Eric Rentschler

Eric Rentschler is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, affiliated with the Film and Visual Studies Program. He holds a PhD from the University of Washington with academic training in German literature, history, and European intellectual history across Stuttgart, Bonn, and Prague. A leading scholar in German cinema and cultural studies, his work spans from Weimar-era films to contemporary German cinema, focusing on historical memory, political representation, and transnational cultural exchanges.

• Director of Harvard’s annual Berlin Film Program (coordinated with Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin)
• Editor of New German Critique and co-director of the German Film Institute
• Recipient of major grants including Guggenheim, Humboldt, ACLS, DAAD, and Fulbright fellowships

His research integrates film theory with historical analysis, examining cinematic representations of Nazism’s legacy, post-wall German society, and transnational art movements. Notable publications include The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife (Harvard UP, 1996) and The Use and Abuse of Cinema: German Legacies from the Weimar Era to the Present (Columbia UP, 2015). Current projects explore German cinema during Helmut Kohl’s chancellorship.

Award-winning educator, Rentschler has received Harvard’s Levenson Teaching Prize (2001) and Cabot Fellowship (2003). He organizes the monthly Film and Visual Studies Colloquium, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars and filmmakers.