German

This course is designed for students who can understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in their fields of specialization. The goals of the course are to enable students to interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers possible without strain for either party; to produce clear, detailed texts on a range of subjects; and to explain a viewpoint on a specific issue, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various perspectives or options.

In this course, students encounter and work with a variety of German sources to refine their linguistic skills. It reviews and deepens students' knowledge of German grammar with an increasing focus on stylistics in both oral and written speech. Special emphasis is on practicing the subjunctive (“indirekte Rede”) while studying and producing journalistic texts about the city of Berlin. This course also includes practical tasks, such as conducting interviews, writing blog posts, and rehearsing a play.

This is an introductory German course for students with no prior knowledge of the language. Based on a communicative and task-based approach, it develops proficiency in oral and written communication skills while providing students with knowledge and understanding of the societies and cultures of German-speaking countries. Students develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills through a variety of stimulating activities. Vocabulary is presented in the context of culturally significant issues.

This course is taught primarily in German, using communicative and task-based approaches, but grammar instruction may be in English. Students learn to read, write, listen, and speak basic German. Additionally, participants in this course gain familiarity with German-speaking cultures through exposure to various media and didactic projects. By the end of the course, students understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance.

Programming and synchronizing concurrent processes that access shared resources: non-sequential programs and processes in their various forms; non-determinism, determination; synchronization mechanisms: locks, monitors, guards, events, semaphores; non-sequential program execution and object orientation; process control, selection strategies, priorities, dealing with and avoiding deadlocks; co-routines, implementation, multiprocessor systems; interaction via messages; programming and synchronizing concurrent processes that interact via message exchange; remote calling techniques; client-server, peer-to-peer; parallel computing on the network; coordination languages; processing on the server and on the client, mobility; middleware, structured communication, static and dynamic interfaces; event-based and stream-based processing; security of applications on the network; outlook on non-functional properties (time, memory, quality of service).

The varieties of German differ in the lexis and pronunciation of words as well as in morphology, morphosyntax, syntax, and lexical semantics. In the course of this seminar, we will deal with various such variation phenomena from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective 

The seminar deals with the literary representations of insects. The introduction to the topic is the Czech play by the Capek brothers “From the Life of Insects” from the 1920s, in which the society of the interwar period is criticized in an allegorical manner. The traces of this short text can be found in the Russian novel “The Life of Insects” by Viktor Pelevin. The novel captures another transformative era - the geopolitical change of the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The characters show the characteristics of insects, but act like humans and experience both physical and social metamorphoses. In addition to considering the obvious intertextual references, the inclusion of Jan Švankmajer's animated film “Insects”, a free film adaptation of the play, also opens up a further intermedia perspective. The theoretical focus is on the concepts of allegory, metaphor and metamorphosis. Knowledge of the Slavic languages (Czech/Russian) is not a prerequisite for participation.

After decades of division and the restoration of urban normality after 1990, Berlin is in a situation that makes it sensible and exciting to take a look back at the “Golden Times” of the 1920s and compare them with the questions and problems of today's situation. With the founding of the Weimar Republic in 1918, the political framework conditions were in place to reorganize the Berlin area. The city of Berlin in its current area was created on October 1, 1920 with the “Greater Berlin Law”, which brought about the merger with 7 other cities, 59 rural communities and 27 manor districts. After this merger, Berlin developed into a metropolis in the 1920s that is still considered a symbol of modernity today. The 1920s were only “golden” for a few, but against the background of the size and anonymity of the megacity and the freedoms guaranteed by the new republic, the 1920s appeared to be a time of experiments, attractions and the fascination for the new. What problems had to be overcome back then and what solution strategies were tested and implemented? And what ideas about the future of Berlin were developed back then? Against the background outlined and in a comparative perspective, the seminar will deal with questions of local administration, economy and work, housing, transport and infrastructure and, in two main areas, with questions about population and migration as well as the offers of culture and cultural workers. Excursions in the city area and visits to museums/exhibitions are planned for the areas listed. 

This course focuses on deepening the knowledge of selected topics in personality psychology as well as the practical application of the knowledge and methods. This includes the evaluation and interpretation of psychodiagnostic methods of personality psychology as well as a critical confrontation with empirical studies from primary literature.

Hannah Arendt's work has become a classic of modern political theory, drawing on themes of totalitarian rule, flight, and statelessness. In the context of current crises, such as the climate crisis and the global conflict between authoritarianism and liberal democracy, Arendt's concept of politics reemerges as relevant.  At the heart of this conflict is Russia's attack on Ukraine and Hamas's attack on Israel. Moscow has become the center of a new form of fascism. Russia's aggression against Ukraine is, alongside man-made climate change, the greatest catastrophe of our time. Why were we unable to recognize the signs of impending disaster? Everything is possible, even in this century. The elements and origins of totalitarian rule remain relevant. "The meaning of politics is freedom," wrote Hannah Arendt, a meaning that we have lost sight of in times of peace and prosperity. But what does the controversial term freedom actually mean? How is the distortion of freedom at the expense of people and nature connected to the destruction of a free society? Arendt's thoughts on freedom go beyond today's understanding of liberalism: individual freedom and community spirit are interdependent. Hannah Arendt allows us to rethink freedom.