The thesis presents the institutional changes in the study of German language and literature and the development of German studies at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (i.e., Faculty of Philosophy) from 1876 to 1918. It also evaluates the contributions of the key actors in this development. The thesis consists of the following sections: 1. Introduction (1–15); 2. The institutional development of German language and literature studies (16–46); 3. The curricular, organizational and material conditions of the studies (47–110); 4. Students of German studies (111–186); 5. Contributions to the biographies of teachers of German language and literature (187–261); 6. Conclusion (262–265); 7. Sources and literature (266–290) and 8. Appendix (291– 392). Following the introduction, which approaches the subject, the methodology and the aims of the research, as well as the most important literature and sources, the second chapter uses an analytical and interpretive method in reconstructing the various stages of development in German studies until the end of the First World War. The legislative act which founded the University in January 1874, foresaw the language courses. Based on that act, all modern foreign languages were taught “only for practical useˮ. This was not specific to Zagreb, as the foreign languages were taught at the University of Berlin with a similar status since 1810. The first German teacher was Julije Šajatović. After his departure in 1886, the Faculty council petitioned the government for the establishment of a Chair in German language and literature, which was founded only in 1895. In the ensuing years, Ivan Quiquerez was appointed as the new German teacher, but his lessons were cut short with his departure for further studies abroad. After his return, Quiquerez was appointed associate professor, but was fired several months later. He was succeeded by Stjepan Tropsch, who would remain at the Faculty until 1942, with a brief pause between the years 1913 and 1917. The academic year 1897/1898 saw the introduction of state examinations for German teachers in Zagreb. Until that year the examinations were taken at other universities, such as Graz or Vienna. In 1904 the Seminar for German philology was founded, endowed with a rich library which was a key precondition for raising the quality of the studies. In 1913 Tropsch was appointed in charge of the Department of Religion and Education of the Land Government for the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. He temporarily gave up teaching, so his lessons were divided between Josip Florschütz and Gustav Šamšalović. After a brief exposition of the development of German studies departments in selected Central European universities, the third chapter gives an analysis of the curricula, the organizational and material conditions of the studies. The development and mission of the Seminar for German philology and its library are given, with an overview of the work of the seminar’s librarians. A part of the chapter is also dedicated to the state and doctoral examinations. The largest part of the students of German language and litrature, enrolled until the end of Austria-Hungary, who passed their state examinations had chosen the Croatian and German languages as their primary field or German as a primary, and classical philology as a secondary field. An analysis is given of the dissertations at the state exam topics, pointing to the contemporary scholarly currents in German studies in Zagreb. Tropsch was encouraging the candidates to do work in topics he found relevant, but the fact that no “schoolˮ had been founded was purely a matter of institutional disadvantages. As there was no institutional framework which would give them the possibility to put their German studies knowledge into practice without working in schools, most of the graduates failed to work in academic or scholarly fields after finishing their studies. The chapter’s conclusion deals with the continuation of studies abroad. The most important motives for studying abroad were the improvement of language skills and the lack of literature in Zagreb, mentioned by those who had finished their studies. The fourth chapter gives a quantitative analysis of changes in the number of students of German studies, followed by the analysis of the gender, age, language and confessional structure of the students, as well as the structure according to the place of birth, place of domicile and the profession of their fathers. A model is presented which separates the “properˮ students of the German language and literature from the students who only occasionally attended lectures in German studies. The first category consists of those who passed or applied for the state or doctoral examinations, as well as those who gained the right to apply for these examinations, independent of the fact whether they took the exams. The winter semester of 1898/1899 saw a rise in numbers of students. This was due to a change in the status of German studies in Zagreb, that is the fact that the German language examinations could be taken in Zagreb. The second significant increase happened in the summer semester of 1903/1904, which saw the founding of the Seminar for German philology. The first two increases were therefore caused by changes in the status of the department, the other two significant changes – a rise in the summer semester of 1906/1907 and in the winter semester of 1907/1908 on the one hand and a fall in the winter semester of 1907/1908 on the other hand – were due to changes in the number of students at the Faculty. The analysis points to the fact that most of those enrolled in German studies were men. However, among the seven students who took the doctoral examination there were three women and the average age of enrollment was lower for women than men. It should also be mentioned that the proportion of German native speakers was higher among German studies students than in the general population during the period 1900 to 1914, but they did not put a significant mark on the studies in general. If one takes into consideration the students who gained the right to apply for the exams, the largest number of them had fathers with a background in intellectual work. The chapter also gives a prosopographical analysis of the first German language and literature students in Zagreb. The fifth chapter reconstructs the biographies of the German teachers and professors of the German studies who taught at the University of Zagreb between 1876 and 1918: Julije Šajatović, Ivan Quiquerez, Stjepan Tropsch, Josip Florschütz and Gustav Šamšalović. Special attention is paid to the works of Stjepan Tropsch. The wide range of topics that aroused his interest, especially German translations of Croatian and Serbian folk songs, enabled him to become a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. Despite some of his important conclusions, most of his works did not outlast his time. However, the greatest achievement of Stjepan Tropsch was the establishment and development of German studies in Zagreb, which earned him the title of the “Father of German studies in Croatiaˮ. This research has shown that in its first decades, the Zagreb chair in German studies passed through similar cycles of institutional development as other German studies departments in Central Europe, and there were also similarities in the curricula. The petitions for the chair’s founding emphasized the need for academic development at the Zagreb University, but the chair’s primary task was to educate high school teachers of the German language, which were few in numbers at the time. One can therefore conclude that the changes in teaching the German language at the university level followed the development of German studies in Europe, as well as the development needs of the Zagreb University and the Croatian education system in general.