The German undergraduate major introduces students to a range of cultural phenomena in German-language contexts and from different historical periods. Our majors learn about literature, film, migration, philosophy, and history, within the structure of a humanistic discipline and with an emphasis on critical thinking, writing, and analysis. Many German majors and minors pursue opportunities to study abroad; and a substantial proportion of our majors complete a second major in a STEM field.
Students are challenged to gain fluency in the German language, study major works of literature, film, and other forms of cultural production in their original language, and to venture abroad to German-speaking countries. The knowledge, experience, language fluency, and analytical skills acquired through the German major prepares our graduates to pursue careers in law, business, higher education, and public service; and our many STEM double-majors appreciate the German department’s smaller courses and tightly knit community, along with the opportunities our major affords to pursue international goals in German-speaking countries after graduation.
If students choose to major or double major in German at Berkeley, they will enjoy opportunities to take small-group seminars taught by world-class professors and highly qualified graduate student instructors.
Declaring the Major
To declare the German major, please contact the Department of German. For details regarding the prerequisites, please see the Major Requirements tab on this page.
For students transferring from another institution, see Nadia Samadi, the Undergraduate Academic Advisor.
Honors Program
Students with at least a 3.5 GPA in all upper division courses taken to fulfill the requirements of the major and a 3.3. GPA overall are eligible for admission into the honors program. Candidates for honors in German need to apply to the undergraduate faculty adviser for admission into this program, ideally early in the fall semester of their senior year.
Students in the honors program are required to complete satisfactorily, within their senior year, an honors thesis under faculty supervision. The paper, consisting of 35 pages or more, may grow out of any upper division course, independent study, or directed research and is evaluated with a letter grade. It is the responsibility of the student to ask a faculty member to supervise the thesis. Normally thesis work is spread over two semesters. For the first semester, the student should enroll in GERMAN 199: Supervised independent study with their thesis director (2 units; Pass/Fail). In the second semester, while writing the thesis, the student enrolls in GERMAN H196 (4 units with letter grade). If the work is to be completed in one semester, the student may enroll in H196 for 4 units. This requires the approval of the supervising faculty and the honors committee. The student is required to attend three workshops at the beginning of the fall semester. Honors students are also expected to present their research in a series of undergraduate research colloquia during the semester for feedback on work in progress. For information regarding these workshops and colloquia, please see the German Department's website.
Those who have completed the program will graduate with honors (3.65) high honors (3.75), or highest honors (3.85) in the major depending upon their final GPA in all upper division courses taken to fulfill the major requirements. The grade of the honors thesis is added to the GPA for this purpose. The decision to award high or highest honors rests with the departmental honors committee.
To enroll in the German Honors Program and obtain an application, please contact Nadia Samadi.
Minor Program
The Department of German offers an undergraduate minor in German. For details regarding minor requirements, please see the Minor Requirements tab on this page.
In addition to the University, campus, and college requirements, listed on the College Requirements tab, students must fulfill the below requirements specific to their major program.
General Guidelines
German 4 and all upper division courses (32 units), must be taken for letter grade in order to fulfill the major requirements below.
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor program.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper and lower division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.
For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.
Advanced German: Conversation, Composition and Style
4
Select two additional upper division German courses (taught in German)1
Select 6 upper division electives to reach 32 units of which only one course can be from another department but related to German studies or Europe1
1
Courses must be taken in the literature and culture of at least two different centuries; consult the major advisor or undergraduate student affairs officer when in doubt about this requirement.
Minor Requirements
Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements.
General Guidelines
All minors must be declared before the first day of classes in your Expected Graduation Term (EGT). For summer graduates, minors must be declared prior to the first day of Summer Session A.
All upper-division courses must be taken for a letter grade.
A minimum of three of the upper-division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required in the upper-division courses to fulfill the minor requirements.
Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which the student plans to graduate. If students cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, they should see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)
Advanced German: Conversation, Composition and Style
3
Select one of the following options:
Three upper division German courses (texts in English or German)
Two upper division German course (texts in English or German) and one affiliated upper division course from outside the department, related to German studies or Europe
You must declare your minor no later than the semester before your Expected Graduation Term (EGT) and, if the semester before EGT is fall or spring, the deadline is the last day of RRR week. If the semester before EGT is summer, the deadline is the final Friday of Summer Sessions. To declare a minor, contact the Undergraduate Advisor, Nadia Samadi.
College Requirements
Undergraduate students must fulfill the following requirements in addition to those required by their major program.
For a detailed lists of L&S requirements, please see Overview tab to the right in this guide or visit the L&S Degree Requirements webpage. For College advising appointments, please visit the L&S Advising Pages.
All students who will enter the University of California as freshmen must demonstrate their command of the English language by fulfilling the Entry Level Writing requirement. Fulfillment of this requirement is also a prerequisite to enrollment in all reading and composition courses at UC Berkeley and must be taken for a letter grade.
The American History and American Institutions requirements are based on the principle that all U.S. residents who have graduated from an American university should have an understanding of the history and governmental institutions of the United States.
All undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass this campus requirement course in order to graduate. The requirement offers an exciting intellectual environment centered on the study of race, ethnicity and culture of the United States. AC courses are plentiful and offer students opportunities to be part of research-led, highly accomplished teaching environments, grappling with the complexity of American Culture.
College of Letters & Science Essential Skills Requirements
The Quantitative Reasoning requirement is designed to ensure that students graduate with basic understanding and competency in math, statistics, or computer/data science. The requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course taken for a letter grade.
The Foreign Language requirement may be satisfied by demonstrating proficiency in reading comprehension, writing, and conversation in a foreign language equivalent to the second semester college level, either by passing an exam or by completing approved course work taken for a letter grade.
In order to provide a solid foundation in reading, writing, and critical thinking the College of Letters and Science requires two semesters of lower division work in composition in sequence. Students must complete parts A & B reading and composition courses in sequential order by the end of their fourth semester for a letter grade.
College of Letters & Science 7 Course Breadth Requirements
The undergraduate breadth requirements provide Berkeley students with a rich and varied educational experience outside of their major program. As the foundation of a liberal arts education, breadth courses give students a view into the intellectual life of the University while introducing them to a multitude of perspectives and approaches to research and scholarship. Engaging students in new disciplines and with peers from other majors, the breadth experience strengthens interdisciplinary connections and context that prepares Berkeley graduates to understand and solve the complex issues of their day.
Unit Requirements
120 total units
Of the 120 units, 36 must be upper division units
Of the 36 upper division units, 6 must be taken in courses offered outside your major department
Residence Requirements
For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus as a student in the College of Letters & Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement by attending classes at Cal for four years, or two years for transfer students. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you graduate early, go abroad for a semester or year, or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet an L&S College adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.
Note: Courses taken through UC Extension do not count toward residence.
Senior Residence Requirement
After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your B.A. degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 6 passed units. Intercampus Visitor, EAP, and UC Berkeley-Washington Program (UCDC) units are excluded.
You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the Senior Residence requirement, provided that you successfully complete 6 units of course work in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the college.
Modified Senior Residence Requirement
Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP), Berkeley Summer Abroad, or the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC) may meet a Modified Senior Residence requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.
Upper Division Residence Requirement
You must complete in residence a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses (excluding UCEAP units), 12 of which must satisfy the requirements for your major.
Student Learning Goals
Mission
The Bachelor’s Degree Program offers a comprehensive education in German Studies. The department’s course offerings and its curriculum cover a wide range of fields ranging from language, literature, and linguistics, to history, philosophy, psychology, film, and media. The courses offered are intended to provide students with the ability to interpret linguistic, literary, and cultural phenomena in their social, historical and discourse dimensions, taking into account the multilingual environments and the global cultures in which German plays a role today. Based on the requirements and in close contact with their advisers, students choose a combination of courses after or while completing the basic language and core introductory courses. While these courses serve the intellectual advancement and training in specialized areas, they also serve the improvement of basic skills in critical analysis and evaluation, argument development, and written and oral communication.
Learning Goals for the Major
The undergraduate program provides students with the knowledge, experience, language fluency, and analytical skills necessary to enter the academic and the professional world. Students learn in both written and oral form to identify, present, and construct arguments about different types of discourses, major cultural and historical forms and movements, the work of important authors, and the history of ideas. Students learn to analyze and interpret texts, films and other German cultural artifacts from various historical periods and various social backgrounds. The gateway courses (GERMAN 100 and GERMAN 101) allows them to apply their knowledge of the language to the analysis and interpretation of spoken and written texts, images, and other media.
Upper level courses deepend student's understanding of language, language learning and language use, as well as of German literature, history, and culture, and further develop their ability to produce German spoken and written texts. Students choose their courses from a variety of offerings, and such choices reflect the specific interest and learning goals of the individual student within the framework of the departmental curriculum, e.g., history of Germanophone literature, intellectual or political history, media and film, multicultural Germany. Thus the department provides students with the possibility to acquire advanced knowledge and skills in a number of fields, e.g., literature from various historical periods, analysis of film, poetics, and translation.
Academic Opportunities
Study Abroad
Summer Language Courses at Free University Berlin (FUBiS)
Enjoy a unique opportunity to be immersed in the German language and culture and spend the summer in Berlin, the capital of Germany and a European metropolis. Choose between an intensive (5 days a week, 4.5 hours of instruction per day) or a semi-intensive format (3 days a week, 4.5 hours of instruction per day). Courses are offered at all levels (beginning, intermediate, advanced), and students will be individually placed at the appropriate level, depending on their background and a placement test.
The curriculum includes cultural excursions in Berlin and extracurricular programming (river cruise, visit of the Reichstag, movies). All language courses are taught by native speaking, experienced faculty, co-coordinated by UC Berkeley faculty. The courses are articulated with UC Berkeley German courses (G1-101) and students will earn between 4 and 7 ECTS credits (UC). Upon successful completion, students can continue their study at UC Berkeley’s next higher level.
For further information on this program, please see the program's website.
UC Education Abroad (UCEAP)
For further information regarding programs offered through UCEAP, please see the UCEAP website.
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) generously supports summer language courses, research projects and study abroad stays in Germany. For current scholarship and program information, please see the DAAD website.
Departmental Awards and Scholarships
Major Citation
The Departmental Citation for outstanding academic achievement in the German major is awarded annually to a graduating senior. The selection is made by the Undergraduate Affairs Committee.
Max Kade Summer Language Study Travel Fellowship
This award is given to undergraduate students who are either German majors or minors, or who are currently enrolled in courses offered by the German Department. The Max Kade Travel Fellowship ($1,200 each) will be awarded to support travel to Berlin for participation in a summer language course.
Major maps are experience maps that help undergraduates plan their Berkeley journey based on intended major or field of interest. Featuring student opportunities and resources from your college and department as well as across campus, each map includes curated suggestions for planning your studies, engaging outside the classroom, and pursuing your career goals in a timeline format.
Use the major map below to explore potential paths and design your own unique undergraduate experience:
The German Office of Undergraduate Advising with the assistance of the professional advising team provides students help with a range of issues including course selection, academic decision-making, achieving and academic goals, and maximizing the Berkeley experience.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
This introduction to the German language focuses on the development of basic communicative competencies (spoken and written) while sensitizing students to the links between language and culture. Students will be able to understand and use high frequency vocabulary and basic grammatical structures and engage with a broad variety of texts from various genres, including poetry, news reports, songs, and the visual arts. Elementary German 1: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: German 1 is intended for students who have not previously taken courses in German
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 5 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 12 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 10 weeks - 15 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2008, Spring 2008
Students review and continue to develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language while being sensitized to the links between language and culture. This course covers the same material as 1 in a condensed way and at an accelerated speed. Upon completion of this course, students will qualify for enrollment in 2. Accelerated Elementary German: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Prior exposure to German equivalent to one year of high school German
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for 1E after taking 1.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
This German language course continues the development of basic communicative competencies (spoken and written) while sensitizing students to the links between language and culture. Students will be able to understand and use high frequency vocabulary and basic grammatical structures and engage with a broad variety of texts from various genres, including poetry, news reports, songs, and the visual arts.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Embedded in the context of German-speaking regions, their history and culture, this course focuses on the development of communicative competencies (spoken and written), the expansion of vocabulary, and the review and practice of grammatical structures. Students will be guided towards more creative and analytical expression by engaging with texts from a variety of genres such as poetry, drama, news features, and the visual arts.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Embedded in the context of German-speaking regions, their history and culture, this course continues the development of communicative competencies (spoken and written), the expansion of vocabulary, and the review and practice of grammatical structures. Students will further practice creative and analytical expression by engaging with texts from a variety of genres such as poetry, short stories, essays, and the visual arts.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course offers a survey of modern German literary, cultural, and intellectual currents, as well as an introduction to argumentation and analysis. Students will examine numerous issues and questions central to defining the complexity of modern German culture. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half. Reading and Composition: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for GERMAN R5A after passing GERMAN 5A.
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
This course offers a survey of modern German literary, cultural, and intellectual currents, as well as an introduction to argumentation and analysis. Students will examine numerous issues and questions central to defining the complexity of modern German culture. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half. Reading and Composition: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for GERMAN R5B after passing GERMAN 5B.
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2014
An introductory level exploration of a group of authors, works, themes, or literary movements from the history of German literature in a European context. Based on close readings of texts students will discuss ways in which literature has played (and continues to play) a crucial role in the relationship between different cultures, traditions, and languages. Readings and topics to vary from semester to semester. German Literature in a European Context: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2021
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics may vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen. Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2020
We will explore the ways in which Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud--three of the most important thinkers in modern Western thought--can be read as responding to the Enlightenment and its notions of reason and progress. We will consider how each remakes a scientific understanding of truth, knowledge, and subjectivity, such that rationality, logic, and the powers of human cognition are shown to be distorted, limited, and subject to forces outside our individual control. All lectures and readings in English. Revolutionary Thinking: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2008, Fall 2003
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshmen/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Reading and viewing attentively; thinking critically about the performance of social roles; reflecting on limits and possibilities of political intervention; unpacking multimedia configurations, esp. interplay between literature and audiovisual media; conducting research, situating texts in context; looking at the past through the lens of the present and the future through the lens of the past; writing analytically, building an argument based on evidence, interpretation, and reflection; articulating your own take on the topic and defining a project; discussing and presenting your ideas as a team.
Student Learning Outcomes: Students will learn to think critically about rank and power, authenticity and artifice, staging and acting.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Fall 2024
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2013
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2019
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman and Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2016
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshmen and Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: No knowledge of German required
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Fall 2019
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman and Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Introduces students to the German idea of Bildung and examines it in contemporary literature and film.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman and Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2024
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for GERMAN C39Z after completing ISF 39A. A deficient grade in GERMAN C39Z may be removed by taking ISF 39A.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2009, Spring 2009
Advanced German conversation course that includes discussions, debates, individual presentations, and one or two in-class movies in German. Most materials will be provided by the instructor but students will also be asked to use their own resources from printed or online media. Regular vocabulary quizzes will be part of the course grade. Taught in German. German Conversation: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 4 or equivalent
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2007 Second 6 Week Session
Students will explore historical and contemporary aspects of German culture through readings, discussions, guided excursions in Berlin and Weimar, and individual research projects. The course will engage students to develop a deeper understanding of the specific ways in which cultural issues are respected and reflected in the German language, which they study concurrently. Topics include multiculturalism and minority experience; Berlin as divided city and capital; city planning and public discourse, past and present in German architecture; Berlin in popular literature, film, and theatre; the art scene in Berlin; and the Weimar classical period. Taught in German and English. Exploring German Culture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Concurrent enrollment in 1, 2, 3, or 4 in Berlin Summer Program
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 1 hour of session per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021
How do we know what the “moral” of a story is? We will focus on three biblical narratives that have frequently been interpreted as teaching moral lessons: the story of Job, the story of Abraham and the binding of Isaac, and the story of Moses giving the law. These stories have been interpreted variously in moral terms--e.g. as demonstrating the virtues of faith, obedience, mercy, and forgiveness, and as teaching us about guilt, punishment, reward, and human frailty. They have also been analyzed as existential parables, psychological dramas, and political allegories. The goal of this class is to examine how a range of different, and often provocative, interpretations of these stories’ moral lessons rest on particular ways of reading. Moral Provocations: Job, Abraham, Moses: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2011
What or who decides whether something is beautiful or not? What purpose do beauty and art serve? Where do originality, genius, and inspiration come from? What do art and beauty have to do with freedom and human progress? We will examine primarily western European and North American approaches to beauty as presented in works of philosophy, literary theory, and theories of art and aesthetics, exploring key theoretical questions as they evolve among several intellectual arenas over many centuries. What is Beauty?: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Group study of selected topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Topics may be initiated by students under the sponsorship and direction of a member of the German Department's faculty. Directed Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The course is intended to acquaint students with selected works from German cultural history and to familiarize them with various methods of interpretation and analysis. Required of all German majors. Introduction to Reading Culture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Knowledge of German required
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Focusing on genres, this advanced level language course will help students to improve and expand on spoken and written language functions utilizing a variety of works from literature, journalism, broadcasting, fine arts and the cinema. The final goal is to enable students to participate in the academic discourse - written and spoken - at a linguistic and stylistic level appropriate for an advanced student of German in upper division courses.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The analysis, discussion, adaptation and public performance of authentic texts from German Kabarett (i.e., comedic skits, political and social satire, parody, humorous poetry, etc.) will advance students’ language and interpersonal skills, while providing unique access to a significant dimension of German popular culture. Additional emphasis is put on aspects and practice of creative writing and German pronunciation and enunciation.
Prerequisites: 4 semesters of college-level German or equivalent
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternate method of final assessment during regularly scheduled final exam group (e.g., presentation, final project, etc.).
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Focusing on popular culture in German speaking countries, this advanced level language course will help students to improve and expand on spoken and written language functions utilizing a variety of works from different genres in journalism, broadcasting, literature, fine arts, music, and the cinema. Readings, screenings, discussion, and writing assignments will advance students' language skills and further develop their communicative competencies in German at a linguistic and stylistic level appropriate for an advanced student. Advanced Language Practice: Popular Culture in Germany: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the major subfields of linguistics as they apply to the German language. It also serves as the gateway course for the further study of German linguistics at the undergraduate level. The first part of the course will focus on the synchronic description of contemporary German. The second part of the course will concern itself with variation in German. There are no prerequisties for this class and no prior experience with linguistics is presupposed. However, an advanced knowledge of German (at least German 4 level) is expected. Introduction to German Linguistics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2005, Fall 1999
This course is intended for students who wish to improve their skills in reading, speaking, and writing German. We will work with texts that were particularly influential in Germany during the first decades of the 20th century, regardless of when they were written. Segments of philosophical writings (Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, literary works (George, Rilke, Th. Mann) but also texts by scientists and journalists will be analyzed. Participants are expected to prepare several oral presentations and approximately one written assignment per week. No midterm or final examination. Senior Colloquium: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 102 or consent of instructor. Returnees from EAP Goettingen welcome
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2018
Students will learn the fundamentals of Middle High German grammar and will read selections from major narrative works of the High Middle Ages. Selections from major works from the 13th century. Middle High German for Undergraduates: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Knowledge of modern German required
Credit Restrictions: Open to graduate students when 203 is not offered.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2010, Spring 2009, Fall 2002
Exploration of the role that literature can play in the acquisition of literacy in a first and second language. Linguistic and psycholinguistic issues: orality and literacy, discourse text, schema theory, and reading research. Literary issues: stylistics and critical reading, reader response, structure of narratives. Educational issues: the literary text in the social context of its production and reception by intended and non-intended readers. Literacy through Literature: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2018 8 Week Session, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
This course is designed to prepare graduate students for translation/reading exams in German. Students who do not need to pass such an exam, but who wish to improve their reading and translation skills in academic German, are also welcome. German for Reading Knowledge: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: One year of college level German, or equivalent
Hours & Format
Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
This course introduces students to the problems of literary translation from German to English. Literary Translation: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Two upper division courses in German literature
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A compact seminar designed to feature distinguished short-term visitors from Austrian universities who have expertise in Austrian literature, politics, and culture to teach topics that complement regular departmental offerings. One short paper is required. Taught in English or in German. Compact Seminar in Austrian Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: When course is taught in German, students need to be fluent
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 5 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Introduction in modern German or English translation to major literary monuments of the Hohenstaufen period. Intended for undergraduates with no knowledge of Middle High German. The Literature of the Middle Ages: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2021
This capstone project is designed to allow students to “finish off” their German majors in such a way as to return to, develop, and synthesize what they have learned in the major. In close contact with the faculty members of their choice, students will expand upon and revise a seminar paper from one of their German classes. This is not an Honors Thesis, which requires students to develop an independent project and engage in solo research in order to produce an original 30-page paper. Capstone Project: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: The capstone encourages students to perfect a piece of their own academic writing, incorporate insights gathered in other courses and in discussion with faculty and other students, and reflect upon the ways that the German major has benefited them in their education.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Must be a declared German major and successfully completed German 100 and German 101 with a "C" grade or better
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2007, Spring 2003
The course will focus on examples of mystical thought from the traditions of Christian and Jewish mysticism since the Middle Ages. In addition to the introduction of the students to basic texts and concepts we will discuss the effects of mystical thought on art and literature from the Middle Ages up to today. Western Mysticism: Religion, Art, and Literature: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025
This course explores the profound impact of large language models (LLMs) on our understanding of language, meaning, and literary works. As AI systems like ChatGPT increasingly influence writing, translation, and communication, we will ask what becomes of language when it is computed by intelligent machines. Students will engage with philosophical theories of meaning, the intersection of AI with poetry and literature, and the ethical and technical challenges in the field of machine translation. By blending readings from philosophy, literary theory, and technical discussions of AI, this course bridges the gap between the humanities and computer science, offering a unique perspective on language after language models. Language after Language Models Meaning, Poetry, Translation in the Age of AI: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This undergraduate seminar offers an introduction to literary theory, mainly but not exclusively in the German tradition. We will examine a variety of theoretical approaches including reception theory, psychoanalysis, memory studies, trauma theory, feminist theory, queer theory, New Historicism, translation, and deconstruction; and with respect to drama, poetry and the novel. Formal analysis will be emphasized. German Literary Theory: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
The social, political, and historical background to German literature since the French Revolution. From 1800 to the Present: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Knowledge of German required
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2021
In the light of recent calls to “decolonize the university,” this course will stimulate
students to question assumptions about collective identities by thinking comparatively
across space and time, considering the role that migration has played in the cultural
formation of societies. Enduring structures of racial hierarchy that underpin social
organization and representation will be at the center of critical analysis. Focusing both on
movement and entrapment, the materials and the pedagogical approaches employed
will activate students to examine political rhetoric and policies regulating human
mobility through the lens of creative interventions from literature, cinema, video, and
music. Cultures of Migration: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: This course will enable students to…
… read and view digital and analog sources attentively, analytically, and critically,
… conduct research, situate texts in context, read in constellations, and
considering the bigger picture of social and cultural change over time,
… analyze the social implications of framing, perspective, performance and
audience engagement in fiction and non-fiction,
… develop an argument in writing, based on evidence and reasoning,
… operate in a multimedia environment and prepare a presentation for online,
publication (video, slideshow, blog post, podcast),
… reflect on limits and possibilities of humanitarian empathy, participation, and
intervention.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2010
This course introduces students to the masterpieces of German drama and opera from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. German Drama and Opera: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2008, Fall 2004
Representative texts from 18th- to 21st-century German poetry will be studied closely. Methodological questions regarding the interpretation of poetry in general will also be discussed. Eighteenth- to 21st-Century German Poetry: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Knowledge of German required
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Introduction to philosophical, ideological, and aesthetic trends from the turn of the 20th century. Some of the most influential and thought-provoking literary works of the wider 20th century will be among our readings, including texts Sigmund Freud, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Else Lasker-Schüler, Thomas Mann, Anna Seghers, Paul Celan, and others. In light of these texts, we will explore questions of modernist style, gender and desire, and the events and consequences of National Socialism. Readings in German. Lectures in German and English. Discussions and course work in English and/or German. Modern Literature: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2017, Spring 2015
One of the most significant and thought-provoking 20th century writers, Franz Kafka created works and fragments that continue to puzzle, inspire, deprogram, and transform their readers. We will explore Kafka’s writings in their literary qualities, their multifaceted cultural range, and their religious dimensions. Kafka: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2020, Fall 2018
This course examines the effects of the digital age on literature. Emphasis will be on themes, poetics, and media of digital writing; as well as on shifting notions of the literary itself. Topics include forms of microblogging such as Twitter and Instagram; aesthetic experimentation and/on social media; notions of digital authorship; practices of reading and viewing; literary scholarship and digital media. Readings, discussions, and coursework in German. Literature in the Digital Age: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2017, Fall 2014
Introduction to the intellectual history of Germany from the age of the Reformation to the period of Idealism. We will focus on three major thinkers--Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, and G.W.F. Hegel--on key issues in their thought, and on the reception and discussion of some of these issues in 20th century theory. Lectures and readings in English. Luther, Kant, Hegel: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2009, Fall 2007
The aim of the course is to explore the central theoretical and philosophical premises of three of the most influential thinkers in the German-speaking world and to examine in detail several works in which problems of history, ideology, values, and methodology are considered. Lecture and readings in English. Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Fall 2011
This course is an introduction to the work of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. We will begin with an investigation into Heidegger's conceptualiztions of language, time, and human dwelling. We will then move to an examination of Arendt's political philosophy, including her focus on the public/private distinction. Taught in English. Heidegger and Arendt: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course examines the writings of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, a major branch of western Marxism. Focusing on confrontations with modernity, the lectures will deal with three seminal thinkers: Walter Benjamin, known for his genial insights into the culture of modernism; Theodor Adorno, the versatile philosopher and aesthetic theorist of the avant garde; and Jurgen Habermas, the most influential German intellectual after World War II. Adorno, Benjamin, Habermas: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024
The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, is back with a vengeance. This seminar examines issues raised by Freud and their implications for understanding human culture. Topics include: dreams and the unconscious, gender and sexuality, death and loss, religion and group psychology, and war and peaceful community. Class discussions will be devoted to Freud’s major writings along with texts by his interlocutors, successors, and critics such as Josef Breuer, Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan, Frantz Fanon, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Edward Said, and Jacqueline Rose.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
The story of Germany in the 20th century is a dramatic one, comprising two world wars, genocide, Allied occupation, a division into two states on opposing sides of the Cold War, and recently an unexpected unification. This course offers an introduction to the history and culture of contemporary Germany. It aims at a systematic account of German history in the 20th century, and it intends to provide a better understanding of today's German culture and politics. In addition to following a chronological approach, we will frequently stop to explore issues that are crucial to providing insights into current developments. Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: A Century of Extremes: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
This course will focus on the theory and practice of propaganda during the 12 years of the Third Reich. It takes a close look at the ideology the Nazis tried to transmit, the techniques, organization, and effectiveness of their propaganda. Challenging the idea of the total power of propaganda, it looks for the limits of persuasion and possible other reasons for which Germans might have decided to follow Hitler. Sources will include the press, radio, film, photography, political posters, and a few literary works of the time. Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: Fascism and Propaganda: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2021, Fall 2020
This course offers an introduction to the history and culture of divided Germany in the era of the Cold War. It will look at the different ways the two states dealt with the country's pre-1945 history, the relations to the Allied Powers, and the major cultural shifts which eventually created a watershed in the history of German mentalities. We will look at various kinds of sources, including literature and film. Major national debates will be touched upon, such as breaks and continuities within the national elites, re-armament and pacifism, the student movement, opposition and conformity under Socialism, and the rise of environmentalism. We will also discuss the problems and opportunities of re-unification. A Divided Nation: Politics and Culture in Germany 1945-1990: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2012
This course will deal with the culture and politics of minorities in contemporary Germany. We will discuss how ethnic identities are perceived, constructed, and marketed. We also engage critically with such concepts as migration, assimilation, citizenship, diaspora, hybridity, and authenticity, as well as rhetorical strategies of "speaking back." We will focus on exemplary texts and films from Germany, but include comparisons with minority experiences in other countries. Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: Multicultural Germany: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
“Meditate that this came about: I command these words to you,” writes the Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi. Taking seriously Levi’s dictum, this comparative course explores the ways in which the Holocaust has been represented in different media, including literature, film, and televisual narratives. To explore the political, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of remembering the Nazi genocide, the course engages with a wide range of both documentary and fictional genres, such as diaries, memoirs, lyric poetry, novels, home videos and feature films. Emphasis will be both on formal features and medial possibilities of representing the Shoah and their historical evolution since the end of World War II. Holocaust: Media, Memory, Representation: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2021
This seminar introduces self narratives of Holocaust survivors as historical sources. The course will start with central events between 1933 and 1945 and historical narratives of the Holocaust. We will interpret and discuss secondary and primary sources including diaries, letters, memoirs, autobiographies and images. The course will in particular take age and gender into account and will also focus on the intergenerational transmission of memory. Three field trips (two virtual field trips, one in-person field trip in Berkeley) will introduce students to central archival resources. Holocaust and Memory: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: What are special features of self narratives as historical sources? How do we interpret and analyze texts and images which are so profoundly shaped by experience, subjectivity, memory and trauma? How do we grapple with faked autobiographies and respond to Holocaust denial? Today a minority of first generation survivors is still alive: how can their voices be preserved? What is the impact of the intergenerational transmission of memory? What features representations of the second and third generation?
Student Learning Outcomes: This course will enable students to…
•
read and view digital and analog sources attentively, analytically, and critically,
•
reflect on features, limits and possibilities of self narratives as historical sources,
•
operate in a multimedia environment (texts, graphic novels, photos, videos and short films),
•
Identify different kinds of historical evidence and understand their role in the production of historical knowledge,
•
conduct research, situate texts in context, read in constellations, and considering the bigger picture of social and cultural change after 1945,
•
develop an argument in writing, based on evidence and reasoning,
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2016, Fall 2013
The history of Germany's first parliamentary democracy is a dramatic one, dominated by economic woes, political violence, and a general perception of crisis and decline. The ill-fated republic bore the burden of a devastating war and suffered from an increasing lack of popular support. Democratic procedures were constantly undermined by radical and reactionary forces. Cultural pessimism was nurtured by the overwhelming experience of historical contingency, i.e., a fundamental lack of confidence in the predictability of modern life. The Weimar Republic: Politics and Culture in Germany 1918-1933: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2014
This course reflects on European cultures from a transnational perspective. It will explore tensions between traditional identity concepts based on the nation state model and other ways to define identity based on border crossings and intercultural connections. Special attention will be paid to Europe's multilingualism and its colonial legacy in the form of migration, diaspora, hybridity, and other social phenomena that challenge traditional boarders between cultures, languages, and people. We will discuss exemplary texts and films from German-speaking areas in Europe and beyond. The course syllabus will vary depending on the regional and thematic emphasis. All reading and discussion will be in English. European Cultures: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2021
What is the purpose of education? Should the university prepare students for the job market or emphasize the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake? Is knowledge a value in itself? This course explores these questions, among others, while concentrating on the German idea of Bildung. It introduces students to the classical idea of education and self-formation by reading a wide range of texts from German philosophy, intellectual history, and literature. Furthermore, the course traces the history of this idea by exploring how Bildung informs contemporary literary works and film. Emphasis will be on issues of class, race, and gender. Ideas of Education: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2008, Fall 2007
Designed for undergraduate and graduate students interested in the history of the language of the newly united Germanys, which transverses a rich linguistic legacy from the , through Luther and Grimm, to Grass and . Discussion, via linguistic principles, of language processes in the genetic development of the German language, as well as its interchange over time with closely and remotely related languages such as English and Russian. History of the German Language: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2014, Fall 2013
This course examines geographical and social variation within the German language. Among other things we will consider the differences between language and dialect, the division of German dialects and the history of German dialect study, various linguistic features (phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical) characteristic of the major German dialect areas, and issues involving the use of dialect versus standard language in contemporary society. Besides regular readings and written assignments, grades will be based on active participation and a paper or exam. German Dialects: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2013, Spring 2011
A course designed for undergraduates and graduates on the structure of modern German covering the fundamentals of German phonetics and phonology, with comparison to English. Some discussion of German dialect phonology. The Phonetics and Phonology of Modern German: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for 173 after taking 103 before Spring 2002.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2012
A course designed for undergraduates and graduates on the grammatical structure of modern German covering the fundamentals of German morphology, syntax and semantics, with comparison to English. The Morphology and Syntax of Modern German: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2012, Spring 2008
Analysis of various poetry from the beginning of the century to today, including works by Trakl, Benn, Bachmann, Sachs, Celan, and Brinkmann. A 20-page research paper will be part of the requirements for this course. Undergraduate Seminars: 20th-Century Poetry: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 100
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2007, Fall 2001
This course will be taught as a topics course; the content will change from semester to semester. It will examine major topics, concepts, and theories pertaining to the cultural identity of western Europe, selected around a specific theme. Special attention will be paid to the cultural history of Germany and its influence on other countries. Possible themes range from the concepts of the self, God, history, and art, to the history of emotions and sexuality, the people and the masses, social utopia and revolution, etc. German Cultural History in a European Context: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2008
On the basis of literary texts (in translation) and films, we will examine major topics pertaining to the cultural identity of Switzerland. Special attention will be paid to the cultural history of Switerzland in a European context. Themes in discussion will be Swiss multiculturalism and multilingualism, the importance of the Alps for national self-identification, the origin and development of the Swiss model of direct democracy, and the Swiss policy of neutrality. The Cultural History of Switzerland in Literature and Film: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2012
This course introduces principal figures from the basic disciplines of philosophy, biology, and linguistics who are particularly influential in current trends in semiotic method. It undertakes to lay the foundation of a semiotic method distinct from monolithic traditional structuralism, so, e.g, it concentrates on anti-Saussurean thought. In presenting semiotic universals, the course pursues the formulation and the application of a theoretical construct valid for any and all semiotic modalities ranging from the literary text, to the language act as text, and to the human being as text. Semiotics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2019, Spring 2019
Topics will vary from semester to semester. See departmental announcement for offerings. Additional screening time may be required for film topics. Special Topics in German: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Knowledge of German may be required depending on topic
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2014, Fall 2010
The course will deal with the topic from various angles; a representative selection of American films noirs from the United States and some films (as forerunners) from the Weimar Republic will be shown and discussed in terms of their visuals and narratives. There will also be literary texts and cultural documents (articles on crime in the United States; on the working conditions in Hollywood) pertaining to the topic. Films have English subtitles. German Cinema in Exile: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course surveys the history, theory and practice of the genre called documentary cinema in a transnational horizon. We will explore what this amorphous and vague term means and examine the ways its forms and ethics have changed from the beginning of cinema to recent digital production and online exhibition. Major modes of documentary filmmaking will be covered, including cinema verité, direct cinema, investigative documentary, ethnographic and travel film, agit-prop and activist media, autobiography and the personal essay as well as recent post-modern forms that question relationships between fact and fiction such as docudrama, archival film, and "mockumentary." Documentary Cinema: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture, 1 hour of discussion, and 2 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2017, Spring 2016
This course will explore how experiences of migration, dislocation, or exile are visualized in cinema, and how processes of internationalization in film production and distribution intersect with the projection of a transnational global imagery. Some examples of transnational cinematic connections will be analyzed in historical perspective as well as contemporary examples of "migrant cinema." We will investigate how these films engage with debates about multiculturalism and assimilation/segregation of minorities, as scenarios of itinerancy and mobility are often intertwined with representations of ethnicity and gender. Transnational Cinemas: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Supervised independent study and research course for honor students who are writing their theses for completion of the requirements for the Honors Program. Honors Studies in German: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: One of the 195 courses
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 3.5-7.5 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Two-semester supervised independent study and research course in which honor students research their theses topic the first semester (H196A) and write their theses the second semester (H196B) for completion of the requirements for the honors program. Honors Studies in German: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of faculty adviser; H196A is prerequisite to H196B
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for H196A-H196B after taking H196.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 10 weeks - 3 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. This is part one of a year long series course. A provisional grade of IP (in progress) will be applied and later replaced with the final grade after completing part two of the series. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Two-semester supervised independent study and research course in which honor students research their theses topic the first semester (H196A) and write their theses the second semester (H196B) for completion of the requirements for the honors program. Honors Studies in German: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor; H196A is a prerequisite of H196B
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for H196A-H196B after taking H196.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 10 weeks - 3 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. This is part two of a year long series course. Upon completion, the final grade will be applied to both parts of the series. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Group study of selected topics which will vary from year to year. Directed Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Prerequisites: Open to students who have completed at least 15 units of upper division German with an average no less than B
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 5-10 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 3.5-7.5 hours of independent study per week 10 weeks - 3-6 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: German/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
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