Rostock, Marburg, Bonn, Mannheim, Saarbrücken, Bielefeldt, Münster, Erlangen-Norimberk and, since 1 February, also my alma mater, Frankfurt – all these universities have closed down their departments of Slavonic studies since the unification of Germany.  The country total has gone down from thirty-five institutes to twenty-six. It all happened rather unexpectedly. Following the rise of Gorbachov, the end of the division of Europe and the subsequent integration of some Slavonic states into NATO and the EU German Slavists had hoped that a new era was dawning for our field. Our hope was that the opening of the borders would help increase […]