Basic elements of German. Practice in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, including work with pronunciation, grammar, and culture. Designed for students with no prior study of German.

Basic elements of German. Practice in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, including work with pronunciation, grammar, and culture. Designed for students with no prior study of German.

Continuation of basic German with emphasis on acquiring communicative skills, both narrative and descriptive, in a variety of practical situations.

Continuation of basic German with emphasis on acquiring communicative skills, both narrative and descriptive, in a variety of practical situations.

Selected readings deal with world languages and cultures. Texts read may be classics in a national literature, works by writers who recently won a high literary prize, or texts dealing with current topics critical to the history or politics of a particular country. Texts may be tied to on-campus lectures on world literature by invited speakers. This course can be repeated once for credit with the permission of the chair.

Review and continued study of German structures, with an emphasis on the development of reading skills and the discussion of ideas. Satisfactory completion fulfills the global language proficiency requirement.

Review and continued study of German structures, with an emphasis on the development of reading skills and the discussion of ideas. Satisfactory completion fulfills the global language proficiency requirement.

Study and analysis of cultural texts in German emphasizing contemporary issues. Required for students who wish to earn a major or minor in German. Fulfills the global language proficiency requirement.

Supervised reading or research at the lower-division level. Permission of department chair required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.

Selected readings deal with world languages and cultures. Texts read may be classics in a national literature, works by writers who recently won a high literary prize, or texts dealing with current topics critical to the history or politics of a particular country. Texts may be tied to on-campus lectures on world literature by invited speakers. This course can be repeated once for credit with the permission of the chair.

A survey of some of the key figures and periods of German art, literature, music, and public life in German-speaking countries that have made significant cultural contributions to world civilization up to the early 19th century, focusing on literary and cultural trends and movements of the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Baroque, and the Age of Goethe. Selected readings will include courtly epic, lyric poetry, drama, prose texts and narratives from some principal authors. Alternate years.

A survey of various periods of German art, literature, music, public life and people that have made significant cultural contributions to world civilization from the early 19th century to the present. The major purpose is to analyze the interrelationship between the major social/political developments of German-speaking Europe, and their cultural manifestations. Selected readings will include lyric poetry, essays, novellas, drama, and prose texts and narratives from some principal authors. Alternate years.

Thor, Herman the German, Beowulf, Siegfried and Kriemhild, dragons and monsters. Taught in English, this course covers the feuds, founding myths, and legends of the gods and heroes in the Germanic traditions. Add Hildegard von Bingen, Saint Nicholas, Saint Benedict, and Martin Luther and we sketch an arc from the pagan Germanic-language-speaking peoples through the medieval period to the early modern, studying each of these towering figures on the way. Main texts: Beowulf, The Nibelungenlied, Sturluson's Edda, Gregory’s The Life of Saint Benedict, Hildegard’s Illuminations (Taught in English, can be taken for German credit.)

Who today would not praise love? Yet, what do we mean when we say the word, “Liebe”? The philosophical and literary historical trajectory of the term finds bold articulation with the ancient Greeks (Empedocles, Plato, Sappho, etc.) and again around 1800 in the German-speaking territories with the revival of classical Greek culture with the practitioners of Weimarer Klassik (Goethe and Schiller) and what has come to be called classical music (Mozart), as well as with those they influenced. What’s more important that interpreting what we call “love?” Maybe nothing. Taught in German.

The Weimer period is a time of tremendous creativity in art, architecture, literature, music and politics, when German-speaking lands find themselves caught between theories of democratic freedom and the slide into fascism. This period, punctuated by the new excitement with freedom and decadence, encompasses the rise and strengthening as hints at the aftereffects of Hitler's Third Reich. Can be repeated with permission of instructor if content differs.

Poetry expresses more emotion and content in fewer words than any other kind of literature. German lyric across the ages conveys the essence of the culture and gives readers texts that will have both personal and cultural meanings throughout their lives. Can be repeated with permission of instructor if content differs.

An exploration of the world of storytelling in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This course investigates the phenomenon of narrative, its elements, techniques, and forms; its relation to other modes of discourse; its power and influence in cultures past and present. A variety of interpretive strategies include such activities as classroom storytelling, Nacherzählungen, interpretive presentations, skits and group discussions. Can be repeated with permission of instructor if content differs.

Romanticism began as a protest of German writers and scholars against the limits of the Enlightenment with its over-emphasis on reason. The Romantic strove to stretch beyond reason to embrace the irrational, the feared and the misunderstood. Seeking the unknown is still considered romantic today and thus is a force that ranges beyond any specific period of time. Nature, emotions and the infinite take on a central position. The mysterious, the miraculous and searching find expression in the works of these writers, musicians, artists, philosophers and scientists. Can be repeated with permission of instructor if content differs.

A course based on today's explosive debates and issues in German-speaking countries using up-to-date materials from the internet, German radio, television, film, and newspapers. This is a course for researching and debating controversies and listening to provocative news. Can be repeated with permission of instructor if content differs.

Taught in English, this course confronts the ethics of the wildly popular household and nursery tales. From their oral roots, through their textual anthologizing, to their use as Nazi propaganda, and their Hollywood adaptations, the tales have always depicted “good” and “evil.” This course draws on ethical writings from the Grimm Brothers’ age (Kant) and current work on literature and ethics (Peter and Renata Singer) to examine the ethics in the tales as well as in their uses. (Taught in English, can be taken for German credit.)

A more intensive exploration of a specific genre. The course may focus on a genre such as: The Novelle From Its Beginnings into Modernity; The Drama as Multivalent Text; The Essay as Medium for Social Change; New German Cinema and Political Revolt.

The reaction to the catastrophe of the Second World War and the systematic murder of innocent Jewish, Roma and Sinti, homosexual, so-called antisocial, and politically opposed people by the Nazi party, SA, SS, Gestapo, Wehrmacht, and their collaborators defines our contemporary situation. “After Auschwitz” (Theodor Adorno) is our epoch. The European Union, United Nations, Fulbright Commission, Marshall Fund, United States Holocaust Museum, International Criminal Court, and generations of scholarship and art aim to dampen the possible return of such an event. This course examines the filmic, poetic, and scholarly attempts to deal with the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. The focus is on the justice rubric from the Integrations Curriculum, which puts a focus on the legal side of extrajudicial Nazi crimes as well as their prosecution. Taught in English, ability to take in German.

In contemporary Germany, many of the most exciting voices in film, theater, criticism, and literature come from migrant and postmigrant artists and writers. Through the award-winning films of Fatih Akin, the groundbreaking postmigrant theater of the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and the Maxim Gorki Theater, and the bilingual writings of Yoko Tawada (Japanese and German), to name a few, this course analyzes the current political and social conditions in Germany. The stakes raised by these artists and the scholars of their work—Muttersprache (Özdamar), postmonolingualism (Yildiz), “The Turkish Turn” (Adelson)—are the stakes of our time. Drawing on the tradition of and reflection on cosmopolitan moral theory (Kant), world literature (Goethe), and minor literature (Kafka, Deleuze and Guattari), we will address the pressing issues at play when languages and borders are crossed. Prepare yourself for staggering beauty, rigorous critique, and to gain the tools for reading your contemporary world. Taught in German.

Around 1900 and across Central Europe, language reached a crisis point. Can our words adequately describe reality (Wittgenstein)? What might slips of the tongue and forgetting names have to do with the depths of the psyche (Freud)? What, actually, is language itself (Saussure)? Even more, what is a ‘sign’ or ‘symbol’? The study of signs generally (semiology) and the specific approaches to its study arose in linguistics, psychoanalysis, film theory, iconography, and the philosophy of language at that time. Artistic production across all fields—literature, architecture, music, dance, and the rise of film—changed dramatically to what we know as modernity. Critically engaging with these fascinating theories of signs and artistic artifacts allows us to interpret our media-saturated situation today and understand how we got here. Taught in German.

This course explores the long ‘green’ tradition in German culture which has led to Germany being recognized today as a worldwide leader in environmental movements thanks to the nuclear power phase-out, the renewable energy transition, and the rise of the green movement and the Green Party. Students will investigate the discourse of ecology and development of contemporary Germany’s environmental practices through its literary and cultural legacy by reading and analyzing texts from prominent writers and thinkers. We will uncover the interconnections between cultural history, policy, and technology and connect these literary and historic roots to contemporary environmental issues, consider successful protest movements, and explore Germany as a model for environmental initiatives and engaged citizenship around the globe.

The glittering skyline of New York, your university’s mission that promotes teaching and new research, the early innovations of Hollywood animation, and the theory of relativity all stem from innovative architects (Walter Grophius), education reformers (Wilhelm von Humboldt), filmmakers (Lotte Reininger), and scientists (Albert Einstein) who innovated in one city: Berlin, Germany. The metropolis of northern Germany’s university alone hosted Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Georg Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Max Weber. Add in the surrounding Wittenberg of Luther, Faust, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Immanuel Kant’s Königsberg and the forces of idealist philosophy, modern sociology, the Protestant work ethic at the heart of the spirit of capitalism as well as its critique too stem from this remarkable place. In short, much of one’s educational, economic, and political world today has been influenced by thinkers who have called northern Germany home. Today, Berlin is the largest city in the largest economy in Europe, is home to more artists per capita than any other European city and serves as Germany’s technology start-up hub. This course studies the essence of genius, innovation, and creativity practiced and theorized by the proper names listed above and its effect on our lives today. We will also study how the innovative freedom that Arendt associates with the human condition’s capacity for action found its absolute reduction by the National Socialists’ terror. Counts as: Human Experience, Experiential Engagement, Global Engagement, and Benedictine Raven in the Integrations Curriculum. Taught in English.

Supervised reading or research at the upper-division level. Permission of department chair and completion and/or concurrent registration of 12 credits within the department required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.

In contemporary Germany, many of the most exciting voices in film, theater, criticism, and literature come from migrant and postmigrant artists and writers. Through the award-winning films of Fatih Akin, the groundbreaking postmigrant theater of the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and the Maxim Gorki Theater, and the bilingual writings of Yoko Tawada (Japanese and German), to name a few, this course analyzes the current political and social conditions in Germany. The stakes raised by these artists and the scholars of their work—Muttersprache (Özdamar), postmonolingualism (Yildiz), “The Turkish Turn” (Adelson)—are the stakes of our time. Drawing on the tradition of and reflection on cosmopolitan moral theory (Kant), world literature (Goethe), and minor literature (Kafka, Deleuze and Guattari), we will address the pressing issues at play when languages and borders are crossed. Prepare yourself for staggering beauty, rigorous critique, and to gain the tools for reading your contemporary world. Taught in German.

The epoch of the Enlightenment created new approaches to truth through philosophy, the sciences, and the arts. In this course, we examine the groundbreaking works of this period that promote tolerance, peace, and human rights. Prerequisite: GERM 212. For Integrations Curriculum Truth Thematic Focus credit, prerequisites include: Learning Foundations, CSD:I, and Theological Explorations. Offered as needed. Can be repeated with permission of instructor if content differs. Taught in German.

Completed Application for Internship Form REQUIRED. See Internship Office Web Page.

All majors must present a senior project in a public forum. In consultation with a faculty advisor, students choose a project appropriate to their previous course of study and/or their individual goals.