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 |
MW 3:30PM-4:50PM |
|
|
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 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 the city of Berlin and the personalities, places, historical events, cultural trends, and visions that have shaped it during the 20th and are shaping it during the 21st Century. Course materials will include current texts from newspapers and magazines, fictional works by German-speaking authors, as well as feature films, episodes of a German telenovela, music, and videos. Students will learn to analyze and to produce portraits of people and places, narratives, and film reviews. Grammar topics relevant for each unit will be reviewed thoroughly and integrated in context.
Prerequisite in German: German 102-3.
German 221-3 – Introduction to Literature: 1945 - today
This course, designed for majors and non-majors, introduces students to representative short stories by significant postwar German-speaking authors (1945 through to the present). This literature emerges from a period of enormous political, moral, and economical flux in Germany, and highlights important social, political, and intellectual dynamics present in postwar, and then post wall German society. Themes addressed in the literature include the recent German past, the representation of history, individual versus collective guilt, gender and sexuality, exile and alienation, the relationship of the individual to a modern technological society, immigration, and new challenges faced by Germany after unification. 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 Overman,” “The Will to Power,” “The Eternal Return of the Same”—these three terms are often, and quite rightly, associated with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. For the first part of this class, we will examine the principal book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in which Nietzsche develops the relation among these terms, while at the same time showing through his strange mode of writing what it would entail to “understand” these terms and thereby come to live a life that has been transformed by such “understanding.” In the second part of the class, we will read a variety of Kafka’s stories, beginning with “In the Penal Colony,” that prompt readers to reflect on what it is required to “understand” something, starting with the elements and events in the story itself. Guided by the premise that “The Overman” is not meant to be “human”—but is not also not to be understood as a non-human “animal”—the class proceeds to examine a variety of Kafka’s stories about such “animals” as an ape that writes a letter to the representatives of a modern university, a dog that begins to worry about where dogdom receives its food, and a mouse-people who trust, but only up to a point, their singer named “Josefine.” All the readings and discussion will be in English; those who are able to read the texts in German will be encouraged to do so.
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, 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. Local experts will be invited to speak to the class, and 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 to the present day. 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.
Literature Fine Arts Distro Area
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
German 303-0 – Advanced Creative Expression in German: Speaking
This course is designed to help students improve their listening comprehension and speaking skills to become creative, independent, and sophisticated users of spoken German. The content focuses on exploring standpoints, developing arguments, and expressing points of view using a variety of media such as authentic material from the German press, German television, news broadcasts, documentaries and film excerpts for interpretive activities and discussions. The class discussion is tailored to students’ interests and needs.
Prerequisite in German: Two 200-level courses in German or permission of the DUS.
Advanced Expression
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity