History of the Department

German has been present in the curricula of Sofia University ever since its founding in 1888. The decision to establish a Department of German Philology was made by the senior management of the university in 1903. Due to the wars being waged in the Balkans at the time, the establishment of the Department was delayed and only took place in 1923, when the University’s Faculty of Philology and History was constituted. Prof. Konstantin Galabov, PhD, was elected to be the first Head of the Department and presided over it until his retirement in 1958. After him the leadership of the Department was assumed by prominent scholars and lecturers such as Prof. Stefan Stanchev, PhD (1958-1962), Prof. Lyubomir Ognyanov, PhD (1962-1972), Assoc. Prof. Tekla Sugareva, PhD (1972-1976), Prof. Pavel Petkov, PhD (1976-1993), and Prof. Emilia Staycheva, PhD (1993-1999).

In 1950 the Department became part of the newly established Faculty of Philology, which was split into a Faculty of Slavic Philology and Faculty of Western Philology in 1965. In 1979 the latter was renamed to Faculty of Classical and Modern Languages, and the Department of German Studies is an integral part of it

The Department of German Philology was renamed in 1999 to Department of German and Scandinavian Studies. It united the Department of German Philology and the Department of Scandinavian Studies, which had been established in 1992. The Department of German and Scandinavian Studies was headed by Prof. Bogdan Mirchev, PhD (1999-2003), Prof. Maja Razbojnikova Frateva, PhD (2003-2006), Prof. Antonia Boutchoukovska, PhD (2006-2007), Prof. Emilia Dencheva, Dr. Habil. (2007-2015), Assoc. Prof. Reneta Kileva, PhD (2015 – 2023), Assoc. Prof. Maria Endreva, Dr. Habil (2023 -)

Since the academic year 2013-2014, the official name of the German Studies Section has been German Studies with a Scandinavian Elective Module.