Germanic philology = the philological study of the Germanic

languages particularly from a comparative /historical perspective

The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages are placed in the
16th century, with the discovery of literary texts in the earlier phases of the
languages.
Early modern publications dealing with OLD NORSE culture
appeared in the 16th century, e.g. Historia de gentibus
septentrionalibu (Olaus Magnus, 1555)
the first edition of the 13th century GESTA DANORUM (Saxo
Grammaticus), in 1514
o patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century: the most
ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an
essential source for the nation's early history. It is also one of
the oldest known written documents about the history of
Estonia and Latvia

(Angers

Fragment), page 1, front

In 1603, MELCHIOR GOLDAST (Swiss writer and an industrious

though uncritical collector of documents relating to the medieval
history and constitution of Germany)
o the first edition of Middle High German poetry, Tyrol and
Winsbeck, including a commentary which focused on linguistic
problems and set the tone for the approach to such works in the
subsequent centuries. He later gave similar attention to the Old
High German Benedictine Rule

In England, the beginnings of work on Old English language is marked by

the increase of pace of publication increased during the 17th century with
Latin translations of the
Edda (notably Peder Resen's Edda Islandoru of 1665)
The term Edda (Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur) applies to the Old Norse
Poetic Edda and prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland
during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from
earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age. The books are the
main sources of medieval skaldic tradition in Iceland and Norse mythology.
Germanic philology together with linguistics as a whole emerged as a
serious academic discipline in the early 19th century, pioneered particularly
in Germany by such linguists as Jacob Grimm. Important 19th century
scholars include Henry Sweet and Mathias Lexer.

German linguistics/philology is roughly divided as follows:

Old High German (Althochdeutsch) 8th 11th centuries

Middle High German (Mittelhochdeutsch) 11th 14th centuries

Early New High German(Frhneuhochdeutsch) 14th 17th centuries

Modern German Standard (Standard German, German Dialectology)

18th 21st centuries

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.).