91ÖÆƬ³§

In Memory of Jutta Birmele

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Jutta Birmele at the Goethe Institute, 2004

The Department of Romance, German, Russian Languages and Literatures is saddened to report the passing of Professor Jutta Birmele, who came to 91ÖÆƬ³§ in 1983 after teaching at California State University, Los Angeles. She became a tenured Professor of German Studies in 1990, full professor in 1994, and emerita in 2006.  She held a JD from the Free University of Berlin, an MA from San Francisco State, and a PhD in History from The Claremont Graduate School. Jutta was a force of nature who quickly made her mark on the university. She energized the German section and the entire department with new projects, international partnerships, and collaborative exchanges across languages and cultures. 

Jutta was an inventive and generous teacher who understood language study as a way of opening the world. She championed study abroad and personally accompanied several groups of students to Europe, often with a colleague. Strasbourg was a regular destination, and she made student research and travel-related research priorities in the department, beginning a tradition that continues to this day. Her work also took her to Europe and China: she taught in the London Semester in 2004, served as Resident Director of the CSU system's International Programs in Baden-Württemberg in 1994–95, and lectured at the University of Tübingen, the Goethe Institute in Berlin, and in Qingdao, China.

Her commitment to innovation was especially visible in Project Headlines International, a language-acquisition courseware initiative financed by the Swiss government, spearheaded together with Dr. Clorinda Donato. The project created a didactic platform for French, German, and Italian using multilingual news segments produced by Swiss Radio International. Several 91ÖÆƬ³§ students worked as interns, gaining experience with the computer-assisted language pedagogy that Jutta helped bring into the department. She also organized conferences on German and European affairs, arranged exhibitions on campus, and directed the Center for European Studies.

Jutta's leadership in international education reached a wider institutional scale in 2008, when she and Dr. Frank Fata were instrumental in helping 91ÖÆƬ³§ receive $1.6 million in federal funding for the Strategic Language Institute. The grant, awarded to six CSU campuses, supported intensive instruction in languages considered critical to diplomacy, business, defense, intelligence, and national security. Students studied during the summer, continued their language work during the academic year, and then traveled abroad for immersive study. When the federal funding ended after three years, a Department of Defense grant continued the language instruction infrastructure that Jutta and Dr. Fata had established, including programs serving military linguists.

Jutta was equally committed to the university as a place of public conversation and civic responsibility. A tireless advocate for human rights, she co-sponsored panels and lectures with colleagues across the university. Together with her collaborator Professor Christian Soe of Political Science, she brought speakers to campus to discuss the formation of the European Union and the political transformations reshaping Europe. She was also active in the broader academic community, serving as 91ÖÆƬ³§'s representative to the system-wide Academic Council on International Programs from 1999 to 2004 and chairing the department from 2004 to 2006.

Her scholarly and professional work earned wide recognition. Jutta organized four international conferences on German and European affairs between 1986 and 2000 and presented and published on subjects ranging from German constitutional rights and European sovereignty to corruption in international business, German colonial history, and W. G. Sebald's literary mission. Her honors included the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the German Cross of Merit, conveyed by Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker in 1993; the Edward Blankenship Award for Excellence in International Education in 1992; four National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship awards; five 91ÖÆƬ³§ Scholarly and Creative Activities Awards; a $500,000 German government grant to develop German on the Web; and the 2006 Professor of the Year award from the Southern California chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German.

Yet Jutta's influence cannot be measured by titles, grants, conferences, or publications alone. She had a twinkle in her eye, never held a grudge, and believed that life was too short to waste time fighting. She always sought and found the high ground in all debates. Any event organized by Jutta came with delicious food, good wine, and strong coffee. She generously opened her home to colleagues, turning meetings into occasions for conversation and conviviality. Her hospitality was not separate from her work; it was one of the ways she created the community in which her work could flourish. Jutta's love for her family sustained her in all of her endeavors. Her husband, Richard, and her children, Sonja and Paul were active participants in the events she organized.  In her retirement, her grandson, Ian Harvey gave her great joy.  In Portland, where she moved when she retired, he experienced the intellect, warmth, and generosity that she always extended to her colleagues, students, and friends.

Jutta Birmele leaves an enduring legacy at 91ÖÆƬ³§ in the students she sent abroad, the languages and technologies she brought into our classrooms, the international conversations she convened, and the colleagues and friends she gathered around her. Her passing marks the end of an extraordinary chapter in the life of our department, but the community she helped build—and the curiosity, generosity, and commitment to a more connected world that she modeled—will continue.