He was emeritus professor of the Collège de France, and held the chair of Romance literature from 1992 to 1998.
From 1978 to 1992 he was at the University of Munich in the new chair of German as Foreign Language, Deutsch als Fremdsprache.
[3] With his work at Bielefeld and Munich universities he is considered the founder of the academic discipline of Deutsch als Fremdsprache, DaF, the didactics of German as Foreign Language.
Academic research and teaching in this field include investigation into the (pre-)conditions for, as well as 'hands-on' didactics of, learning and teaching the language in German-speaking countries as well as abroad.
[4] [5] Weinrich won many literary prizes, including the 1992 Karl-Vossler-Preis and the 1997 Hansischer Goethe-Preis.