German and Classics

German and Classics is a pairing that connects two of the most intellectually rich traditions available through language study. German is the most widely spoken native language in Europe, the language of Goethe, Schiller, Kafka, Brecht and Thomas Mann, of Kant, Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, and the language of a culture that has shaped European and world history in profound and sometimes catastrophic ways. Classics opens access to the ancient Greek and Latin texts that are the foundation of Western intellectual and literary life, and to the material and cultural history of ancient civilisations whose influence on European thought and institutions has never been fully exhausted.

The University of Edinburgh offers this four-year full-time degree, developing genuine depth in both German and Classics simultaneously. The German strand develops advanced language skills alongside a serious engagement with German literature, intellectual history and contemporary culture. The Classics strand involves work with ancient Greek and Latin texts in the original languages, reading the foundational works of poetry, philosophy, history and drama that shaped the Western tradition and continue to generate scholarly debate.

Edinburgh's strong research profile in both German and Classics means you are studying in a department where the field is being actively shaped, and the tutorial intensity of the teaching develops your analytical and argumentative capabilities under close supervision.

The combination trains sustained engagement with difficulty, linguistic precision in multiple registers and periods, close textual analysis and the ability to understand ideas in their historical and cultural contexts. These are intellectual capabilities of great depth and transferability.

Graduates from German and Classics degrees work in academia, diplomacy, law, publishing, journalism, the cultural sector, international organisations and a wide range of professions that value the combination of linguistic expertise and humanistic analytical rigour. Postgraduate study in German, classics, comparative literature, philosophy or related fields is a natural destination for many.