Zagreber Germanistische Beiträge is an annual, peer-reviewed journal committed to questions of German Cultural Studies and publishing scientific articles, reports and book reviews, in German.
The journal is published by the Department of German Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (University of Zagreb) and funded by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports.
Since it was founded by Marijan Bobinac (also the editor-in-chief until 2011) in 1992, the journal focuses mainly on research in the field of German Studies related to the context of South-Eastern Europe. However, beginning with the 2015 issue the journal will develop a much clearer profile by becoming a platform for German Cultural Studies with a regional focus. Each issue combines contributions to topics related to German Studies in general as well as contributions to regional aspects of German Studies. In addition to that, all other topics relevant to the field of German Studies can be published in the “Miscellaneous” section.
Our aim is to utilize regional experience, context, knowledge and networks in order to formulate general questions in the field of Cultural Studies. The focus on regional reference and specific location should by no means restrict general questions, but much rather contribute to their clearer profile. The emphasis on regional aspects and the specific locale does not compromise the legacy of the internationally oriented and widely acclaimed German Studies in Zagreb, which yielded excellent researchers such as Zdenko Škreb (1904–1985) and Viktor Žmegač (1929-2022). On the contrary, the Department for German Studies in Zagreb is linked to Slavistic and comparatistic research traditions in German Studies as well as to their changing regional and international networks.
The term ›South-Eastern Europe‹ is used as an umbrella term covering a large number of different topographical concepts related to physical, political, cultural and imaginary landscapes situated between the ›centre‹ of Europe and its ›South-Eastern periphery‹. In this context, the term South-Eastern Europe does not imply the geographical region in the South-East of Europe bordering on Central and Eastern Europe but much rather cultural space spreading between the Danube and Adriatic regions. What is hereby implied are overlaps between the notion of South-Eastern Europe and the notion of Central Europe (as elaborated by Moritz Csáky); the notion of the ›Balkans‹ (as elaborated by Maria Todorova and Holm Sundhaussen) and the associated discursive construct of ›Balkanism‹ (Todorova) and theoretical concept of ›semiosphere‹ (the notion of regional interconnection of different language systems developed by Yuri Lotman).
Such regional focus on German Studies will be accomplished not by drawing borders with other regions but by analyzing interconnections, interactions and cultural transfer with the German-speaking areas (in the sense of geo-historical regions, cultural spaces and semiospheres). The advantage of our location lies in the possibility to combine both perspectives of the toponym ›South-Eastern Europe‹ in our research: on the one hand the perspective of the German-speaking area in the South-Eastern region, i.e. the historically variable but persistent German interest in the peripheral areas of Europe situated on the imagined ›Porta Orientis‹ and on the other hand the westward orientation of the ›periphery‹ towards German-speaking areas, especially their imperial or cultural ›centres‹.
The journal is available online on:
• Hrčak, Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia – http://hrcak.srce.hr/zgb
• Central and Eastern European Online Library (C.E.E.O.L) – http://www.ceeol.com
The journal is listed in the following data bases:
- ERIH plus
- LLBA Linguistic and Language Behavior Abstracts
- MLA International Bibliography
- MLA Directory of Periodiclas
- Linguistic Bibliography Online
- BDSL Bibliography of German Language and Literary Studies
- CEEOL Central and Eastern European Online Library
- German Studies. International Reference Data Base with Bibliographic Information
- EBSCOhost
- CEEAS Central & Eastern European Academic Source
- German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB)
ISSN 1330-0946 (printed issue)
ESSN 1849-1766 (online issue)