Mag. phil. Andreas Schiestl

About

Andreas Schiestl is a Slavicist specializing in the Ukrainian language, history, and culture. In addition to his position as a university lecturer for German language at the Department of German Studies — initially in Košice and currently in Prešov — he conducts in-depth analyses of German-language literature as well as historical texts pertaining to Ukraine, Poland, and Slovenia. Since 2025, he has been pursuing a PhD in Slavic Studies at the University of Prešov.

Research Interests

• Historical German-language texts on Ukraine (17th–19th centuries)
• Readability research in Slavic languages
• Stylometry of historical texts
• Etymology, onomastics, anthroponymy
• Popular culture, popular music, subcultures
• Typography, graphic design (esp. the creation of maps)

Teaching

• German as a Foreign Language
• Country Studies of German-speaking Countries
• Phonetics and Phonology of German
• Transcultural Communication
• German-language Children’s and Youth Literature

Publications

• Schiestl, Andreas (2025). Untersuchungen zur Autorschaft der Summarischen Beschreibung (1672). Jazyk a kultúra, 16(63–64), 63–71.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2025). Von Skandinavien zu Slavien. Der Assimilationsprozess der Rjurikiden in die ostslawische Kultur anhand ausgewählter Anthroponyme. In: Schiestl, Andreas; Jenčíková, Blanka; Tomášiková, Slavomíra (eds.) (2025). Die Macht des Wortes I. Prešov: Vydavateľstvo Prešovskej univerzity, 194–207.
• Schiestl, Andreas; Jenčíková, Blanka; Tomášiková, Slavomíra (eds.) (2025). Die Macht des Wortes II. Prešov: Vyd. PU.
• Schiestl, Andreas; Jenčíková, Blanka; Tomášiková, Slavomíra (eds.) (2025). Die Macht des Wortes I. Prešov: Vyd. PU.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2025). Saša Stanišić: Wolf. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2025). Felix Lobrecht: Sonne und Beton. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2025). Caroline Wahl: 22 Bahnen. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2024). Karen McManus: One of Us Is Lying. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2024). Siegfried Lenz: Schweigeminute. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2024). Benedict Wells: Hard Land. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2023). Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Die Panne. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2023). Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2022). Benedict Wells: Vom Ende der Einsamkeit. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2022). Günter Grass: Katz und Maus. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2021). Ödön von Horváth: Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verl.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2021). Ferdinand von Schirach: Terror. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2021). Das Nibelungenlied. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2020). Arno Geiger: Unter der Drachenwand. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2020). Friedrich Torberg: Der Schüler Gerber. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2020). Thomas Mann: Tonio Kröger. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2019). Herman Hesse: Siddhartha. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2019). Stefan Zweig: Angst. Lektürehilfe. Aarhus: Schulhilfe Verlag.
• Schiestl, A.; Denner, E. (2015). Basiswörterbuch in Bildern. Wien: Österreichischer Integrationsfonds.
• Schiestl, A.; Denner, E. (2014). Wirtschaftsdeutsch. Materialreihe Fachsprache Deutsch. Wien: Österreich Institut.
• Schiestl, Andreas (2014). Nationale Mythen der Ukraine. Diplomarbeit. Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.

Projects

CYIW – Calculate Your Index Well

CYIW is a collection of handy Python programs for automatically calculating text difficulty (primarily, but not only, for Slavic texts). The project was created in 2025 to simplify the traditionally time-consuming work of readability research.

CYIW computes important readability indices such as Flesch, Amstad, Tuldava, Lix, and the Gunning-Fog index, and is currently available for Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and German. The Ukrainian and Russian programs have already been thoroughly tested and should produce reliable results. More languages are planned.

The software features a user-friendly graphical interface: texts can be loaded, indices computed, and results exported in tabular form with just a few clicks. Additionally, results can be visualized as line charts, scatterplots, or a correlation matrix. This enables researchers, teachers, and interested users to objectively analyze texts and often replaces manual evaluation or the use of statistical software for basic analyses.

XKB Keyboard Layouts

XKB Central European

Keyboard layout for Slavicists, based on the German QWERTZ-layout. For Linux. Allows typing all Slavic languages using the Latin script, as well as German, Hungarian, Turkish, and Romanian, without changing the layout.

XKB Ukrainian Enhanced

Ukrainian keyboard layout including Belarusian, Russian, Serbian, and Old Cyrillic letters. For Linux.

XKB IPA

Keyboard layout for the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For Linux.

Contact