Peter-André Alt

Prof. Dr. Peter-André Alt is a distinguished Professor of German Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, where he has been affiliated since 2005. He previously held professorships at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (1995-2002) and Universität Würzburg (2002-2005). From 2010 to 2018, he served as President of Freie Universität Berlin, and since August 2018 has been President of the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (German Rectors' Conference), the association of German universities' presidents.

• Studium der Germanistik, Politischen Wissenschaft, Geschichte und Philosophie in Berlin (FU) (1979-1984)
• Promotion 1984
• Habilitation 1993

Alt's research spans German literature from the 17th to 19th centuries, with particular focus on Baroque literature, Enlightenment thought, Weimar Classicism (Goethe, Schiller), Romanticism, and Franz Kafka. His work explores intersections between literature and knowledge systems, including literature and film, literature and dreams, and literature and psychoanalysis. His acclaimed monograph Ästhetik des Bösen (2010) examines aesthetic representations of evil throughout literary history. Alt has also produced influential biographies of Kafka (2005) and Freud (2016), demonstrating his mastery of both literary and intellectual history.

Alt's scholarly contributions reveal consistent engagement with the relationship between literature and broader cultural, philosophical, and psychological frameworks. His more recent work shows increasing interest in cognitive approaches to literature, examining how literary texts engage with brain science, imagination, and knowledge systems. His publications demonstrate remarkable breadth across historical periods while maintaining rigorous philological attention to textual detail.

• Marbacher Schiller-Preis (2005)
• Opus-magnum-Stipendium der Stiftungen Volkswagen und Thyssen (2008)

Alt has supervised over twenty doctoral dissertations spanning diverse topics in German literary history, from Baroque drama to modernist literature. His academic leadership includes directing the Dahlem Research School (Center for Graduate Studies) from 2008-2018 and serving as Dean of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities (2007-2009). He has received significant research funding, including the prestigious Opus-magnum grant for his work on the aesthetics of evil. Alt regularly contributes expert commentary to major German media outlets including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Die Zeit.

As President of the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, Alt leads Germany's primary organization representing university leadership, shaping national higher education policy while maintaining his scholarly profile. His academic career demonstrates a rare balance between administrative leadership and sustained scholarly productivity across multiple literary periods and theoretical approaches.