Germany

This course enables students to reflect on the role of information in shaping today’s society and information professions by learning about relevant social, societal, and ethical trends and perspectives, and to consider what information professionals and scholars can therefore do to affect, and hopefully improve, society. Possible course topics include core concepts values in library and information science, information and data ethics, fake news and censorship, surveillance and cybercrime, artificial intelligence, globalization, digital sovereignty and regulation, sustainability, and equity and diversity. Seminars consist of student presentations, discussion activities, and writing tutorials.

This course for foreign students is designed to improve students’ language skills and vocabulary. Areas of focus include grammar, conversation, writing exercises, and listening and reading exercises. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural and historical topics on an academic level and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the B2 level according to the CEFR, students further develop their (often subject-specific) vocabulary and command of grammatical structures as well as corresponding competencies in university-specific situations. The class takes intercultural and methodological aspects of foreign language learning into consideration, and students discuss specific aspects of German culture and society. The B2 level is split into two courses, the B2.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B2.2 course covers the second half of the level.

This cryptography courses consists of the lectures "Public Key Cryptography" and "Cryptography for Security" as well as a practice session. Public Key Cryptography examines common methods in asymmetric encryption, as well as possible attacks in faulty implementation of these methods. Topics include RSA (including signatures), attacks on small public exponent, Wiener attack, primality tests and factorization, El-Gamal, Diffie-Hellman-Key-Exchange, elliptic curves, attacks on the discrete logarithm, and selected methods of Post-Quantum-Cryptography. Cryptography for Security discusses fundamental concepts of encryption as well as their construction and their connections, classical cryptographic problems and how to solve them, formal notions of security, One-Way-Functions, (Pseudo-)Random-Number-Generators, and Pseudo-Random-Functions. Practice sessions alternate between two formats that are both primarily focused on attacks learned in class. In the first, students read encryption code and write a corresponding decryption algorithm. In the second, students prove theorems/attacks' effectiveness and make calculations by hand, often involving topics in ring theory, field theory, and group theory.

This course for foreign students is designed to improve students’ language skills and vocabulary. Areas of focus include grammar, conversation, writing exercises, and listening and reading exercises. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural and historical topics on an academic level and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the A1 level according to the CEFR, students learn basic vocabulary and grammatical structures as well as corresponding competencies in university-specific situations. The class takes intercultural and methodological aspects of foreign language learning into consideration, and students are introduced to German culture and society.

The course analyzes films which center on Berlin or which are set in Berlin. Students consider the changes seen in cityscape and everyday life over the last 100 years, but also the city’s social and political transformation. The films are also analyzed for their portrayal of the most important stages of German history. The course begins with studying films from the Weimar Republic, through postwar films from East and West Germany, and to the present. Films discussed may include: “MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG” (1930), “BERLIN – ECKE SCHÖNHAUSER” (1959), “EINS, ZWEI DREI“ (1961), “REDUPERS” (1978), “LOLA RENNT” (1998), and “BERLIN CALLING” (2008).

This class focuses on Hitler's Germany, and begins with the essential nineteenth century background. Students consider how political anti-Semitism grew during that time and what factors shaped the social and political life. The course covers the broad political currents and the popular literature that Hitler and many of his supporters read and absorbed. In the climate of uncertainty and despair following the First World War, Hitler and the Nazi Party grew from a small group on the radical fringe in Munich to a national force. Those traits of Hitler, crucial to his success, particularly his charisma, are defined and analyzed within the broader political context of Weimar political life. Much attention is paid to how Hitler, the two other Nazis in his cabinet, and supporters on the streets were able to consolidate the control over the state and society within a matter of months. How the regime solidified its control over society and political life is examined and discussed at length in this session. The course examines and analyzes how Hitler's concentration camp system, a vast chain of prisons and centers of oppression and death, came to be. Hitler's ambitions, the conquest of “living space” in Eastern Europe and the annihilation of the Jews, motivated his foreign ambitions and led directly to World War II, the most destructive conflict in human history. A central element of the war was the Holocaust, the all-out program to destroy the Jews of Europe. The session closely examines these developments, the nature of the war, how the Holocaust was implemented, and the role that terror played in sustaining Nazi rule. Also discussed are the measures taken against the handicapped, homosexuals, Sinti, and Roma. In Germany and later in occupied Europe, opposition and resistance emerged and challenged Nazi rule. Opponents were motivated by a variety of reasons, some personal, some political, and these too are discussed. Lastly, the class examines the end of the war, the so-called “zero hour” in Germany, the destruction and collapse of Germany, and then how this nation has dealt with the legacy of Hitler and Nazi rule. The course includes visits to local museums, historical sites and locations that reveal the operations of Nazi rule. These visits are a key element of the class and the experience of studying in Berlin.