Professor Berghahn joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 1967, and quickly became a rising star. At the beginning of his career, Berghahn specialized in the 18th century, focusing on Enlightenment aesthetics and on German writer-thinkers Goethe and Schiller. Berghahn later expanded his academic focus into the relation of German-Jewish thinkers to German philosophy and the history of anti-Semitism, which later led him to also focus on interdisciplinary German studies.
He received numerous awards from the university throughout his career, including a Romnes Fellowship, a Mid-Career Award and a Weinstein-Bascom Professorship in Jewish Studies.
Berghahn also served the university, participating in the Graduate Research Committee, the Graduate School Executive Committee and the UW Senate, and acting as department chair from 1994–97.
In his youth, Berghahn studied German literature, history and philosophy at the University of Cologne, and he also attended the University of Munster, where he earned his doctorate.
Berghahn’s son Marcus shared a memoriam with close friends that was written both for, and with, his father. It included the following lines: “In German, what you are reading is called a Nachruf, a call-out to the departed that they cannot hear; but it is also a statement by the departed to those mourning his absence. Klaus wanted his Nachruf to thank the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his colleagues from across the university, and the many graduate students—including almost 30 for whom he was their “Doktorvater”—with whom he worked for stimulation and fulfillment of his intellectual life.”
A reception to celebrate Klaus’s life was held on Sunday, November 10, in the Old Madison Room at the UW Memorial Union.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to the University of Wisconsin Foundation in support of the Berghahn Prize in Literature Fund, #112436476.