German

Drawing is closely linked to seeing; the line records perception. This free drawing seminar focuses on the joy of working with lines. It's not about exact depiction, but about experimenting with the line, with different drawing materials and formats, and the search for exciting image compositions. In practical exercises, we sharpen the eye and try out various experimental forms of expression. We examine questions about line, materiality, composition as well as figure and space. 

The language part of the course improves and develops skills and strategies to successfully handle uncomplicated oral and written tasks and social situations confronted during daily life in the German language area. From there the course moves to the first stadia of a higher level of understanding and discussing texts and topics in the cultural and social field. The cultural part of the course provides an understanding of various cultural aspects of German, Austrian, and Swiss society including German post-war cultural history and current topics of the German news. The classroom language is German. An Intermediate Low (IL) level of speaking and writing is required. 

In the course, students practice descriptive evaluations as well as inferential statistical analyses with R: In addition to the most common univariate methods, non-parametric and selected multivariate methods are also taken into account. Further focuses are on the diverse options for creating diagrams and data management. After completing the course, participants can carry out standard exploratory and inferential statistical procedures with R, create flexible diagrams and have gained an overview of the diverse possible uses of the additional packages for special problems.

This course covers the following topics: sets and mappings, complete induction; number representations, real numbers, complex numbers; number sequences, convergence, infinite series, power series, limits and continuity of functions; elementary rational and transcendental functions; differentiation, extreme values, mean value theorem and consequences; higher derivatives, Taylor polynomial and series; applications of differentiation; definite and indefinite integral, integration of rational and complex functions, improper integrals, Fourier series; matrices, linear systems of equations, Gauss algorithm; vectors and vector spaces; linear mappings; dimension and linear independence; matrix algebra; vector geometry; determinants, eigenvalues; linear differential equations.
 

The focus of the seminar is the concept of reconstruction in the field of architecture and urban development, an essential term when dealing with loss and destruction in historical urban structures. In addition to the decision or debate between monument preservation and new planning, the course also discusses the crucial role of political, social and identity authorities in these design processes. By reading theoretical and official texts, analyzing international case studies and visiting Berlin case studies, students gain insights into the diversity of theories and methodological approaches to reconstruction in modern and contemporary architectural practice and monument preservation.

The Swiss author Johanna Spyri created one of the world's most famous children's book characters with Heidi's Years of Apprenticeship and Traveling (1880) and Heidi Can Use What She Has Learned (1881). To date, the Heidi novels have been translated into around 50 languages and repeated, among other things. Adapted as a film, (animated) series, comic, musical and radio play. Most recently, in May 2023, the Johanna Spyri Archive and the Heidi Archive were added to the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage, which lists cultural-historical artifacts of global importance. Using the example of auditory adaptations of the first Heidi volume, the seminar provides an insight into the analysis of children's audio media. Audio books and radio plays are available that deal with the story of the cheerful orphan girl and span from the 1950s to the present. The audio media are discussed from aesthetic and narrative points of view as well as with regard to content transformations. The starting point of the seminar is the reading of Spyr'is Heidi's years of teaching and traveling.

Students gain an overview of the fundamental technologies of the World Wide Web (WWW) and their applications. They study the functionality of the WWW as an overlay network of the Internet and examine the underlying communication infrastructure and protocols. Students also study the different generations of the WWW and the current as well as the future development. They learn to semantically structure, design and link web content, to create dynamic web sites, and to program server-side applications and how to connect them with the front-end via interfaces. Course content includes foundations (the main parts of the WWW and its evolution over the past decades), web pages (the structure and design of web content with HTML and CSS), web applications (an overview of JavaScript, the DOM and AJAX ), architecture and communication (the foundations of the OSI model with the consideration of the IP, TCP and UDP protocol as well as the explanation of the REST architectural style), server-side applications (creation of back-end applications with Node.js), selected APIs and frameworks.

From the Enlightenment up to the present Berlin has been a preferred home for poets, novelists, playwrights, journalists and creative writers of any kind. Their stories and visions are not only represented but shaped by the idea of the city. This course includes selected works of literature (and some works of visual art as well) written in different periods in Berlin. The works are contextualized by the dynamic and multilayered history of the city and are connected to the urban spaces of today. Excursions, readings and discussions help students gain insight into the rich cultural history and the current discourses in and about Berlin.