Paul Gebhardt

This is the first half of a yearlong course for students who are beginning the study of German or have had only minimal exposure to the language. The first semester introduces students to the German language in all four modalities: reading, writing, speaking and listening. The work includes practice in understanding and using the spoken language. Written exercises and elementary reading materials completed outside class serve as a basis for vocabulary-building and in-class discussion and role-plays. Students also write four short essays on familiar topics over the course of the semester. During the second semester, there is more advanced practice in the use of the spoken and written language and we use short fictional and authentic cultural texts to develop techniques of reading. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to GERM 112Y for the spring semester. No prerequisite. Offered every fall.

This is the second half of a yearlong course for students who are beginning the study of German or have had only minimal exposure to the language. As in the first semester, the work includes practice of the German language in all four modalities — reading, writing, speaking and listening — in class, in scheduled review sessions with an apprentice teacher and using an online workbook. There is more advanced practice in the use of the spoken and written language. We develop reading skills through a variety of fictional and cultural texts, including a short book we read in its entirety. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester, students read their first book of fiction in German. Prerequisite: GERM 111Y or equivalent with permission of instructor. Offered every spring.

This first-semester middle-level course is designed to develop German reading, writing and speaking skills beyond GERM 111Y-112Y. We use a grammar text for reviewing and expanding upon aspects of German grammar from the first year. We apply this review as we read "Tshick," a young adult novel in German by Wolfgang Herrndorf, and other short literary and journalistic texts; as we gain a basic understanding of films in the original German; and as we converse in German with a partner or in groups. These texts and films serve as a point of departure for short compositions as well. Keeping a diary in German also is an integral component of the course. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to GERM 214Y for the spring semester. Prerequisite: GERM 111Y-112Y or equivalent. Offered every fall.

This second-semester middle-level course is designed to develop German reading, writing and speaking skills beyond GERM 111Y-112Y. We use a grammar text for reviewing and expanding upon aspects of German grammar from the first year. We apply this review as we read short literary and journalistic texts, as we gain a basic understanding of films in the original German, and as we converse in German with a partner or in groups. These texts and films serve as a point of departure for short compositions as well. Keeping a diary in German also is an integral component of the course. Studying the novel "Der Richter und sein Henker" by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt is a special component of GERM 214Y. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Prerequisite: GERM 213Y or equivalent. Offered every spring.

In this course, we attempt to gain an understanding of some of the most complex poetry in German in the 20th century. At least two of the poets we study, Rainer Maria Rilke and Paul Celan, have made it into the canon of what some call "world literature." Our approach is theoretical in that we start with a seminal work in German aesthetics, Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy," and throughout the semester discuss the poems side by side with philosophical and critical essays on the poems in question. German 20th-century poetry has resonated in extraordinary ways with writers in theoretically and philosophically oriented criticism. Theoretical work we discuss includes Martin Heidegger's essays "What are Poets for?" and "Language"; Hans Georg Gadamer's essays on Rilke and Celan; Werner Hamacher's "The Second of Inversion"; Adorno's "The Lyric and Society"; and Paul de Man's "Tropes (Rilke)." In addition to Rilke and Celan, we study poems by Else Lasker-Schüler, Stefan George, Georg Trakl, Gertrud Kolmar and Gottfried Benn. The readings open up perspectives on the central aspects of criticism on poetry, namely the relationship between philosophical thought and poetry, the relationship between poetry and language, the problem of self-reference, and questions of history and memory. This course is taught in English translation. No prerequisite. Generally offered every three years.

In this course, we explore a wide array of topics in contemporary German culture to provide advanced students with the opportunity to strengthen their abilities to write, read and speak German. Topics may include the impact of reunification on contemporary Germany, religious life and popular music. Students read excerpts from two German books on German culture and identity: "Typisch Deutsch: Wie deutsch sind die Deutschen?" by Herman Bausinger and "Die deutsche Seele" by Thea Dorn and Richard Wagner. We explore the topics of migration and citizenship, as well. Students develop fluency in German to perform linguistically and culturally appropriate tasks. The composition component seeks to improve the ability to write clearly and coherently in German. To foster these goals, the course also provides a review of advanced grammatical structures. This course can be repeated for credit up to 1.0 unit. Prerequisite: GERM 213Y-214Y or equivalent. Offered every fall semester.

This course is designed as an introduction to the study of German literature and culture beginning with the earliest writings by the Germanic tribes in the early Middle Ages and going through 1900. Students gain a greater understanding of German literary history and related social and philosophical trends. Other central goals include practice in the close reading of texts and acquiring a basic German vocabulary to do so. We read samples from various genres — drama, prose and lyric poetry. Authors and works to be studied may include the "Hildebrandslied," Walther von der Vogelweide, Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Tieck, Georg Büchner (including Werner Herzog's film rendition of Büchner's "Woyzeck"), Karl Marx, Louise Otto-Peters, Gerhard Hauptmann, Karl May and others. GERM 321 is recommended. Prerequisite: GERM 213Y–214Y or equivalent.

Nietzsche and Kafka stand out as two of the most important prose stylists of the German language. At the same time, the period between the beginning of Nietzsche's productive career around 1870 and Kafka's death in 1924 is one of fundamental historical change: It starts with the rise of the German nation-state and ends after the downfall of both the German and the Austro-Hungarian monarchies. Not surprisingly, the literature of this era in the German language is marked by similar radical transformations. We attempt to trace these changes by beginning with a discussion of Nietzsche's "Also sprach Zarathustra" (1883-85) and concluding with Kafka's fragmentary novel "Der Process." From the perspective of the changing role of literature in response to societal and historical realities, or as a depiction of states of human consciousness, we investigate a number of additional works: for example, Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Ein Brief," Gerhart Hauptmann's "Bahnwärter Thiel," Lou Andreas-Salome's "Fenitschka" and Arthur Schnitzler's "Leutnant Gustl," as well as poetry by Rilke, Trakl and Benn. All readings and discussion are in German. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or 326, or equivalent. Offered every two to three years.

As Tanya Krzywinska writes in "Sex and the Cinema," "From the sanctioned to the forbidden, the suggestive to the blatant, evocations of the sexual have saturated cinema with a heady distillation of fleshly passions." For the German-language cinema after reunification, this is especially true, as one of the most commercially successful films of the early days of the Berlin Republic -- the comedy "Maybe, Maybe Not" (Sönke Wortmann) -- aptly demonstrates. The film is criticized for belonging to the contested "comedy wave of the 1990s," but few critics are actually aware that it is an adaptation of two queer graphic novels by the popular but nonetheless controversial gay cartoonist Ralph König. Starting with König's graphic novels and Wortmann's adaptation, the course takes us through different topics and perspectives on sexuality throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. Among the films that highlight these topics are "Love in Thoughts," a scandal about youth sexuality in Weimar; "Jerichow," a drama set in new Eastern States by Berlin School director Christian Petzold; "Three,"an exploration of the fluidity of sexual orientation by "Run, Lola, Run" director Tom Tykwer; and "A Woman in Berlin," about the sexual violence against German women during the downfall of the Third Reich. Additional movies we interpret include films by Fatih Akin, Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, Maren Ade, Margarethe von Trotta and Matthias Luthardt. We discuss films alongside the books from which they are adaptated, as well as essays by German film studies scholars (Randall Halle, Marco Abel and Helga Druxes, among others). Films are screened in the original German, and most readings, as well as class discussion, will be in German. No film studies background required. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or above. Generally offered every three years.

The formula "between reconstruction and repression" attempts to capture a general characteristic about the 1950s in the German-speaking countries. East and West Germany, as well as Austria, as they try to rebuild after the historic catastrophe of World War II. Switzerland, which suffered virtually no destruction, pursued the double-goal of connecting to the Western alliances while remaining neutral. Writers in the German language tried to re-establish institutions of German literature. In East and West Germany, directors tried to revive traditions of German cinema, now liberated from the propaganda efforts of the Nazis. And yet, throughout the 1950s, and even after, a palpable resistance to dealing with the crimes of the past can be felt. We watch films that both tried to deal with the atrocities of recent history and sought to distract from them: "The Kaiser's Lackey" (1951), "The Devil's General" (1955), "Teenage Wolfpack" (1956), "Sissi" (1956), "Roses for the Prosecutor" (1959) and "One Two Three" (1961). We read poetry by Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Marie-Luise Kaschnitz, Günther Eich, among others. We also read prose by Heinrich Böll ("Kerzen für Maria"), Marie-Luise Kaschnitz ("Das dicke Kind"), Günter Grass (the first chapter from "The Tin Drum"), in addition to Dürrenmatt's world famous play "The Visit" (1956). We engage with the art at the first installment of the international contemporary art show "documenta" in Kassel, Germany, in 1955, and the efforts of the city of Vienna in the 1950s to support its contemporary visual artists. In this context, we also visit the Gund Gallery on campus. Pre-requisite: GERM 325 or 326, or equivalent.

This course offers an opportunity to study on an individual basis an area of special interest — literary, cultural or linguistic — under the regular supervision of a faculty member. It is offered primarily to candidates for honors, to majors and, under special circumstances, to potential majors and minors. Individual study is intended to supplement, not to take the place of, regular courses in the curriculum of each language program. Staff limitations restrict this offering to a very few students. To enroll in an individual study, a student must identify a member of the MLL department willing to direct the project and, in consultation with him or her, write a one-page proposal for the IS which must be approved by the department chair before the individual study can go forward. The proposal should specify the schedule of reading and/or writing assignments and the schedule of meeting periods. The amount of work in an IS should approximate that required on average in regular courses of corresponding levels. Typically, an IS earns the student 0.25 or 0.5 units of credit. At a minimum, the department expects the student to meet with the instructor one hour per week. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study by the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval.