German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the language and literature component. Approaches to the discipline vary by country. Modern German studies is usually seen as a combination of two sub-disciplines: German linguistics alongside Germanophone literature and cultural studies.

Common names for "German Studies" for the field within German-speaking countries are Germanistik, Deutsche Philologie, and Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft und Literaturwissenschaft. In English, the terms Germanistics or Germanics are sometimes used (mostly by Germans), but the subject is more often referred to as German studies, German language and literature, or German philology. Academics who specialize in German studies are referred to as Germanists.

German linguistics is traditionally called philology in Germany, though most German studies departments house linguists whose focus relates to German or Germanic language(s) in both their historic and present forms. The periods of German's philological development are roughly divided as follows:

In addition, the discipline examines German under various aspects: the way it is spoken and written, i.e., spelling; declination; vocabulary; sentence structure; texts; etc. It compares the various manifestations such as social groupings (slang, written texts, etc.) and geographical groupings (dialects, etc.).

The study of German literature is divided into two parts: Ältere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft deals with the period from the beginnings of German in the early Middle Ages up to post-Medieval times around AD 1750, while the modern era is covered by Neuere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft. The field systematically examines German literature in terms of genre, form, content, and motifs as well as looking at it historically by author and epoch. Important areas include edition philology, history of literature, and textual interpretation. The relationships of German literature to the literatures of other languages (e.g. reception and mutual influences) and historical contexts are also important areas of concentration.

German literature studies benefits from the particularly rich printing tradition of the German-speaking world. Given Johannes Gutenberg and thus the modern printing press originates from German-speaking Europe, Germanic texts have historically enjoyed a heightened status among scholars. Other prominent historical figures, such as Martin Luther have also marked the history of literature through his dissemination of the Bible and thereby an early and strong German-speaking reading culture compared to other European publics.

Much like other literature-centered fields, German literature studies is concerned with ecocriticism, hermeneutics, feminism, narratology, psychoanalytic criticism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, post-structuralism, reader-response, semiotics, sound studies, spatial theory, speech acts, structuralism, symbology, and queer theory.

The study of German culture encompasses issues related to German politics, German history, Holocaust studies, national identity, German art, art history, migration, film studies, museum studies, memory studies, German Literature, and media. The sub-field is highly interdisciplinary drawing from both the humanities and social sciences to examine issues related to contemporary German-speaking countries. Such approaches are often focalized through the lens of the German-speaking nation at present. Thus, the study of countries such as Austria and Switzerland, as well as other German-speaking groups, are often focalized not only through their shared German linguistic and cultural heritage, but for their distinct national and diasporic contexts. German cultural studies therefore incorporates the historical areas of German influence across Europe and overseas as it relates to both migration and colonization.