German

This course covers a frequently neglected aspect of the middle-high German literature, namely its Bebilderung. Scripts and multimedia works of art are illuminated, and students question how these works influence the text and our understanding of it.   

This course considers the concept of hypermodernism and its more recent iterations with respect to new and planned buildings in Berlin (by international firms such as OMA and Herzog de Meuron), to places of infrastructure (train stations, airports), shopping centers, so-called POPS (privately owned public spaces), and urban wilderness areas. Students are encouraged to explore the city on their own and respond to particular sites through visuals, audio recordings, (creative) texts, and other forms of artistic expression.

This course is designed for beginners with basic knowledge of German. It is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning. The course focuses on encounters with various written, spoken and audio-visual texts and exchanges with other course participants. Students continue to develop and expand basic competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and their understanding of German culture while being enabled to learn reflectively and strategically. The course addresses cultural, political, and historical aspects of the city of Berlin and the German-speaking countries, which students analyze and compare with their own background and experiences. At the end of the course, students are able to deal with various everyday situations (in a German-speaking environment) and engage in simple conversations. Students develop reading strategies to understand short newspaper articles and literary texts. In addition, students improve their essay writing skills, and are able to write short texts on various topics and revise and proofread them. Finally students are able to understand more detailed discussions on familiar topics.

In this course, students read works on German democracy written in American perspective. Students alternate between theoretical texts and those which cover pivotal moments in German history: the revolution of 1848, the institution of democracy in the German Empire, its suspension under Hitler, and the fate of democracy in Germany divided. 

This pre-semester course prepares foreign students for academic study at a German university. The focus is on the improvement of oral and written expression as well as grammar and lexical proficiency. The course covers selected topics on German politics and society within a historical context. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural topics in everyday situations 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 B1 level according to CEFR, students consolidate and systematically build further basic grammar points and vocabulary. They expand their proficiency in all four skills.