A symposium to celebrate the 125th anniversaries of the appointment of the first professor of German at Harvard (Frederic Henry Hedge) and the founding of Harrassowitz (Harvard's primary source of German books since 1882) was held May 16 at the Lamont Library.

The symposium was organized by the Germanic Section of the Collection Development Department in Widener Library.

Sidney Verba, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the University Library, delivered the opening remarks. Speakers included Reinhold Brinkmann, James Edward Ditson Professor of Music, "Inserted 'Lieder' in German Novels: The Case of Goethe and Moerike"; Margrit B. Krewson, German/Dutch area specialist, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., "The German Resources and Projects at the Library of Congress"; Eckehard Simon, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, "Arnhem, February 23, 1395: Reconstructing the First Carnival Play Performance in the Harvard Germanic Collections"; and James H. Spohrer, librarian for Germanic Collections, University of California, Berkeley, "The Achievement of Harrassowitz."

When Johann Wolfgang Goethe presented 39 of his own works to Harvard in 1819, little did he know that his gifts would jump- start the discipline of German studies in the United States. German was not taught formally in New England until 1825, when Harvard appointed Charles Follen instructor of German. Courses in German were formalized at Harvard in the second half of the 19th century. By 1850, several professors taught German (though there were no dedicated professors of German), and by the 1860s the study of German was mandatory for all sophomores.

Frederic Henry Hedge (A.B. 1825, graduate of Harvard Divinity School, 1828) delivered an address at the Commencement in 1866, calling on the graduates to use their new power to make Harvard first "among the universities, properly so called, of modern times." Hedge was speaking about the founding of graduate schools, which turned Harvard College into Harvard University. The Graduate Department (today's Graduate School of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) was established in 1872, the same year Hedge was named professor of German.

The Harvard-Harrassowitz relationship dates back to 1882, when Justin Winsor, librarian of Harvard College, wrote to ask whether the firm of Otto Harrassowitz could supply new German publications. Today, the Harvard-Harrassowitz relationship is the oldest uninterrupted business relationship a Harvard library has enjoyed with any bookseller. Other highlights took place in 1950, when Keyes Metcalf, librarian of Harvard College, assigned to Harrassowitz the German component of the Farmington Plan (a plan for U.S. libraries to exhaustively acquire research materials from abroad), and in 1982, when Harvard celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Harvard-Harrassowitz relationship with Widener Library.

Just how meaningful Harrassowitz is to scholars based in the United States is reflected in the fact that Harrassowitz has provided so many German titles to so many American university and research libraries for so many years. Conducting scholarship in the United States based on German books is largely due to Harrassowitz having located and sent those books.

Commemorative plaques were given to the guests of honor, Professor Simon (accepting as chair on behalf of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures) and Knut Dorn (managing director of Harrassowitz).