The German Hispanic Association (DHV) represents the interests of Hispanists working at colleges and universities in German-speaking countries. The association promotes academic exchange, international contact, and communication in the growing field of Hispanic language, cultural, and literary studies. Each year the DHV organizes the German Hispanic Days, a conference for scholars of Hispanic studies in Germany. The association advocates for its members in a variety of ways and is in constant dialog with universities and other institutions promoting higher education.

The newly elected chairperson of the DHV, Prof. Dr. Susanne Zepp-Zwirner, thanked the members for having confidence in her and the other newly elected board members, and she thanked the current board for their successful work. She pointed out that Berlin is well known around the world for scholarly work and exchange in the field of Hispanic studies, but that Berlin is also a city where Spanish exists as a language of everyday life and where, in particular, the Instituto Cervantes has an impact on the city, theater is performed in Spanish, and Latin American literature is created. Zepp-Zwirner emphasized that the Institute of Romance Languages and Literatures and the Institute for Latin American Studies are two important academic institutions at Freie Universität dedicated to the study of Spanish language, literatures, and cultures, in addition to the other Romance languages. For her, this lends particular significance to her election.