Karl-Heinz Schönfelder (26 April 1923 – 29 December 2018) was a German historian of modern literature and the founder of American studies at the University of Leipzig.
Since 1948, he had a teaching practice for dealing in American English at Karl Marx University in Leipzig.
1954 he earned his habilitation about international problems regarding the mixing of peoples and languages including the aspects of German words feud heritage in American English.
Schönfelder always tried to highlight the "socialist" side of American literature, for example in 19th century works.
He also wrote numerous pre-and postscripts for translations of American literature, for example to several works of Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway.