German Studies Program

GER 20B: Continuing German

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Four class hours per week.

Continuation of comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German, with an emphasis on basic grammar concepts. Special attention is paid to the development of speaking skills in the context of cultural topics of the German-speaking countries. Extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises supplement this course.

GER 102B: Küche, kochen, Kuchen: Advanced German Grammar, Pronunciation, and Baking

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Sabine von Mering

Prerequisite: GER 30a.

Designed in response to student demand, includes weekly pronunciation sessions focused on tough sounds like 'e', 'l', 'r', 'ü', or 'ch' are combined with grammar review and bi-weekly baking sessions.

GER 103A: German Culture Through Film

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Prerequisite: GER 30a.

Approaches an understanding of contemporary German culture through film by focusing on one of the most fascinating and turbulent of national cinemas. Landmark films from the 1920s to the present and pertinent essays, articles and studies will provide a historical perspective on decisive social and cultural phenomena. Major themes include Vergangenheitsbewältigung, multi-ethnic societies, terrorism, life in the GDR, and cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century. Students learn also about the technical side of filmmaking and produce their own short film under professional guidance.

GECS 130B: The Princess and the Golem: Fairy Tales

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Conducted in English.

Compares Walt Disney's films with German and other European fairy tales from the nineteenth and twentieth century, focusing on feminist and psychoanalytic readings.

 CROSSLISTED COURSES

COML 100A: Introduction to Global Literature

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor David Powelstock

COML 120A: Disordered Loves and Howling Passion: European Romanticism

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Steve Dowden

ECS 100B: European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Making of European Modernity,  1250 to 1650

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Michael Randall

HIST 137B: World War I

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Paul Jankowski

NEJS 37A: The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Laura Jockusch

PHIL 168A: Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Kate Moran

POL 189A: Marx, Nietzsche, and Twentieth-Century Radicalism

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Bernard Yack

THA 146A: Theater and the Holocaust

Spring 2023 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person.

Professor Dmitry Troyanovsky

GER 10A: Beginning German

Fall 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Four class hours per week.

Intended for students with little or no previous knowledge of German. Emphasis is placed on comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German and the presentation of basic grammar. Class work is enhanced by various interactive classroom activities and is supplemented by extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises.

GER 30A: Intermediate German

Fall 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Heidi Singh

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GER 20b or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.

In concluding the development of the four language speaking skills--comprehending, writing, reading, and speaking--this course focuses on finishing up the solid grammar foundation that was laid in GER 10a and GER 20b. It also presents additional audio and video material, films, radio plays, and newspaper and magazine articles, as well as a variety of extensive interactive classroom activities.

GER 106B: Migration, Kultur, Synergie

Fall 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GER 30a or the equivalent. 

Investigates the experience of refugees and immigrants in present-day Germany and discusses processes of social transformation. Through fictional and non-fictional texts and film, we gain an understanding of their cultural, economic, political and artistic contributions and of cross-cultural collaborations. Usually offered every second year. 

CROSSLISTED COURSES

ECS 100A: European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism

Fall 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Steve Dowden

Explores the interrelationship of literature, music, painting, philosophy, and other arts in the era of high modernism. Works by Artaud, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Mann, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Schiele, Beckett, Brecht, Adorno, Sartre, Heidegger, and others.

GER 20B: Continuing German

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Four class hours per week.

Continuation of comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German. Special attention is paid to the development of speaking skills in the context of cultural topics of the German-speaking countries. Extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises supplement this course.

GER 103A: German Culture Through Film

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Approaches an understanding of contemporary German culture through film by focusing on one of the most fascinating and turbulent of national cinemas. Landmark films from the 1920s to the present and pertinent essays, articles and studies will provide a historical perspective on decisive social and cultural phenomena.
Major themes include Vergangenheitsbewältigung, multi-ethnic societies, terrorism, life in the GDR, and cultural trends at the beginning of the 21st century. Students learn also about the technical side of filmmaking and produce their own short film under professional guidance.

GECS 182A: Kafka - Novels, Stories, Aphorisms

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Steve Dowden

A detailed exploration of Kafka's works, life, and thought. Emphasis is given to his place in the larger scheme of literary modernism.

CROSSLISTED COURSES

COML 100A: Introduction to Global Literature

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor David Powelstock

COML 116B: Nietzsche: An Introduction

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Steve Dowden

HIST 126A: Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Govind Sreenivasan

NEJS 181B: Film and the Holocaust

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person

Professor Sharon Rivo

PHIL 167A: Hegel - Self-Consciousness and Freedom in the Phenomenology of Spirit

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Eugene Sheppard

PHIL 179A - God, Man, and World: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Jerry Samet

POL 189A: Marx, Nietzsche, and Twentieth-Century Radicalism

Spring 2022 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Bernard Yack

GER 10A: Beginning German

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Four class hours per week.

Intended for students with little or no previous knowledge of German. Emphasis is placed on comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German and the presentation of basic grammar. Class work is enhanced by various interactive classroom activities and is supplemented by extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises.

GER 30A: Intermediate German

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Sabine von Mering

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GER 20b or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.

In concluding the development of the four language speaking skills--comprehending, writing, reading, and speaking--this course focuses on finishing up the solid grammar foundation that was laid in GER 10a and GER 20b. It also presents additional audio and video material, films, radio plays, and newspaper and magazine articles, as well as a variety of extensive interactive classroom activities.

GER 105B: Survey of German Literature from Its Beginnings to the Present

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kathrin Breuer

Conducted in German.

Prerequisite: GER 30a.

Examines the relationship between individual and their society throughout history on the basis of fictional and nonfictional German texts (poetry, philosophical texts, short prose, and plays), films and artifacts (photographs, paintings, monuments, coins and tools). While this course focuses on the work of German-language writers, it offers also insights into German social history and the socio-political changes accompanying the transformation of a medieval God-given society into a multi-ethnic society of the 20th and 21st century.

GECS 188B: Human/Nature: European Perspectives on Climate Change

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Sabine von Mering

Open to all students.

Introduces European attitudes towards climate change as reflected in policy, literature, film, and art, with a focus on workable future-oriented alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism.

CROSSLISTED COURSES

ECS 100A: European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Steve Dowden

Explores the interrelationship of literature, music, painting, philosophy, and other arts in the era of high modernism. Works by Artaud, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Mann, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Schiele, Beckett, Brecht, Adorno, Sartre, Heidegger, and others.

HIST 123B: Reformation Europe (1400-1600)

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Govind Sreenivasan

PHIL 107B: Kant's Moral Theory

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor Kate Moran

PHIL 182A: Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

Fall 2021 Mode: Instruction for this course will be offered in-person. 

Professor William Flesch

Fall 2020 Information: Course will be offered remotely with optional in-person group meetings.

Professor Eva Heinrich

Four class hours per week.

Intended for students with little or no previous knowledge of German. Emphasis is placed on comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German and the presentation of basic grammar. Class work is enhanced by various interactive classroom activities and is supplemented by extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises. Usually offered every year in the fall.

The course is scheduled to meet four times per week, but students will not meet for the full 90 minutes each day. Every class session will last 50-60 minutes. Your instructor will let you know how the time within the 90-minute block will be used. You should plan the entire 90-minutes blocked off on your schedule even though you’ll only be in class (remote or in person) for 50-60 minutes. Please contact your instructor directly with scheduling conflicts and requests.

Fall 2020 Information: Course will be offered in hybrid mode.

Professor Sabine von Mering

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GER 20b or the equivalent. 

In concluding the development of the four language speaking skills--comprehending, writing, reading, and speaking--this course focuses on finishing up the solid grammar foundation that was laid in GER 10a and GER 20b. It also presents additional audio and video material, films, radio plays, and newspaper and magazine articles, as well as a variety of extensive interactive classroom activities. Usually offered every year in the fall.

Due to a high number of schedule conflicts, German 30 has switched to a new slot. It will now meet three times a week:  T, Th 10-11:30am and F 9-10am (four total class hours per week). 

Fall 2020 Information: Course will be offered in hybrid mode.

Professor Sabine von Mering

Prerequisite: GER 30a.

Investigates the experience of refugees and immigrants in present-day Germany and discusses processes of social transformation. Through fictional and non-fictional texts and film, we gain an understanding of their cultural, economic, political and artistic contributions and of cross-cultural collaborations. Usually offered every second year.