Learning Outcomes
Upon graduation from Dickinson, German majors will be able to:
- comprehend and express ideas in formal and informal spoken and written German;
- articulate a range of differences between cultures of the German-speaking world and their own culture;
- analyze a variety of German cultural artifacts, including literature, film, art, and media.
Major
10 courses
202 or its equivalent
One 200-level course in German (above 202, or a 300-level course)
One 300-level course in German
340 (only for students who spend the year in Bremen)
400 (senior seminar)
In consultation with their major advisor, students are to develop a concentration consisting of at least three related courses. At least two of these courses must be taken in the German department at Dickinson and should be above the level of 210. The other course(s) can be taken from departments across the Dickinson and Bremen campuses.
Courses taught by departments other than the German department at Dickinson, including departments at the University of Bremen, may count toward a German major if they focus significantly on issues related to German Studies.
In total, students have to complete ten courses in the area of German Studies in order to earn a German major. Two elective courses may be taken in English. To be counted toward the major, students must take German 210 as a FLIC course.
NOTE: Students who spend an academic year or a semester in Bremen have to take an intensive summer language course and German 340.
Minor
Six courses including:
German 201 and 202 or their equivalent
One 200-level German course
One 300-level German course, taken at Dickinson
No more than two courses may be taken in English. The course in English can be taken either within the German department or in another department, including departments on the Bremen campus. Courses taken from departments other than the German department at Dickinson must deal significantly with issues related to German Studies in order to be counted toward the minor. Students studying in Bremen in fall semester may count 340 as one of the electives toward the minor. A minimum of five of the six courses must be taken at Dickinson or Bremen.
Suggested curricular flow through the major
The following two curricular flows are based on a student starting in either GRMN 101 or 202. If you begin German at Dickinson at a different level, please speak with a faculty member to determine the best sequence of courses for you.
Placement into GRMN 101 or no previous knowledge of German
First Year
GRMN 101
GRMN 102
Sophomore Year
GRMN 201
GRMN 202
GRMN 210 or another course in English
Junior Year
Study abroad in Bremen (a full year is strongly recommended)
Senior Year
GRMN 300-level
GRMN 400
Placement into GRMN 202
First Year
GRMN 202
GRMN 200-level (211 or above)
Sophomore Year
GRMN 200-level (211 or above)
GRMN 200- or 300-level
Junior Year
Study abroad in Bremen (a full year is strongly recommended)
Senior Year
GRMN 300-level
GRMN 400
Independent study and independent research
Independent study projects are an option open to self-motivated students who desire to study a topic not offered in a regular College course. Most projects are taken for either half or full course credit. Usually independent study students will have a weekly meeting with their advisors.
Occasionally, students may elect an independent study project in the German language. This option is open only when it is clear that the student's needs cannot be met in the traditional language courses. Possibilities for independent language work include: advanced oral and written language practice; technical translation.
Honors
Senior German majors who successfully complete a year-long independent study project worth two course credits will be eligible to be voted honors in German on the completion of the project. A student will graduate with honors in German if a) their original research receives the grade of "A" from the supervising instructor and b) the student successfully defends their project before a panel of the entire German faculty so that the project is designated as "worthy of honors."
Opportunities for off-campus study
Junior Year: Students are encouraged to spend one or two semesters abroad during the junior year. For qualified students, the Junior Year in Bremen is a Dickinson-affiliated program with a wide range of course and program options, including laboratory courses in the sciences.
Summer Immersion Program: The German Department offers a four-week student immersion at the University of Bremen, West Germany. See the course description for GRMN 220, Bremen Practicum.
Co-curricular activities/programs
Each year two German language assistants (OSAs) from the University of Bremen are actively involved with all aspects of the German program at Dickinson. In addition to the language assistants, at least one additional exchange student from Bremen is also on campus.
The German Club sponsors several events every year both together with the German department and independently.
A German Language Table is held each Tuesday from 5:30-7 pm in a HUB sideroom for students who wish to speak—or merely listen to—German while they eat.
German films are shown regularly throughout the academic year. They are most often screened on Tuesdays at 7 pm, after German Table.
We regularly welcome German writers, scholars, translators, filmmakers, and actors to the Dickinson campus, visits that are often made possible by generous funding from the Max Kade Foundation.
Courses
The following courses are offered in Bremen:
340 Comparative Cultures: USA-Germany
Offered in Bremen, Germany. Using the university and city of Bremen as laboratory, students will explore the experience of culture shock, the difference between American and German everyday life, structural differences in American and German public institutions, historical ties between the two countries, historic concepts and symbols, differing relationships to national culture, the effect of Germany's past on contemporary consciousness.
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dickinson in Bremen Program.
Attributes: Social Sciences
German Courses
101 German in Everyday Life
This course is an introduction to the German language and culture of daily life. It focuses on the acquisition of language skills, such as speaking, reading, writing, and listening and does so while also learning about aspects of every-day cultures in German-speaking countries. Classes are small and emphasize communication. After successfully completing German 101 and 102, students are expected to have reached a basic level of intercultural and cross-cultural competence, that is, to be able to communicate with members of German-speaking cultures with an awareness of differences in language and culture.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year
102 German in Everyday Life
This course is an introduction to the German language and culture of daily life. It focuses on the acquisition of language skills, such as speaking, reading, writing, and listening and does so while also learning about aspects of every-day cultures in German-speaking countries. Classes are small and emphasize communication. After successfully completing German 101 and 102, students are expected to have reached a basic level of intercultural and cross-cultural competence, that is, to be able to communicate with members of German-speaking cultures with an awareness of differences in language and culture.
Classes meet five times a week. Prerequisite: 101 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year
103 Intensive German
An intensive two-credit course that allows students to complete the first two semesters of the language, part of the department's cultural proficiency requirement, in a single semester. Like German in Everyday Life, this course makes extensive use of multimedia, but does so in ways that enhance and vary linguistic input appropriate for a course that meets as often and as long as this one. Classes are small, and material is covered at a fast pace.
Ten classroom hours including two contact hours with native language assistants per week.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year
201 Intermediate German I: Contemporary German Cultures
What did the Brothers Grimm do besides collecting fairy tales? How do narratives inform national identity? Why do Germans return their empty bottles to the store? Students approach such questions, which touch on language, culture, economics, geography, history, and more, through a variety of media in this course. At the same time, students review grammatical structures, expand their knowledge of stylistic forms, and practice various registers of written and spoken German. German 201 aims to develop students’ skills to understand and reflect upon German-language culture at a basic intermediate level.
Classes meet four days a week. Prerequisite: 102 or 103, or permission of the instructor. This course fulfills the language graduation requirement.
202 Intermediate German II: Mediated German Cultures
What was occupied Vienna like in post-WWII Central Europe? How does a film convey fear? Is German academic writing different from how I write papers at Dickinson? Posing these or similar questions, this course builds students’ basic intermediate level of cultural and linguistic skill and explores the challenges of understanding and communicating with various media in colloquial, academic, and professional contexts. As it does so, students will acquire a better understanding of contemporary and historical issues, anxieties, and desires in the German-speaking world. There will be a special focus on writing in different modes, as this is a writing in the discipline (WiD) course.
Prerequisite: 201, or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: Writing in the Discipline
210 Exploring German Cultures
In this course, students learn about key periods and topics of German-speaking cultures in their historical contexts. The course exposes students to various cultural forms such as music, literature, art, and patterns of daily life. It provides students with a basic level of understanding of German cultures and allows them to reflect on German cultures in English.
Classes meet three days a week. Offered in English. This course counts toward the German minor. The course will count for the German major, if taken as FLIC. Prerequisite, if taken as FLIC: 202, or the equivalent.
Attributes: Appropriate for First-Year, ENST Env Stud Spec (ESSP)
211 Introduction to German Intellectual History
This course will analyze key documents and scholarly texts, which exemplify important aspects of German thought on various topics such as politics, culture, history, aesthetics, and philosophy. For instance, students may read and analyze Kant's essay on the Enlightenment, Lessing's Laocoon, Schiller's Aesthetic Education, Goethe's work on color theory, Alexander Kluge's Essay-Films, or political essays by Thomas Mann, Alice Schwarzer, and Gunter Grass.
Prerequisite: 202, or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: Humanities
212 German in Performance
This course will focus on performance in German cultures. Students will analyze key traditional examples of repeatable and lasting performances such as plays and films as well as performances rooted in the avant-garde which concentrate on the moment and the uniqueness of the individual performance generated by the performer or performers as both the medium and the content of the performance. For instance, students may critically analyze Georg Buchner's drama "The Death of Danton", the performance actions of the artist Joseph Beuys, or the works of the director Christoph Schlingensief.
Prerequisite: 202, or permission of the instructor.
213 Modern German Film
This course will focus on German films in their cultural and historical context. Students will study selected films and develop a critical framework for viewing and analyzing them. When appropriate, Austraian and Swiss films will also be included. Topics may be early German Cinema, the New German Cinema, or post-unification films. Filmmakers may include Volker Schlondorff, Alexander Kluge, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, or F.W. Murnau, and may cover films such as Run Lola Run, Goodbye, Lenin, Head On, and The Lives of Others.
Prerequisite: 202, if offered in German, or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: Arts
214 Formations of German Identities: Class, Race, and Gender
This course will focus on the representations of class, race, ethnicity, and gender in and of German, Austrian, or Swiss society, including their colonial past (Germany), their empire experience (Germany and Austria), and their clashes with indigenous peoples (Germany). Examples of representation from the fields of art, literature, and film will be the focus of a study of how class, race, and gender have changed and challenged the perception of German identity over time. Students may analyze paintings by George Grosz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Kathe Kollwitz; read literary texts by Bertolt Brecht, Verena Stefan, and Feridun Zaimoglu; view films by Fritz Lang, Fatih Akin, and Margarethe von Trotta; or read autobiographies.
Prerequisite: 202, or permission of the instructor.
215 German Environments
Known for their contemporary environmentalism, German-speaking cultures have a long cultural history that speaks to complex understandings and relationships with nature. At times ideological, political, religious, spiritual, and critical, it is a turbulent history. This course will focus on the environment in German-speaking cultures while posing questions about how cultures’ relationship to the environment is informed by and informs contemporary German-speaking cultures. Topics might include understanding the significant role of nature in Romanticism that continues to influence concepts today, the industrialization of Central Europe, 20th and 21st century environmentalism, or the ways in which media (i.e. literature, film, music) underscore or contradict certain assumptions about nature. This course may be taught in German or in English.
Prerequisite: GRMN 202 if offered in German, or permission of the instructor. No prerequisite, if offered in English.
Attributes: ENST Humanities/Arts (ESHA), Humanities, Sustainability Investigations
250 Topics in German Studies
An examination of some topic related to German literature or culture. Topics may include studies of major German writers such as Goethe, Mann, and Wolf, German humor, sagas and legends.
Normally taught in English.
Attributes: Taught in English
251 Topics in German Studies II
An examination of some topic related to German literature or culture. Topics may include studies of major German writers such as Goethe, Mann, and Wolf, German humor, genres of literature or specific cultural topics such as German-Jewish literature and culture. Prerequisite: 202. Taught in German.
Attributes: Humanities
300 Examining Major Cultural Movements
This course will provide students with the opportunity to analyze a major cultural period or artistic movement in German-speaking culture. Students will consider a variety of sources, from cultural products and texts of literature and philosophy to historical documents and sociological studies. The characteristics of the period and its historical dates will be examined critically and considered in association with their international or European counterparts. Possible periods or movements include: Medieval German, Early Modern German, German Enlightenment, Goethezeit, Romanticism, Realism, the long nineteenth century, Expressionism, or Poplit of the 1990s.
Prerequisite: a 200-level German course at 210 or above, or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: Humanities
303 The Two Germanies: Cultures of East and West Germany
For 40 years, Germany consisted of two states--the German Democratic Republic (GDR )and the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD). The contexts and conditions within which these two countries developed and their distinct cultural forms are the focus of this course. Literary and artistic production, political structures as well as differences in daily life will be examined within the context of learning more about the two Germanies.
Prerequisite: a 200-level German course at 210 or above, or permission of the instructor.
304 Minority Cultures in the German Context
While there have always been minorities inside Germany and Austria, such as small communities of French, Russians, Sorbs, and Poles, as of the 1950's, people from various European and other countries came to work and live in Germany in large numbers. For instance, the largest group came from Turkey. This course will explore the political activities and cultural expressions of these groups in relation to traditional German cultures. Students may analyze literary texts, films, music, and youth cultures of these groups making a home in Germany while changing their environment and being changed by it.
Prerequisite: a 200-level German course at 210 or above, or permission of the instructor.
Attributes: Humanities
350 Topics in German Studies
An examination of topics related to German literature or culture. Topics may include major German writers, periods of German culture, and intellectual and social movements.
Prerequisite: Study in Bremen or permission of instructor.
370 German Film
This course will focus on German films in their broader cultural and historical context. Students will study selected films and develop a method for viewing and analyzing them. Topics may be the "New German Cinema" from Schlöndorff and Kluge to Herzog, Fassbinder and Wenders, the films of feminist film makers, such as Sander, von Trotta, Ottinger, and Sanders-Brahms, or Literature and Film.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.
400 Senior Seminar
Advanced investigation of a particular writer, work, problem, or theme in German literature and/or culture, with emphasis on independent research and seminar reports.
Prerequisite: German major or permission of the instructor.