Undergraduate German 2022-2023

Students will gain detailed knowledge and understanding of the fascinating political and cultural developments and historical events in 20th century Germany.

They will be introduced in weekly lectures and tutorials to a variety of texts and contemporary films.

This course is taught in English and normally taken in conjunction with GM1054 German for Beginners 1. It is specifically recommended to students with the intention to proceed with German Studies beyond level one.

No pre-requisites are required.

This module is designed for students with an SCE H in German or equivalent. The course develops receptive and productive oral and written German language skills. Students who are considering applying for entry to German Honours must take this course.

Learn more about German 20th-century literature, dealing with the events that shaped German and European history. As in all good literature, we will discuss universal themes and topics covering all of the most important aspects of modern life.  

This language course provides students with a sound foundation in German (grammar and vocabulary). It enables students to understand the gist of authentic written and spoken German and to speak and write about familiar topics with a degree of accuracy and fluency.

No previous knowledge of German is required, but this course is also for students which took German at school before, on any level lower than Higher or A-level.

With 3 Language Classes and 1 Language Practical per week this course encourages and supports students to develop their personal self-study strategies.

This course is intended for beginners, wishing to proceed with German Studies beyond level 1. It provides an introduction to selected German Short Stories from the 20th-century, with a particular focus on relating these to their cultural, historical and social context.

This module is designed for students with an SCE H in German or equivalent. The course develops receptive and productive oral and written German language skills. Students who are considering applying for entry to German Honours must take this course. The course builds on GM1050.

This language course provides students with a sound foundation in German (grammar and vocabulary). It enables students to understand the gist of authentic written and spoken German and to speak and write about familiar topics with a degree of accuracy and fluency.

No previous knowledge of German is required, but this course is also for students which took German at school before, on any level lower than Higher or A-level.

With 3 Language Classes and 1 Language Practical per week this course encourages and supports students to develop their personal self-study strategies.

Learn more about modern German history, culture and literature while also extending your skills in reading German texts.  

The course consists of language classes leading to advanced communicative competence in German and it will include the analysis of contemporary texts drawn from a variety of contexts. This course may be taken only by students who have completed the German for Beginners courses.

This level two language course will build on and extend students' fluency and written skills in German.

Learn more about modern German history and culture while also extending your skills in reading German texts. 

The intention of the course is to extend and reinforce further students' command of German grammar, vocabulary and syntactic structures, and to introduce various styles of written and spoken German. The course builds on the work done in GM2040 and  is intended only for continuing beginners. 

Building on work done in GM 2042, the course will develop further language skills.

This course consists of the study of selected aspects of German culture and involves the close analysis of German texts. 

This course will examine several landmark texts of modern Austrian literature and, indeed, world literature. We will look at Arthur Schnitzler’s examination of bourgeois hypocrisy in Fräulein Else, Franz Kafka’s dystopian presentation of an individual versus a powerful bureaucracy in Das Schloss, Ingeborg Bachmann’s depiction of a female subject’s struggle for identity in Malina, and Thomas Bernhard’s critique of the long shadow of Austria’s past in Heldenplatz. We will examine the works’ social and historical contexts, as well as the authors’ innovative style and use of language.

This junior honours language course will build on and extend students' written skills and fluency in German.

This course offers advanced German language learning at Level 3. The course runs for only the first semester.

Far away - and yet so near.

By reading we can travel, not only to other worlds, but also into our own.

In recent decades, environmental crisis has become a global concern. In this course we examine how literary writers have engaged with issues such as pollution, nuclear disaster and climate change. If we are to prevent future environmental disaster we need more than a scientific understanding of facts – we need to understand how attitudes towards the environment are culturally shaped, and how environmental discourse is generated, debated and circulated.

Why are we endlessly fascinated with murder and violence? The more peaceful the society, the greater the fascination - so it seems.

This course will examine several landmark texts of modern Austrian literature and, indeed, world literature. We will look at Arthur Schnitzler’s examination of bourgeois hypocrisy in Fräulein Else, Franz Kafka’s dystopian presentation of an individual versus a powerful bureaucracy in Das Schloss, Ingeborg Bachmann’s depiction of a female subject’s struggle for identity in Malina, and Thomas Bernhard’s critique of the long shadow of Austria’s past in Heldenplatz. We will examine the works’ social and historical contexts, as well as the authors’ innovative style and use of language.

This level 4 course is specifically aimed at students who want to improve their German Language skills, but who are not taking German as  part of a single or joint Honours programme in German Studies. It consists of a German language class, a composition class and an oral class.

Students engage in their first larger project of independent research. The dissertation is to be written in German and followed by a 20 minute Viva.

Far away - and yet so near.

By reading we can travel, not only to other worlds, but also into our own.

Building on the skills gained during the Junior Honours language course and before, this module expands and refines German language expertise in writing, reading, speaking and listening, to an advanced level, for their final exit written and oral exam in German.

In recent decades, environmental crisis has become a global concern. In this course we examine how literary writers have engaged with issues such as pollution, nuclear disaster and climate change. If we are to prevent future environmental disaster we need more than a scientific understanding of facts – we need to understand how attitudes towards the environment are culturally shaped, and how environmental discourse is generated, debated and circulated.

Students engage in their first larger project of independent research. The dissertation is to be written in German and followed by a 20 minute Viva.

Why are we endlessly fascinated with murder and violence? The more peaceful the society, the greater the fascination - so it seems.