Professor Henk de Berg

School of Languages and Cultures

Professor of German, Head of Germanic Studies

H.de.Berg@Sheffield.ac.uk

Jessop West

Full contact details

Professor Henk de Berg
School of Languages and Cultures
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA

Profile

Born in Holland, I studied German and comparative literature in Leiden, at one of Europe’s oldest universities, and Siegen (in North Rhine-Westphalia, near Bonn). I came to Sheffield in 1996, after having taught comparative literature at Leiden for several years.

My specialist expertise is in German and French cultural theory and the history of ideas. I am currently writing a sequel to my book "Trump and Hitler: A Comparative Study in Lying" (2024).

I am one of the two Directors (together with Prof Evgeny Dobrenko) of the Prokhorov Centre. The Centre organises the University’s Prokhorov Lectures, which are delivered by world-leading academics and public intellectuals. Previous speakers have ranged from Sir Christopher Clark to Lionel Shriver, and from John Lanchester to Dame Marina Warner.

I have given many lectures both in Britain and abroad, and I have held a short Visiting Professorship at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. My book on Freud, which has been translated into three European languages as well as Chinese, received a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award.

Research interests

My research, which draws both on classical thinkers such as Hegel and Freud and on contemporary thinkers and debates, represents a cross-over between German studies, literary and cultural theory, and the history of ideas.

I am the author of four books: a study of the problems of literary historiography (which includes a case study of Young Germany’s reception of Goethe); an introduction to Freud’s theory and its use in literary and cultural studies (described by Peter Gay as “as good an introductory text as one can possibly hope for”), which received a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award and has been translated into three European languages as well as Chinese; and a comparative study of the concepts of the end of history and civil society in G. W. F. Hegel, Alexandre Kojève, and Francis Fukuyama.

My most recent book, written for a larger audience, compares Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler as political performance artists. It explores their populist self-staging and rhetorical strategies and explains how they connected with their respective audiences. It also analyses the two men’s character, work ethic, and management style. In addition, it addresses seemingly peripheral issues like the reasons behind Hitler’s toothbrush moustache and Trump’s hairstyle. By demystifying Hitler and Trump, it throws new light on both of them.

I have also co-edited eight books on critical theory, including a 500-page Suhrkamp paperback on the reception of Niklas Luhmann’s sociology in the humanities. My reader on German thought from Kant to Habermas, edited with Duncan Large, includes ca. 100 pages of editorial introductions and annotations; the editors’ general introduction has been described by Joachim Whaley as “probably the best short account of the development of modern German philosophy”. My most recent edited volumes are on the Bulgarian-born French thinker Tzvetan Todorov (2020; edited with Karine Zbinden) and the German philosopher Ernst Bloch (2024; edited with Cat Moir).

I am currently writing a sequel to my book on Trump and Hitler, which focuses on the relationship between celebrity, politics and populism.

Teaching interests

German intellectual history
social thought
literary and cultural theory
18th- to 21st-century German literature and culture

Current undergraduate modules include the second-year option “The Restless Era”, which covers the social history of the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic, and the fourth-year option “Modern German Thought”.

At postgraduate level, I co-teach the School-wide modules “Approaches to Literary and Cultural Studies I and II”. I offer MA, MPhil, and PhD supervision on any topic within my research area.

Professional activities and memberships

I have been External Examiner for German at Nottingham and for Dutch at Cambridge, as well as Internal or External Examiner for 15 PhD theses and 1 MPhil thesis.

I have acted as a referee for a variety of publishers (including Cambridge UP, Oxford UP, and Routledge) and international journals. I am on the editorial boards of the “Publications of the English Goethe Society” and “Convivium”.

Among the international conferences and colloquia I have organised are “Tzvetan Todorov” (2015; with Karine Zbinden) and “Constructing Europe(s): The Cultural Borders of Western and Eastern Europe Past, Present, and Future” (2017; with Evgeny Dobrenko).

Upcoming conference: "Comparative Aesthetics of Dictatorships" (Venice, 5-6 September 2024; co-organised with Evgeny Dobrenko). Participants: Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez, Victoria Clement, António Costa Pinto, Henk de Berg, Evgeny Dobrenko, Simonetta Falasca Zamponi, Boris Groys, Anna Camaito Hostert, David Imhoof, Jae-Cheon Lim, Mark Lipovetsky, Marco Morini, Wolfram Pyta, Xosé-Manoel Nuñez Seixas, Xudong Zhang.

Together with Prof Evgeny Dobrenko in Russian & Slavonic Studies and Prof Robert Stern in Philosophy, I organise the University of Sheffield’s Prokhorov Lectures, which are delivered by world-leading scholars and public intellectuals. Topics range from philosophy and literature to society and migration. The lectures focusing on religion take place in Sheffield Cathedral and are organised in collaboration with the Cathedral’s Dean and its Canon Misssioner.

Books, lectures, interviews

Books

1.12. Trump and Hitler: A Comparative Study in Lying (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-51833-1

1.11. Rethinking Ernst Bloch, eds. Henk de Berg and Cat Moir (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2024).

1.10. Tzvetan Todorov: Thinker and Humanist, eds. Henk de Berg and Karine Zbinden (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2020).

1.9. Modern German Thought from Kant to Habermas: An Annotated German-Language Reader, eds. Henk de Berg and Duncan Large (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012).

1.8. Das Ende der Geschichte und der bürgerliche Rechtsstaat. Hegel – Kojève – Fukuyama (Tübingen / Basel: Francke, 2007).

1.7. Freud’s Theory and Its Use in Literary and Cultural Studies: An Introduction (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2003; paperback edition 2004).

1.7a. Chinese translation by Ji Guangmao: 弗洛伊德理论及其在文学研究与文化研究中的应用(Beijing: Gold Wall Press, 2010).

1.7b. German translation by Stephan Dietrich: Freuds Psychoanalyse in der Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft. Eine Einführung (Tübingen / Basel: Francke / UTB, 2005; UTB 2661).

1.7c. Polish translation by Maria Bralewska: Teorie Freuda a badania literaturoznawcze i kulturowe. Wprowadzenie do problematyk (Lask: Leksem, 2004).

1.7d. Dutch translation by Herman Van Den Haute: De mantel der zedelijkheid. Freud over psyche, literatuur en cultuur (Kampen: Klement, 2003).

1.6. Rezeption und Reflexion. Zur Resonanz der Systemtheorie Niklas Luhmanns außerhalb der Soziologie, eds. Henk de Berg and Johannes Schmidt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000; stw 1501).

1.5. Interpretation 2000: Positionen und Kontroversen. Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Horst Steinmetz, eds. Henk de Berg and Matthias Prangel (Heidelberg: Winter, 1999).

1.4. Systemtheorie und Hermeneutik, eds. Henk de Berg and Matthias Prangel (Tübingen / Basel: Francke, 1997).

1.3 Differenzen. Systemtheorie zwischen Dekonstruktion und Konstruktivismus, eds. Henk de Berg and Matthias Prangel (Tübingen / Basel: Francke, 1995).

1.2. Kontext und Kontingenz. Kommunikationstheoretische Überlegungen zur Literaturhistoriographie. Mit einer Fallstudie zur Goethe-Rezeption des Jungen Deutschland (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1995).

1.1. Kommunikation und Differenz. Systemtheoretische Ansätze in der Literatur- und Kunstwissenschaft, eds. Henk de Berg and Matthias Prangel (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1993).

Upcoming and recent lectures and interviews

--- 6 September 2024: Populist Rallies and How They Work: On the Relationship between Politics, Community, Entertainment, and Faux Empowerment, lecture at the international conference “Comparative Aesthetics of Dictatorships”, University of Venice.

--- 9 July 2024: What Can Cultural Studies Tell Us about the Lure of Populism? Reflections on Trump and Hitler, lecture at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

--- 4 July 2024: What Can Cultural Studies Tell Us about the Lure of Populism? Reflections on Trump and Hitler, lecture at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.

--- 1 July 2024: Formen und Funktionen der politischen Lüge. Überlegungen zu Trump und Hitler, lecture at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.

--- 26 June 2024: television interview by Esmir Milavić, Foreign Affairs Editor at N1 TV Bosnia and Herzegovina, CNN’s Affiliate for the Western Balkans region (Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia)

https://n1info.ba/svijet/henk-de-berg-za-n1-trumpova-strategija-je-i-identicna-hitlerovoj/

--- 3 June 2024: interview by David Smith, Washington bureau chief of The Guardian: “The Reich Stuff – What Does Trump Really Have in Common with Hitler?”:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/03/donald-trump-hitler-similarities

--- 27 May 2024: invited guest on The Anotida Chikumbu Book Series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQfuLlYBfgs

--- 25 April 2024: audio-recorded interview on The AfD and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism in Germany:

[web link TBA]

--- 4 April 2024: invited guest on Andrew Keen’s “Keen On” web-/podcast: Henk de Berg on the Many Similarities Tying Donald Trump with Adolf Hitler:

YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoEKj1zVLe4

podcast:

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/keen-on/episode-2022-henk-de-berg-on-uAd1K8zVYei/

--- 26 March 2024: online outreach lecture for Yr12 school pupils on Freud: Mind and Society.

--- 8 March 2024: Hitler and Trump: Reflections on the Resonance of Their Rhetoric, lecture at the University of Oxford.

--- 27 November 2023: online outreach lecture for Yr13 school pupils on Populist Propaganda in Germany.

--- 19 September 2023: Hitler, Trump und die grenzüberschreitende Macht der Rhetorik, lecture at international conference “Aktuelle Grenz(über)fälle, Grenzbegehungen, Grenzgänge”, University of Lodz, Poland.

Interviews conducted