Fall 2026 Class Schedule
FALL 2026 CLASS SCHEDULE
| Course | Title | Instructor | Time | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 101-1-20 | Beginning German | Meuser | MWF 9:30AM-10:40AM | |
| 101-1-21 | Beginning German | Reeder | MWF 11:00AM-12:10PM | |
| 101-1-22 | Beginning German | DeSocio | MWF 12:30PM-1:40PM | |
| 101-1-23 | Beginning German | Ryder | MWF 3:30PM-4:40PM | |
| 102-1-20 | Intermediate German | Kerlova | MWF 9:30AM-10:40AM | |
| 102-1-21 | Intermediate German | Zahner | MWF 11:00AM-12:10PM | |
| 102-1-22 | Intermediate German | Kerlova | MWF 12:30PM-1:40PM | |
| 102-1-23 | Intermediate German | Zeller | MWF 3:30PM- 4:40PM | |
| 104-7 | College Seminar | DeSocio |
MWF 2:00PM-2:50M |
Love and Life on the Dance Floor: Berlin Dance Music and Club Culture |
| 205-0 |
Focus Writing |
Zeller | MWF 1:00PM-1:50PM | Berlin Faces the Metropolis |
|
221-0 |
Introduction to Literature: 1945-today | Lys |
TTh 11:00AM-12:20PM |
|
|
236-0 |
Kafka and Nietzsche | Fenves | MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM | |
|
250-0 |
Cultural History of Beer and Brewing | Ryder | TTh 12:30PM-1:50PM | |
| 303-0 |
Advanced Creative Expression in German: Speaking |
Lys | TTh 2:00PM- 3:20PM | |
| 403-0 | German Literature and Critical Thought, 1900-1945 | Fenves |
M 2:00PM- 5:00PM |
|
FALL 2026 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
GER 101-1,2,3 : Beginning German
The Beginning German sequence offers students a systematic introduction to German language and culture emphasizing the four modalities: speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing. The first quarter (101-1) offers a systematic review of basic German words, phrases with a cultural focus on Germany, an introduction of simple grammar items, and short interview practice at the end of the quarter. The second quarter (101-2) includes a variety of writing assignments, cultural presentations, reading poems by Goethe, the visit of a Mystery Guest, as well as intensive work with the strong and irregular verbs. In the third quarter (101-3), students will read and discuss short stories and plays by Grimm, Brecht and Kafka! The highlight will be an in-class skit performance which culminates in the almost famous *Evening O' Skits* featuring the best student selected skits from first and second-year German.
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
The first quarter of the three-quarter sequence of Intermediate German has several goals:
- development of linguistic proficiency
- acquisition of cultural literacy
- insight into German-speaking countries and their place in Europe in the past and today.
By the end of the academic year, students will be able to handle a variety of communicative tasks in straightforward social situations, including predictable and concrete exchanges necessary for functioning abroad. Once students complete the Intermediate German sequence, they are ready to go and experience life in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
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.
GER 104-7 : First Year Seminar - Love and Life on the Dance Floor: Berlin Dance Music and Club Culture
As a College Seminar, the course will introduce you to college life and the essential, but mostly unwritten, rules, expectations, resources, and habits for you to succeed as a student. This “hidden curriculum” will include topics such as time management, emotional health, academic integrity and the mechanics of citation, and how to seek help. Our assignments will include a variety of small, weekly writing assignments and short summative, comparative, and analytic essays to begin your familiarization with college writing. This course offers a study of Berlin, Germany’s world-famous role as a major center of contemporary dance music (techno, house, disco) and nightclub culture. We will examine these genres of dance music, how DJs create music and the technology of sound, the experience of dancing and of clubs as spaces, and the politics of belonging, representation, and identity on the dance floor, in particular its complicated exchanges with Black communities in Chicago and Detroit. We also will consider the social, cultural, and political implications of nightlife and dance music as a site of community-building and love, especially for queer communities.
German 205-0 – Focus Writing - Berlin Faces 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.
Prerequisite in German: German 102-3.
German 221-3 – Introduction to Literature: 1945 - today
This course introduces students to representative short stories by major German-‐speaking authors' writings from 1945 through the present. The stories selected are representative of a dynamic period in German literature and highlight important social, political, and intellectual issues including questions of the recent German past and the representation of history; questions of individual versus collective guilt, questions of gender and sexuality, exile and alienation, the relationship of the individual to a modern technological society; and new themes and issues since the reunification of Germany. In addition, the course examines the genre of the short story, with attention to different modes and styles of writing.
Prerequisite: One 200-level course in German.
Advanced Expression
Literature Fine Arts Distro Area
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
German 236-0 – Kafka and Nietzsche
“The superhuman,” “the will to power,” “the eternal return of the same”—these phrases are often, and quite rightly, associated with the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. For the first part of this class, we will read the principal book in which Nietzsche seeks to communicate his most expansive and deepest thoughts, namely Thus Spake Zarathustra, which begins with the announcement of “the superhuman” and culminates in the teaching of “eternal return.” In the second part of the class, we will examine a selection of Kafka’s stories, beginning with “In the Penal Colony” and proceeding to a sampling of animal stories, guided by the premise that some of the figures we encounter—ranging from the Old Commandant in the penal colony to an enigmatic mouse who was once the singer for her people—are intimately related to what Nietzsche envisioned under the heading of “the superhuman.
Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Discipine
Ethics Values Distro Area
Interdisciplinary Distro - See Rules
Literature Fine Arts Distro Area
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
German 250-0 – Cultural History of Beer and Brewing from Germany to Chicago
This course will provide an overview of many different historical and practical aspects of beer and brewing in German-speaking culture, while also including the rich history of German beer making in Chicago from the 1850s to today. Beyond the history and science of beer in Germany and Chicago, we will read fictional and philosophical interpretations of beer and its cultural impact, from Martin Luther's advocation of drinking and the importance of alcohol in E.T.A. Hoffmann's work, to Friedrich Nietzsche's comparison of beer to Christianity. We will learn about the science of brewing by focusing on the different beer styles and brewing techniques used by German brew-masters and tavern owners from the Middle Ages until the present day. Both an experienced brewer from Germany and an expert on local history will be invited to class. Finally, a beer tasting of non-alcoholic malted beverages will be included as part of the curriculum, as well as a tour of a local Chicago brewery.
The course is taught in English, and all reading material is in English. This course requires no knowledge of the German language, though text will be provided in the original German for those who know German.
Literature Fine Arts Distro Area
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
German 303-0 – Advanced Creative Expression in German: Speaking
This advanced German course is designed to enhance students' listening comprehension and speaking proficiency, empowering them to become confident, creative, and independent users of spoken German. Through a student-centered approach, the course fosters sophisticated communication skills across a broad range of contemporary topics. Students will explore and critically engage with key social, political, and historical issues that shape intercultural relations in Germany. The course emphasizes themes such as power sharing, justice, equity, and the protection and promotion of diversity in a multicultural and multiethnic society. Topics may include: extremism and the far-right in German politics; refugee experiences and integration; social equality and poverty, Germany's energy transition. Students will have the opportunity to select topics of interest and contribute to shaping class discussions. Learning activities include small-group discussions, collaborative projects, and a variety of speaking tasks—ranging from descriptive and narrative exercises to analytical reports, structured debates, and critical discussions.
This course is taught in German
Prerequisite in German: Two 200-level courses in German or permission of the DUS.
Advanced Expression
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
German 403-0 – German Literature and Critical Thought, III: Benjamin on Truth, Tragedy, and Trauerspiel
The aim of this seminar is for all of its participants to gain a better conception of what Walter Benjamin was seeking to accomplish in the habilitation-thesis he prepared for the University of Frankfurt in the mid-1920s, later published under the title Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels (Origin of the German Mourning Play). The seminar is broken into two parts. In the first, we begin by discussing the brief essays Benjamin identifies on the book’s dedication page as its preconception, and we proceed to examine various habilitation-themes with which Benjamin experimented before deciding to concentrate on the theme of the German Trauerspiel. In the second part of the seminar, we will work through the three sections of the book, starting with a brief examination of its “Cognition-Critical Preface,” to which we return in the final weeks, when we also read the preliminary draft of the Preface along with the outlines Benjamin prepared for a conclusion he never completed. In the early weeks of the quarter every participant is expected to identify a tragedy or Trauerspiel that will be the basis of an in-class presentation during the second part of the seminar. The tragedy or Trauerspiel does not have to be one that Benjamin discusses; it’s best if it is one that derives from the participant’s planned field of expertise.