Winter 2023 Class Schedule

• Winter 2023 Class Schedule
• Winter 2023 Course Descriptions

Winter 2023 Class Schedule

Winter 2023 course descriptions 

GER 101-1,2,3 : Beginning German 

This is the first quarter of the Beginning German sequence: a systematic introduction to basic German. All four language skills - speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing - are stressed to insure that students acquire a basic command of German. Classes are conducted in German, with occasional use of English. Key feature of this quarter: Individual oral interviews at the end of the quarter.
Prerequisite in German for 101-1: None or one year of high-school German.
Prerequisite in German for 101-2: 101-1 or placement exam results.
Prerequisite in German for 101-3: 101-2 or placement exam results.

GER 102- 1,2,3 : Intermediate German

This is the second quarter of a three-quarter sequence of Intermediate German. The thematic focus this quarter is on contemporary Germany as a multi-ethnic society. As materials we will use the TV show Türkisch für Anfänger and articles from a variety of German magazines or newspapers. We will follow recent 21st-century German cultural and political questions. All language skills are practiced throughout the year, but each quarter focuses on different language areas. In the Winter quarter we focus on colloquial and idiomatic contemporary language. The Spring quarter will be devoted to excerpts from German literary works of varying genres and discussion arising from them. The fall quarter was dedicated to 20th-century German history and politics through a literary lens.
Prerequisite in German for 102-1: 101-3 or placement exam results
Prerequisite in German for 102-2: 102-1 or placement exam results.
Prerequisite in German for 102-3: 102-2 or placement exam results.

German 201-0 – Focus Reading - Focus Reading: Art in the Modern Age

This course is for students in intermediate German who would like to improve basic reading skills by exploring vital German cultural texts in depth. Focus Reading: Art in the Modern Age. This course examines the explosion of art and industry at the turn of the century that for the first time included substantial opportunities for women. The class will provide an introduction to the period of the German Empire or Kaiserreich 1871 – 1918. This epoch in German history is emblematic for modernism. Through short historical texts, biographies, letters and journals, students will learn about social issues, art movements and the German politics of the period that included Bismarck, artistic colonies and war. Students will become acquainted with the artworks of Käthe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter and more. Trips to the Art Institute and the Milwaukee Art Museum are planned and there will be a project-based presentation in lieu of a final exam.
Prerequisite in German: German 102-2. (This course will not count for the language requirement but may be taken concurrently with 102-3.)

German 205-0 – Focus Writing - Fokus Schreiben: Berlin (Hi)stories and the Faces of the Metropolis

This course is designed especially for students who wish to improve their writing skills in order to become independent, confident and proficient writers of German. The thematic basis for the course is Fokus Schreiben: Berlin (Hi)stories and the Faces of the Metropolis. This content-based course is designed for students who wish to improve their linguistic skills with a focus on writing and a review of grammar in order to become independent, confident, and proficient writers and communicators in German. The thematic basis for the course is the city of Berlin and the personalities, places, historical events, cultural and artistic trends, and visions that have shaped this unique, diverse, dynamic, and fascinating city during the twentieth and are shaping it during the twenty-first century. Course materials will include materials from a variety of sources, fictional works by German-speaking authors, current news features, cultural reports, feature films, excerpts from a television series, and short films. We will also plan an excursion to Chicago to explore connections between Chicago and Berlin with a focus on architecture and on German heritage. You will have many chances to express yourselves creatively in formal as well as informal contexts, including a course-based student magazine.Grammar topics relevant for each unit will be reviewed thoroughly and integrated in context.

Prerequisite in German: German 102-3.

German 309-1 – Advanced Business German: the German Economy

This course will give you an overview of the German economy, its underlying structures, its current trends and some of the political and global issues it is facing today. Throughout the course, you will gain tools that will enable you to become well-versed in German economic and sociopolitical topics. While the course is designed to introduce you to a variety of issues, you will also be able to delve deeper into one topic of your choice for your final project, such as national health care insurance or immigration. Although content-driven, the course will also further develop your language skills. You will expand your vocabulary and become familiar with advanced grammar structures used heavily in the business context. In-class activities and will focus on how to present graphics and statistics, and lead informative discussions in a business setting.
Prerequisite in German: Two 200-level courses in German or permission of the DUS.

German 322-0 – German Contributions to World Literature - The Writer in Exile: Thomas Mann from Fascist Germany to Los Angeles

Courses taught under this heading may address various topics at the intersection of German literature, culture, and history. The Writer in Exile: Thomas Mann from Fascist Germany to Los Angeles. Thomas Mann left Germany shortly after the Nazis rose to power in 1933. After spending a few years in exile in Switzerland, he moves to the US in 1938 - first to Princeton, NJ and a few years later to Pacific Palisades, CA, where he lived until 1952. In this class, we will explore the literary texts Thomas Mann produced in his US exile as well as his political activism. While this class is designed as a reading course, we will also look at Thomas Mann's reception in Germany and the US and we will examine what it means to study literature in translation. Please consult Caesar for current topic. German 246 may be repeated for credit with different topics.

Prerequisites: None.
This course counts for Distribution Area VI.

German 334-0 – Writers and their Critics - Kafka and his Successors

Courses under this rubric will expose students to texts of leading writers in German through a discussion of the criticism these texts have evoked. Students will thereby be given the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between literary texts and their historical and critical interpretation. Kafka and his Successors. Almost a hundred years after his untimely death in 1924 Kafka’s literary, cultural, and political significance has only ever increased, for his uncanny imaginary—often populated by animals—continues to speak with renewed urgency to readers across the globe. This seminar is divided into three parts. In the first, we will be reading a series of Kafka’s shorter writings, ranging from “The Transformation [Metamorphosis]” to some fragments about a man who, though dead, sails on the rivers of the earth. In the second part, we will read three writers who absorbed the exactness of Kafka’s imaginary into their own work: Jorge Luis Borges, Ingeborg Bachmann, and J. M. Coetzee. In the final part, we will return to Kafka, and ask ourselves how we see his writing now that we’ve encountered some of his most transformative readers. During the first two parts, students write brief responses to each week’s reading; at the end of the second part, students submit an abstract of their final essay; the third part is reserved for the process of essay writing. No knowledge of German or Spanish is required.

Prerequisites: None.
This course counts for Distribution Area VI.

German 335-0 – Minority Voices in Germany

Starting out from the question: “What is German?”, this course explores the changing understandings of national identity in postwar Germany. In this context, the course examines fiction, autobiography, poetry, and political and theoretical writings by and about “minority voices” in Germany in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Questions the course will explore include: What is the relationship between autobiographical writing and identity? What is a “minority” and how might we conceive of “minority voices” in terms of ethnicity, religious belief, gender, class, and community? What can our readings teach us about the role of “minority literature” in Germany?

Prerequisite in German: Three 200-level courses in German (at least one in literature) or permission of the DUS.

This course counts for Distribution Area VI.

GERMAN 408 – Critical Theory and Religion

This course explores the central place the concept of “religion” has occupied in the development of critical theory and, in turn, the role critical theory has played in reframing “religion” in modernity and in the contemporary geopolitical moment. We take up the question, “Is critique secular,” as we consider the contributions, potential and actual, of “religion” to social transformation.

Back to top