-stage poetry and performance competition for young people, at the final of which on October 6th in Berlin the German champion, Julian Heun, was chosen. In cooperation with the magazine KULTURAUSTAUSCH, the international competition " The most beautiful ABC in the world " was announced, in which "yakamoz" was chosen as the most beautiful word in the world from 2,500 words from 60 nations (Turkish for: "the reflection of the moon in the water") . “ The most beautiful first sentence ” of a book was awarded by the German Language Initiative and the Reading Foundation . The ten winners of the “Arts and Figures” expertise competition are funded by the BMBF for studies on the subject of “Humanities scholars in work and employment”. The Federal Republic of Germany's gifted sponsorships honored the three winners of the " Spirit (d) er hour " competition at the closing event of the Year of the Humanities on November 27, 2007 in Berlin.

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