German

From the 1790s to the 1840s, a Berlin-based network of artists and intellectuals developed novel ways of writing, thinking, feeling, and living under the conceptual banner of the ‘romantic.’ Drawing on key texts by Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich and Dorothea Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Novalis, Henriette Herz, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, Bettina and Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and the brothers Grimm, the class explores the central areas and practices of their romantic discourse of radical aesthetic, philosophical, political, and sociocultural modernity. Students critically examine how the romantics manifested and confronted the defining conflicts of their political and cultural present as these crystallized in Berlin, the capital of Prussia, 19th century Germany’s emerging hegemonic power. The course also surveys influential contemporary critiques of the romantic movement (Goethe, Hegel, Heine) and follow its legacies in the 20th century. Art history is another focus of the class, which includes a museum visit.

This interdisciplinary seminar examines Berlin as a crucible of revolutionary thought and action across two transformative centuries. Rather than simply surveying historical events, the course investigates how revolutionary ideas—about the state, freedom, justice, and human emancipation—have evolved, collided, and been reimagined from the Napoleonic era through contemporary social movements. Students engage with canonical texts in philosophy and political theory (Hegel, Marx, Luxemburg, the Frankfurt School) alongside historical analysis and on-site exploration of Berlin's revolutionary landscapes—from the Berlin Wall Memorial to former Stasi prisons to sites of student uprising. Throughout, the course emphasizes critical connections between past and present, examining how Berlin's revolutionary traditions inform contemporary debates about surveillance, resistance, urban space, and democratic participation. Students develop skills in comparative historical analysis, philosophical argumentation, and critical citizenship, learning to recognize how understanding revolutionary history can illuminate present-day struggles for social transformation.

This course offers an intensive reading experience and lively seminar discussions about Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, published in 1929 and is the best-known big-city novel in the German language, a work of literary modernism frequently compared with James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and John Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer (1925). Students explore its literary, cultural, and political content and how the narrative technique of the novel, groundbreaking in its time, is fast-paced and experimental and montage-passages capture a cacophony of urban voices and disembodied discourses (politics, popular culture, advertising) of the so-called Golden Twenties. 

In this seminar, students produce a program marking the 100th anniversary of the death of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, which is broadcasted as part of the “Buchfunken” series on Uniradio. Working in pairs or individually, participants create their own approximately 5-minute segment on a topic related to Rilke. No prior knowledge of audio production is required; it is taught during the seminar. In the first part of the seminar, students explore the Rilke-related topics they selected at the beginning through presentations and texts; in the second part, they produce their segments. The topics of the segments are open (as long as they relate to Rilke): Students can present and reinterpret a well-known Rilke poem, explore biographical aspects, address Rilke’s themes, such as death, painting, or acrobats, or review a recent book such as Rilke and Fascism by Hans-Peter Kunisch. 

In this class on the B2/C1 level according to CEFR, students learn to understand complex texts on subject matters, and to sort statements and findings into new categories. They work to identify the position and opinion of an author, and to summarize and weigh information from different sources. Students practice to express themselves clearly and confidently in written and spoken form on relevant topics, and to contribute to university discussions. This course has a specific focus, such as academic communication, or working and producing academic texts.

This course explores the debates of how Berlin is viewed through subtopics such as gentrification, inequality, and political polarization (e.g. on environmental and housing policy). Topics include how Berlin is often seen as left-leaning and progressive due to its multicultural image, the nuance of the city's socio-political landscape, the Berlin Wall's legacy shaping socio-economic divides between East and West, and influencing political positions. Students examine the political leanings of the city center and outside the transport boundary, historical changes including the integration of GDR infrastructure and the revival of Prussian heritage, alongside the gentrification of some areas, rising rent prices and the tensions on the role of the market. Students analyze global trends like the rise of far-right movements and neoliberalism rooted partly in historical East-West societal divides and how these conflicts reveal broader debates on societal value(s) and the common good. 

In this class on the B1 level according to CEFR, students learn to understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. They deal with most situations likely to arise while traveling to an area where German is spoken. Students learn to produce simple connected texts on topics that are familiar or of personal interest. They acquire skills to describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. The B1 level is split into two courses, the B1.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B1.2 course covers the second half of the level.

Berlin has long been imagined as a site of queer freedom, experimentation, and resistance. This course explores how queerness is shaped by and shapes urban space, using Berlin as a lens to examine intersections of sexuality, space, and power. Drawing from queer theory, urban studies, and architecture, students investigate how queer spaces are produced, contested, and remembered, and how they intersect with race, class, gender, and transnational histories. Through readings, discussions, exercise and fieldwork, participants critically reflect on what makes a space “queer,” who has access to it, and how Berlin’s reputation as a queer capital both reveals and obscures broader social dynamics. The course combines theoretical inquiry with experiential learning and invites critical engagement with the ethics of researching queer urban life.

Gardens and parks embody particular ways in which humans interact with nature, perceive it, and shape it: they are places of origin and retreat; they can serve both to sustain human life and to fulfill our need for beauty. They offer the potential for profound experiences, yet they also symbolize humanity’s creative impulse and represent dominion over both humanity and nature. These particular orders have frequently been taken up and imbued with symbolic meaning in literature. Using selected examples from poetry and narrative literature spanning the 18th century to the present, students explore the thematic complex of literary gardens and parks and strengthen their text-analytical skills with regard to these two genres.

The course represents the second half of the intensive language courses for beginners and those with intermediate qualifications. Completion of this course and GM1003 can provide a one-year foundation for those seeking an ancillary language skill, or lead to entry into the Second Level German class and subsequently to an Honours degree in German. The course builds on the work done in Module GM1003. Students complete the second half of a one-year course in modern German and continue to develop their linguistic skills, both written and oral. The course is not for native or heritage speakers of German.