My reply was not a value judgment or a suggestion that you mirror the specialization of recent hires in order to perpetuate an art historical echo chamber. An overly narrow specialization is limiting. My advice would be to aim for the best program possible with someone working in German/Austrian 19th and/or 20th, and in your coursework, cast as wide a net as you can within Europe and those two centuries. There's this idea floated here on grad cafe that your personal statement should include a very specific research plan/topic. I can tell you that professors are much more interested in students who can adapt to coursework, and who are flexible in their interests. It's just better business for them, and if you look at the incoming classes of Fall 2013 on the current student pages of the top programs, you'll see that many (most) of them have broadly stated interests.