Antje,
I studied early medieval germanic philology and literature in graduate
school (Altenglisch, Altnordisch, usw.) -- subjects that were pioneered
mostly by German scholars. These scholars were extremely _thorough_ ,
producing encyclopedic reference works which were a joy to use. The German
system was, as you know, quite partriarchal (cf. Doktorvater) and put great
pressure on students to learn a scholar's work, the work of his
"grandfather", the work of his "father", and the work of his older "sons"
who had left home and gone out on their own. One had to master the output of
the whole clan! The new Ph.D. would often do "grunt work" for his
dissertation-dad; innovation and individualism were discouraged; they did
not lead to success. You can see how under those circumstances an entire
profession might over time lose sight of the primary works. Pound's ship was
driven against the rocks of this ethos at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tim Romano
 
P.S. I must add that one of the best teachers I ever knew, the late great
Otto Springer, a German, never expected his students to do his grunt work
and never lost sight of the primary works.
 
antje pfannkuchen wrote:
 
> The important thing is to teach how to read which I think is being
> done more at American universities than in most of Germany?!? It is always
> so much to be discovered in primary texts which other writers of secondary
> literature haven't found or didn't think of importance. It's never wrong
to
> read secondary texts too, but never without the primary source