New York University’s Department of German and its Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) have received gifts to establish a professorship, an annual lecturship, and a fellowship fund. Eberhard Berent, a professor emeritus of German at NYU, will establish the Eberhard Berent Professor of Goethe in NYU’s Department of German. Paul Lott, who served as director of taxes and assistant comptroller for ITT Corporation, will establish the Paul Lott Lectureship and Fellowship Fund at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.
“The age of Goethe was the high period of German literature, and having a chair in Goethe will be a real boost for the Department of German at NYU,” said Berent, who joined the NYU faculty in the early 1960s.
Shortly after joining NYU’s faculty, Berent was appointed chairman of NYU’s Department of German. He retired from NYU in 1987 and returned to Germany in 2003.
The Paul Lott Lectureship Fund at IFA will be inaugurated in the fall of 2008 with a lecture on the subject of color theory. The Paul Lott Fellowship will provide financial support to graduate students at the IFA.
Lott, who is Austrian, came to the United States in the early 1960s and lived and worked here until retiring to Germany in 2004.
“I hope my lectureship will give students an insight into the working of an artist,” Lott said. “It will focus on ideas, not just the painters and their technique, but what is behind them.”
This year, Berent and Lott were inducted as members of NYU’s Sir Harold Acton Society, which recognizes donors who have made individual contributions of $1 million or more to the university. Edward Sullivan, NYU’s dean for humanities, traveled to Germany in March to meet with Berent and Lott and to present them with their Sir Harold Acton Society medals.
“I am more than delighted by the generosity of our two colleagues and friends,” says Sullivan. “Their generosity graciously recognizes the continuing strength of our diverse departments at NYU.”