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The first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays appeared in 1623 under the title Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Prior to this, only a few of Shakespeare’s plays had ever been published. Without the ‘First Folio’, much of Shakespeare’s work, including plays such as Macbeth and The Tempest, would probably have been lost, and with it many words and phrases that have passed into New English usage. The history of the world’s stages, music, opera, film and ballet, literature and the visual arts would be completely different. The German Shakespeare Society is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the ‘First Folio’ with a conference on “Shakespeare’s Libraries”.
We are particularly pleased to have the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C., Prof. Dr. Michael Witmore, for the conference. He will give the opening lecture on “The First Folio and the Creation of the Folger Shakespeare Memorial Library”. With 82 First Folio editions and 60,000 manuscripts, the Folger Shakespeare Library houses the world’s largest collection on Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Another contributor from the library world is Dr. Carla Baricz from the Sterling Library at Yale. In her lecture, she will discuss the dating of Shakespeare’s late play The Tempest and, in this context, trace the significance of historical library collections from the 18th century to the present day. Prof. Dr. Sarah Neville from Ohio State University will devote her lecture to the process of reading Shakespeare’s works and, conversely, the readings that inspired Shakespeare to write his plays.
Prof. Dr. Emma Smith from Oxford University has accepted the invitation of the German Shakespeare Society from Great Britain. Her monograph Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (Oxford University Press, 2016) is a reference work in Shakespeare studies and relevant to the theme of the conference. Also from the United Kingdom, Prof. Dr. Brian Cummings from the University of York will be speaking in Weimar. Prof. Cummings is currently working on a book history project that understands books both as objects of veneration and desire and as artifacts that give rise to fears and insecurities. His work Bibliophobia, published in 2022, focuses on these aspects. With his lecture “The Act of Reading Shakespeare”, he will take a reception-oriented perspective on the ‘First Folio’.

The German Shakespeare Society has been able to recruit junior professor Dr Eva von Contzen (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) as an outstanding young scholar. In her lecture on “Unpacking Shakespeare’s Library”, she will examine Shakespeare’s sources, their use and systematisation. Prof. Dr Sibylle Baumbach (University of Stuttgart) has also been invited to expand on the conference’s theme with her lecture on “‘My library/Was dukedom large enough’: From ‘Hag-Seed’ to Twitterature – Shakespeare’s book worlds today” with a view to Shakespeare adaptations in the digital realm. In addition, the director of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library Weimar, Dr Michael Knoche, will give a lecture on the Weimar Shakespeare Library and its users.
The plenary lectures at the annual conference of the German Shakespeare Society will be complemented by the Shakespeare Seminar, in which doctoral students and young researchers will present their own projects dealing with Shakespeare’s work and the English Renaissance.

In addition, the format “Shakespeare and School” has a permanent place at the annual conference of the German Shakespeare Society in order to offer English teachers a forum for joint exchange and to provide new impulses for the curricular treatment of Shakespeare’s works in English lessons at German schools. The German Shakespeare Society has invited Patrick Spottiswoode, founder and former director of the Globe Education section at the Globe Theatre London, to provide inspiration for the 2023 annual conference. In his contribution “The Shakespeare First Folio: Why the Fuss?” he will explore the question of where our fascination with this extraordinary book comes from.

This year’s Shakespeare Academy will take place in the run-up to the conference on April 20 and 21. Using the example of Shakespeare’s late play The Tempest, the student workshop participants will examine how the stage text deals with its own mediality and with the role of magical books, which give the protagonist Prospero power over the stage action. Interested students can apply for participation by sending a short letter of introduction and motivation (max. 1 page) to shakespeare-academy@anglistik.uni-muenchen.de by 12.02.23.

As part of the Shakespeare Days 2023, the Shakespeare Prize of the German Shakespeare Foundation will be awarded for the first time in the history of the German Shakespeare Society on April 23. This year, it will go to the actress and singer Birgit Minichmayr. In future, it will be awarded every two years to public figures who have rendered outstanding services to Shakespeare’s work and its dissemination.

Here you can download the programme and the president’s invitation letter. You can register online.