Michael Auer

Prof. Dr. Michael Auer is a full-time Professor for General and Comparative Literature at the Peter Szondi Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, since winter semester 2023/24. He previously held positions at Universität Wien (2022-2023), University of California, Santa Barbara (2023), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (2012-2022), and Harvard University (2016/17). His research spans

• Politics and Literature
• Formal Semiotics
• Metrics and Rhythm
• European Drama since Antiquity
• Media Theory
• Lyrical Soundscapes

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He has published extensively on topics including Klopstock’s political odes, Hölderlin’s climate poetics, Ernst Jünger’s avant-garde, and intertextuality in postwar German poetry. His

• 2024 monograph Souveräne Stimmen. Politische Ode und lyrische Moderne
• 2013 dissertation on Meridians in Jünger, Schmitt, Heidegger, and Celan
• 2018 co-edited volume on Kriegstheater
• 2023 co-edited Klopstock-Handbuch

reflect his interdisciplinary focus.

Recent publications analyze

• 2025: Tragedy-stage relationships in Goethe’s Faust
• 2025: Avant-garde narratives in Jünger
• 2024: Lyrical soundscapes in German Romanticism
• 2023: Lyric authority in 17th-century conflicts
• 2021: Tactile media history

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Awards include

• 2008 Graduate Student Prize (German Studies Association)
• 2013 Forum Junge Heine Forschung Prize

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He contributes to academic communities via

• Editorial roles in Klopstock-Handbuch (2023)
• Conferences: Szondi-Lecture series
• Research projects: DramaNet, European Spa

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