Oliver Knabe

Dr. Knabe has been at UD since 2021 and currently serves as the section head and advisor of the German program. He specializes in 20th and 21st-century German literature and cinema, with a particular focus on sports. In addition to language classes, he has taught courses on football/soccer films, German sports culture, cinema, and fairy tales. In 2022, he introduced a new comics course for German language learners at UD. His teaching has been generously funded by UD’s Office of Experiential Learning.

Among his publications are articles on (East) German football and German music. As a co-editor, he published the 2022 volume Football Nation. The Playing Fields of German Culture, History and Society. He also edited the 2024 Colloquia Germanica special issue (57.2) German Identity and History through the Lens of Football.

• GER 101/141: Introduction to German 
• Ger 201: German (Culture) through Comics
• GER 301: East Germany
• GER 312: West-Germany
• GER 322: German Sports and Society
• GER 321: German Children’s Culture
• GLC 331: Fairy Tales
• ENG 200: More than just a Game: International Perspectives on Soccer

Edited Volumes

German Identity and History through the Lens of Football. Guest Editor. Colloquia Germanica 57.2. 2024

Football Nation. The Playing Fields of German Culture, History and Society. Eds. Alan McDougall, Rebeccah Dawson, Oliver Knabe and Bastian Heinsohn. Berghahn Books. 2022

Articles and Book Chapters (Selection)

“East Germans Rehearse the Uprising: GDR Football Stadiums as Revolutionary Testing Grounds for the 1989 Revolution in Ernst Cantzler’s ‘Und Freitags in die ‘Grüne Hölle’”. Colloquia Germanica. Special Issue. 2022. 

“From GDR-Emigrant to Third-Class Citizen: Football Stadiums, Social Divides, and East German Identities in Andreas Gläser’s “BFC is to Blame for the Wall.” Football Nation. The Playing Fields of German Culture, History and Society. Berghahn Books. 2022.