First-Year Courses in German (Division 379)

Winter Term, 2000 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hmr/101/Kursseite.html

German 101 is an introductory course for students who have not previously studied German. Few things are more fun and exciting than learning a new language for the first time, and we hope students will approach the course in this spirit. The course focuses systematically on the development of all four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), and aims to do this by taking advantage of the cognitive advantages adult language learners have over children. This means focussing on material that will engage learners' interest, creativity, and sense of humor, as well as on the development of effective language learning strategies.

The course will include in particular a series of videotaped lectures by distinguished University of Michigan German studies faculty on culture, history, economics, philosophy, music, linguistics, and literature, televised over UMTV, which will give students a taste of how they can eventually take advantage of the wide range of language opportunities at the University of Michigan, such as the specialty 232 courses (see below) and the subsequent sequences of courses in areas of study ranging from Business and Science, to Literature and Philosophy.

By the end of the term, students will have a firm foundation in some of the fundamental elements of German grammar and will be able to understand and respond appropriately to a variety of texts and basic conversational situations.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Juerg Friedrich (jfriedri@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hmr/103/Kursseite.html

German 103 provides a review of the fundamental components of the German language for students who have had prior German language instruction before entering the University of Michigan.

The course focuses systematically on all four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), and aims to take advantage of the cognitive advantages adult language learners have over children. This means focusing on material that will engage learners' interest, creativity, and sense of humor, as well as on the development of effective language learning strategies. The course will include in particular a series of videotaped lectures by distinguished University of Michigan German studies faculty on culture, history, economics, philosophy, music, linguistics and literature, televised over UMTV, which will give students a taste of how they can eventually take advantage of the wide range of language opportunities at the University of Michigan, such as the specialty 232 courses (see above) and the subsequent sequences of courses in areas of study ranging from Business and Science to Literature and Philosophy.

By the end of the term, students will have been exposed to all the essentials of German grammar, which will then be reviewed and extended in the third and fourth terms. Students will be able to cope with a variety of conversational situations and written texts. In particular, they will have the necessary "survival skills" for a visit to a German-speaking country, as well as a foundation for doing intellectual work in German.

Credits: (1).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The unwritten German class! In this course, you will dramatize everyday situations that ask for spontaneously expressing an opinion or formulating an argument. The topics that nourish our discussions are both inclusive and inconclusive: current cultural events, German etiquette, popular magazines. By cross-analyzing various resources, you will hone your conversation skills while you learn simultaneously about German cultural institutions. Although far from being exclusive, this class may address in particular those of you who are currently enrolled in German 221, 231, or 232 and those who intend to participate in the junior-year-abroad program. Graduates of previous German 305 classes are regretfully barred from this course.

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hmr/231/Kursseite.html

In this course, grammar and vocabulary from the first year will be reviewed and extended. Greater emphasis will be placed on reading German texts and talking and writing about them in German. Reading texts include both short literary works and non-fictional texts from a variety of fields ranging from history to science and the arts.

By the end of the course, students will be able to read and write about short texts from periodicals and textbooks, and classic texts by Nietzsche, Kafka, etc., independently, so that they will be able to pursue their own specific interests in German 232 and beyond. Course requirements include daily homework assignments (reading, writing, learning vocabulary, etc.) regular attendance, video assignments, tests, and quizzes.

Instead of a final examination, students will work in groups to produce short videos, which will be screened on the last day of classes. By the end of the course, students should be quite familiar with all the basics of German grammar, and be able to survive and converse fairly comfortably in a German-speaking country. In particular, they should be ready to embark on an introduction to the study in German of an academic discipline of their choice in one of the specialty 232 courses.

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this course, students complete the four-term introductory language sequence by selecting one of several "special topics" courses intended as an introduction to the study of an academic discipline, such as Music, Philosophy, History, or Science, in German. Students should emerge from the course prepared and motivated to do work (or read for pleasure) in German in this field throughout their academic career and beyond. Students are strongly encouraged to arrange their schedules so they can enroll in the section whose topic interests them the most, in order to get the maximum benefit from this course.

Interest in the course content is the most effective motivation for language study, and students can emerge from 232 with the genuine pride in what they are able to do with their German. More generally, students should be ready by the end of the course to pursue an internship or study abroad in Germany, and are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the assistance offered by the German department and by the Office of International Programs in this regard.

The special topics and course requirements for this term's sections are given below.

Section 001 – Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Their Lives, Scholarship, and Collection of Fairy Tales.

Instructor(s): Bruce Spencer (bspencer@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will explore the lives of the nineteenth-century scholars Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and their ever-popular collection of fairy tales. The primary goal of the course will be to situate the most famous work of the Brothers Grimm into their wide-ranging scholarly interests.

The course will include an introduction to their lives and scholarship. Both the intellectual motivations behind the fairy tale project and the manner in which the tales were collected will be explored in depth. The course will devote significant time to the tales themselves, including many that are not well-known in the U.S.

A wide range of materials and assignments will be employed in the course. Required texts include an edition of the tales and a coursepack containing excerpts from biographies of the Brothers Grimm, passages from the Grimms’ scholarly publications and personal correspondence, and exercises to improve students’ reading and writing skills.

Section 002 – The German Conception of History.

Instructor(s): Andrew Donson (donson@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This special theme section explores the problem of History in modern German culture. Modern historical science emerged in German-language Europe in the nineteenth century, and its development was linked to the process of nation-building particular to Germany. Today, too, discussions of German politics, national identity, and culture are saturated with the “problem” of recent German history, in particular the shadow of the Nazi past.

In this course, we will explore the language of German history as it moved through various stages: Romantic notions of the Volk community; the link between emergent German "historicism" and the conservative ideal of the authoritarian State, Nietzsche’s dramatic repudiation of historicism – right up through the fiery public “Historians’ Debate” of the 1980s about the significance of the Holocaust and the right of the Germans to a “normal” history. Students will work through the texts with the assistance of a computer module which will help make connections between the texts and also provide glossary definitions, maps and timelines, visual and audio-visual sources, and workbook exercises.

Section 003 – Wagner's Ring

Instructor(s): Astrid Beck (astridb@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will focus on Wagner's RING: DAS RHEINGOLD, DIE WALKUERE, SIEGFRIED, and GOETTERDAEMMERUNG. Readings in German will include portions of the libretti of the operas, highlights of Wagner's biographies, background readings on culture, musical history, and background for the story lines. Guest lecturers will include specialists in music and vocal instruction. Our goal is to perform some arias in class. The language of instruction is German.

Students will be evaluated on class participation, grammar exercises, essays, oral presentations, a final exam. There are no musical prerequisites for this section.

Section 004 – Contemporary German Society.

Instructor(s): Janet Van Valkenburg (jvv@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

While building a basic vocabulary and reviewing essential grammar appropriate to this level, students will be reading a variety of authentic texts dealing with such current issues as German’s geographic location; Germany’s recent history and the need to come to terms with its past; the reunification of “the two” Germanys and repercussions thereof in contemporary German society and business world; foreigners in German society and workplace; and the evolution of the European Union.

Section 008 – Classics of German Literature.

Instructor(s): Juerg Friedrich (jfriedri@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This section offers an introduction to German literature through the reading of some of the most important texts in German (as well as world) literature. Our readings will proceed backwards, from Dürrenmatt (20th century) to Lessing (18th century), passing by such other eminent authors as Kafka, Heine, Goethe, and Schiller.

Through these texts we will not only deal with literary history, but also touch upon political and social developments, and central issues of German culture. In Pursuit of this goal we will read the texts at a moderate pace to allow ample opportunity for exploring their meaning and discussing them under a large variety of aspects and perspectives. This means that class participation will be strongly encouraged and, in order to improve both speaking and writing skills in German, a fair amount of writing will be integral to the course.

Section 010 – Art History.

Instructor(s): Weiss (mrlatham@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is designed as an introduction to some of the central issues of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art history in Germany. The course devotes special attention to the relationship between visual and linguistic and literary forms of expression. We will look at artwork that seeks to translate literary texts into a visual medium, but we will also consider the relationship between more theoretical written texts and the visual manifestation of these ideas.

In addition to texts from within the discipline of art history, we will consider the writings of artists themselves, and examine how these writings reinforce as well as complicate the meanings we seek in visual representation. The course includes numerous slide presentations, the examination of images in the University Museum collection, and a trip to the Detroit Institute of the Arts. Taught in German.