Background

Anton Kaes was born on February 4, 1945, in Eggenfelden, Germany. He is the son of Anton and Maria (Kotter) Kaes.

Education

In 1970 Anton graduated from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, receiving a Master of Arts. He got a Doctor of Philosophy from Stanford University in 1973.

Career

Anton Kaes taught German and Comparative Literature as well as Film Studies at the University of California at Irvine, serving as Director of Comparative Literature from 1978 to 1981. Since 1981, he holds a joint appointment between German and Film & Media at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as Director of the Film Studies Program from 1990 to 1998 and was Chair of the German Department from 2001 to 2006.

Besides teaching modern German literature, cultural theory, German film history, photography, and film theory, Kaes is also affiliated with the Critical Theory Program where he regularly offers seminars on the Frankfurt School. He was director of four NEH Summer Seminars for College Teachers (1989-1994) and is co-director of the bi-annual German Film Institute since 1985. He taught a Master Class at the University of Amsterdam and workshops in Jerusalem, Seoul, Vienna, Berlin, and Cambridge University. He was a Visiting Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra (1995), Harvard University (1999), and Tel Aviv University (2008).

Kaes has served as a consultant to modern art exhibitions at LACMA, MoMA, SFMoMA, and to programming at the Bologna Film Festival and the Silent Film Festival in Pordenone as well as the Criterion DVD collection. He also served on the Editorial Board of the PMLA, German Quarterly, and New German Critique, among others. Since 1994, he is co-editor of the 50-volume book series Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism.

Achievements

• Anton Kaes has edited and written a number of volumes in German and English on German film and twentieth-century cultural history. In 2007 he was the recipient of the Humboldt Research Prize. At the University of California, Berkeley, he received a Distinguished Teaching Award in the Humanities in 2010. He has been listed as a noteworthy Language educator by Marquis Who's Who.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • From Hitler to Heimat: The Return of History as Film

    (West German filmmakers have tried repeatedly over the pas...)

    1989
  • The Weimar Republic Sourcebook 1994
  • Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War 2009

Views

Kaes teaches courses in modern literature, literary and cultural theory, photography, and cinema. His research concentrates on interdisciplinary and comparative aspects of Weimar culture and contemporary literature and film; literary theory and theory of cultural studies; film history and film theory.

Membership

Kaes is a member of the Modern Language Association, Association Teachers of German, and Brecht Society.

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  Modern Language Association , United States

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  Association Teachers of German , United States

Connections

Anton married Christine Mueller on September 5, 1971. The couple has two children: Bettina and Peter.

Father:

Anton Kaes

Wife:

Christine (Mueller) Kaes

Son:

Peter Kaes