A-Track - Semi-Intensive German Language - Beginner
This course is designed for the beginner student with no previous knowledge of German. This course will help students to expand their competencies in listening, speaking, reading, and writing within six weeks. Students will deepen their knowledge of grammar, as well as their knowledge of the German culture
A Track - Semi-Intensive German Language - Beginner
This course is designed for beginners with basic knowledge of German. This course will help students to expand their competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing within six weeks, deepen your knowledge of grammar as well as their knowledge of the German culture.
A Track - Semi-Intensive German Language - Intermediate
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Within six weeks, this course will help students to expand their competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as strengthen their knowledge of grammar while emphasizing self-correction. Furthermore, students will analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background.
A Track - Semi-Intensive German Language - Intermediate Advanced
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level and the first part of the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Within six weeks, this course will help students to expand their competencies in speaking and writing while emphasizing self-correction. Furthermore, it will help students to increase their vocabulary, to deepen grammar usage, and develop effective reading and listening strategies. In addition, students will analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background.
A Track - Berlin and the Digital Music Era
In many ways, Berlin is a center for contemporary electronic music. This is primarily due to the strong connection between technological and aesthetic developments. Nightclubs, such as the Berghain, have a worldwide reputation for their sound systems, which allow a specific acoustic experience and encourage nightlong dancing and partying. Berlin-based companies such as Ableton and Native Instruments are global leaders in their music software, especially in the context of techno, electronica and electronic dance music. Many DJs and musicians´ market themselves or their tracks via blogs and streaming services. Particularly in the context of sound art, there are fairly strong parallels with media art.
Due to the key 'digital' aspects of such phenomena, we often speak of a 'Digital Age' in which Berlin plays a particular role in the field of music. However, the 'analog' phenomena are constantly growing, so that there is some debate over the beginning of a 'post-digital age'. This corresponds with an increasing focus both on the virtual and haptic dimension. Among other things, software companies have made strong efforts over the past years to develop their own hardware controllers for their computer programs in order to be able to better design musical processes manually.
Based on such phenomena, the course will explore the relationship between aesthetic trends and technological developments with the focus on the cultural and economic conditions in Berlin. Particular emphasis will be made on the past and present of techno, (experimental) electronica and electronic dance music. What makes Berlin a magnet not only for thrill-seeking club-goers, but also for DJs, musicians, producers and developers? How does this relate to the recent past of Berlin since the fall of the Berlin Wall, especially given the gentrification processes? To what extent is Berlin's creative scene at the same time internationally networked and can its conditions only be understood in a global context?
Beyond the Berlin perspective, the course examines the current conditions of production and consumption as well as the performance and distribution of music. How do legal/illegal file sharing and streaming services affect listening to music? What is changing in music culture through sampling, remixing, mashup and approaches to interactive music in video games? What opposing trends are out there?
In addition to the joint discussion of texts and film excerpts, excursions also provide an opportunity for an exchange with proven experts in the course subject areas.
At the end of the course, the participants can elaborate on and present a topic (either alone or in a group) of their choice in the context of the general list of topics on the course.
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A Track - Semi-Intensive German Language - Advanced
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
The course aims to deepen students’ competence in speaking and writing and to expand and refine their vocabulary usage so that they are able to express and discuss ideas, opinions, and information at the academic level. Special attention is given to the consistent use of self-correction. Furthermore, the course helps students to develop effective reading and listening strategies and deepen their knowledge of grammar structures. In addition, students will analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background.
A Track - The Interplay of Cultures, Food, Eating and Drinking: the Case of Berlin
This course builds upon concepts in basic nutrition to promote the understanding of how socio-cultural, environmental and psychological factors influence eating habits and health. Implications for health practitioners, health educators and for anyone interested in food and culture will be discussed.
Students will be exposed to long-standing culinary traditions and explore changes occurring in recent years and reasons for these changes, with a focus on Germany and Berlin. The course will familiarize students with the history of Berlin through foods and traditions introduced through the years and their connection to historical events. Further, the course will promote the understanding of Berlin’s immigrant populations through the examination of the diverse range of food options available in the city. Food options will also be examined with regards to refugee populations to promote understanding of the situation of a range of different groups in the city.
A number of experiential learning activities will underline the students understanding of the city’s culinary traditions. These learning activities will include: 1) A tour of Berlin’s breweries to understand the city’s old brewing tradition and the more recent establishment of microbreweries, 2) a visit to the currywurst vendors in the city, as currywurst is known as the most popular street food in Berlin, and 3) a visit to the Kreuzberg district to examine the diverse food options available and reflect on the composition of Berlin’s immigrant community and the place of immigrants in German society. While the experiential activities have a limited focus given time constraints, course discussion will focus on a number of other foods and characteristics of the German diet.
In analyzing the culinary traditions of immigrants in Berlin, there will also be a discussion of the recent influx of refugees and the influence this may have on German society, traditions, and food. The activities planned will expose students to the diversity of food-related practices in Berlin, and course assignments will help them to connect these practices with the history of Germany and the changes that have occurred in the country’s composition and identity.
Course learning outcomes:
- Students will be able to identify and analyze the complex interconnections between socio-cultural, environmental and psychological factors and eating habits and health.
- Students will be able to explain how his/her food cultural biases can affect his/her ability to interact and understand individuals from another culture.
- As a result of critically analyzing articles and text linking food and culture, students will be able to identify the historical events that shaped German food culture and describe the complexity of German food culture today.
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A Track - Creating a Solo Performance: Berlin Cabaret/Kabarett
This course is an acting course that introduces the student to the research, writing and performance techniques of cabaret performers.
Kabarett is the German word for “Cabaret” but has two different meanings. The first meaning is the same as in English; describing a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theater (often the word “Cabaret” is used in German for this as well to distinguish this form). The latter describes a kind of political satire. Unlike comedians who make fun of all kind of things, Kabarett artists (German: Kabarettisten) pride themselves as dedicated almost completely to political and social topics of more serious nature which they criticize using techniques like cynicism, sarcasm, and irony.
Peter Jelavich stated in his book “Berlin Cabaret (Studies in Cultural History)” that every Metropolis tends to generate an urban mythology and Berlin is no exception. One of the more enduring fables associated with the city is that it was a hotbed for Cabaret.
Students will be seeking to assay that tale by examining Cabaret in Europe and specifically in Berlin from 1901-1944 while creating their own solo performance based on research of sources as such diaries, letters, memoirs, and autobiographies that relate Berlin Kabarett. Subjects can be figures such as Gisela May, Trude Hestberg, Anita Berber, Claire Waldoff, Erwin Piscator, Hugo Ball, Blandine Ebinger, Kurt Weill and are of particular interest to the student.
While studying and analyzing the techniques of a wide variety of cabaret performers through its inception, students will explore aspects of writing monologues and implement those techniques with the ultimate goal of creating and performing their own material - a sense of truth- with the courage necessary to stand-alone on stage.
There will be field trips to notable Cabaret/Kabarett shows and venues in the city, which will inspire us visually. In addition to history-related readings assignments, the course will incorporate Lisa Appignanesi’s “The Cabaret” book for an overall understanding of the forms of artistic cabaret which were to emerge as a meeting place for artists where performance or improvisation takes place among peers, and cabaret as an intimate, small-scale, but intellectually ambitious review.
The class meets twice a week for three 90-minute segments each day.
The two segments of each class typically involve short lectures on historical and theatrical topics as well as seminar-style discussions of the assigned readings. Some class days devote time to in-depth acting exercises, analyzing the solo performance/cabaret vocabulary and technique. Some class days we will use the afternoon segment for film screenings, excursions to sites in the city or be working on your final presentation.
In addition to the regular class meetings and excursions, the Course Schedule includes a list of optionally recommended cabaret shows, plays, theatrical performances.
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B Track - History of European Art: Centers, Protagonists, and Cultural Identities
This course explores European art and architecture from the 15th to the 20th century with a particular focus on urban centers like Florence, Rome, Venice, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Berlin. The aim is to analyze how the visual arts contributed through the centuries to shape local identities as well as European cultural traditions common to different countries.
The course will present iconic moments of the history of the arts in Europe by drawing a special attention to episodes of cultural exchanges and hybridization that arose from travelling artworks as well as from artists’ travels. From the role of artists like Raphael and Michelangelo in 16th-century papal Rome to the rise of genre painting in the Flanders and the Dutch Republic of the Golden Age, from the ‘painters of modern life’ in 19th-century Paris to the German Avant-garde of the 1920s, we will analyze the artworks and their authors in relation to the different historical contexts and the places of their creation. Recurrent will be the focus on the complex interplay between artists and patrons, between local traditions, individual creativity and the broader social, political and cultural contexts in which artworks and buildings were produced.
Students will gain understanding of the main art movements and relevant artists from the Renaissance to the postwar period as well as the basic concepts and terminology of art history. Visits to the outstanding collections of Berlin museums will allow the participants to study original artifacts and to learn how to look closely at works of art.
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B Track - Seduction and Terror: Hitler's Germany
The ‘thousand year Reich’ that Hitler promised when he became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 lasted but 12 years. During this time, Hitler and his Nazi Party came to dominate Europe, terrorizing vast numbers of Germans, launching a devastating war, and orchestrating the murder of more than five million Jews. In spite of the terror and vast destruction, Hitler and the Nazi Party gained the active support and involvement of most Germans. How was this possible? What roles did seduction and terror play?
This class focuses on Hitler’s Germany and it begins with the 19th century background. Central to this session will be a discussion of the broad political currents, the agitators and petty demagogues who fueled the dissatisfaction and spread it widely. We will also examine the popular literature that Hitler and many of his supporters read and absorbed.
Crucial to understanding the lure of Hitler and the Nazi Party was Germany’s experience in the First World War, a conflict that decimated a generation and destroyed Europe, as it was known. It left in its wake a shattered, humiliated, and deeply torn Germany. In this climate of uncertainty and despair, Hitler and the Nazi Party grew from a small group on the fringe of radical politics in Munich to a national force. This development is of central importance to this session. Those traits of Hitler crucial to his success, particularly his charisma, will be defined and analyzed within the broader political context of Weimar political and cultural life.
In late January 1933, Hitler gained the long desired but elusive goal: he became chancellor of Germany, the leader of a coalition government. The political intrigues leading to his appointment will be discussed. Much attention will be paid in this session to how Hitler, his cabinet, and supporters were able to consolidate the control over the state and society within a matter of months. This came at the cost of political liberties, through the growing use of terror, oppression, and intimidation. Yet, Hitler gained supporters as he seemingly offered economic stability and a new unity to the German people. How did the regime solidify its control over society and political life?
A key element of Hitler’s rule was the concentration camp system, what came to be a vast network of prisons, centers of oppression and death. How this developed from the dozens of small concentration camps set up across Germany immediately following Hitler’s takeover of power in 1933 to the well-organized and highly centralized system in 1939 will be the focus of this session. During the war, the concentration camp system spread across Germany and occupied Europe.
Hitler’s ambitions, the conquest of ‘living space’ in Eastern Europe, the ruthless exploitation of these territories, and the annihilation of the Jews, motivated his foreign ambitions and led directly to World War II, the most destructive conflict in human history. We will also discuss the measures taken against the handicapped, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma.
In Germany and in occupied Europe opposition and resistance emerged and challenged Nazi rule. Opponents were motivated by a variety of reasons, some personal, some political. These too will be discussed.
Lastly, the class will examine the end of the war, the so-called ‘zero hour’, the destruction and collapse of Germany.
We will also be visiting local museums, historical sites and locations that reveal the operations of Nazi rule. These visits to sites in and near Berlin are a key element of the class and the experience of studying here.
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B Track - Law, Society and Politics in Comparative Perspective
This course explores theoretical and historical perspectives on the intersection of law, society and politics, and aims to foster discussion of contemporary issues among students from different cultures and disciplines. After an introduction to comparative law and legal culture, we read some classical social theorists (Durkheim, Weber, and Marx), and consider their relevance to contemporary debates about morality, (dis)obedience, and conflict. Next, we investigate the role and operation of law in totalitarian settings such as Nazi and Communist Germany, then consider the challenges that such legacies pose for democracy, the rule of law, and the economy in post-totalitarian societies. In this context, we examine the challenges posed by freedom of speech, the need for ‘transitional justice’, and the relationship between law and the market. Finally, we examine the role of law, lawyers, and courts in social change.
Overall, the course aims to develop skills at using theory and history to inform debates on contemporary challenges, such as multiculturalism, punishment, (illegal) downloading/streaming/file-sharing, ‘illiberal democracy’ and authoritarianism, economic development, and social movements. In addition to gaining substantive expertise in various socio- and politico-legal fields, students develop communicative competence through participatory exercises, and intercultural competence through discussion with other students.
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B Track - Europe, Migration, Refugees
Regarding transnational migration, the European Union as a supranational community promotes a political reasoning between processes of consolidation and necessary conflict, between sovereignty and shared responsibility, between the right to define and delimit and the duty to negotiate. In ongoing economic crisis and facing unprecedented movements of people, the timeless normalcy of migration is often framed as crisis per se. Populist claims for cultural homogeneity and for closed borders undercut efforts for a common migration policy.
As the visibility of migration increases in various ways, migrants are often represented and imagined as a homogenous mass of ‘the other’. This leads to a problematic understanding of migration as something similar to a natural disaster that requires to be controlled and governed from a strategic top-down perspective. But the respective processes of negotiation on migration policy, within and across the outer borders of the Union, take place not only between the official institutions of nation-states, but on all scales of European populations. They also take place from a bottom-up perspective in the centres and at the margins of societies alike, where the single person contributes to the respective discourses as well: It is here, where either homogenizing images of threat are reproduced or sensible policies of individuality are practised.
Departing from diverse theories of migration (mainstream as well as critical perspectives), we will gain an overview of EU-level migration polity and recent migration- and border-management policies. We will analyse the conflicts, debates and discourses around the last years of increased immigration in Germany. Step by step we will get aware of the notion of identity politics, which can manifest in peaceful diversity, but is time and again prone to provoke social dynamics of disintegration. After analyzing the simplifying languages of exclusion in populist discourse, we will focus on the “legalization-market” of Almería/Spain, to learn about the imbrications of migration and economic calculations on one of the biggest “illegal labor markets” in the EU.
Scaling down perspective on the local level in the fieldtrips, we will engage with local authorities’ and politicians’ perspectives in Berlin. Diving deeper down we will start to change perspective: How do local activists develop and implement their own policies of welcoming migrants? What are the aims of and how do legal assessment organizations for migrants work? We will see, how refugees themselves perceive EU-migration policies and what they make themselves of their public positioning as a ‘problem’ or as a ‘burden’ to European Societies.
We will encounter migrants’ viewpoints, which reach beyond the usual framings of ‘the poor migrant’ as ‘passive victim’, as a threat or as the ‘(anti-)hero’ of globalization. We will encounter viewpoints on the EU, which will constructively criticize as well as graciously affirm the spirit of the Union. We will encounter viewpoints of hope.
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C Track - Intensive German Language - Beginner
This course is designed for the beginner student with no previous knowledge of German. This course is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning. Within six weeks, this course will help students to develop basic competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as a basic knowledge of the German culture.
C Track - Intensive German Language - Beginner
This course is designed for beginners with basic knowledge of German. This course is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning. This course will help students to expand their competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing within six weeks, deepen their knowledge of grammar as well as their knowledge of the German culture.
C Track - Intensive German Language - Intermediate
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This course is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning. Within six weeks, this course will help students to expand their competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as strengthen their knowledge of grammar while emphasizing self-correction. Students will also expand their knowledge of the German culture and analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background.
C Track - Intensive German Language - Intermediate Advanced
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level and the first part of the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This course is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning.
This course will help students to expand their competencies in speaking and writing within six weeks while emphasizing self-correction. Furthermore, it will help them to increase their vocabulary, to deepen grammar usage, and develop effective reading and listening strategies.
In addition, students will analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background.
C Track - Intensive German Language - Advanced
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This course is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning.
The course aims to deepen students’ competence in speaking and writing and to expand and refine their vocabulary usage so that they are able to express and discuss ideas, opinions, and information at the academic level. Special attention is given to the consistent use of self-correction. Furthermore, the course helps students to develop effective reading and listening strategies and deepen their knowledge of grammar structures.
In addition, students will analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background.
