GER 1120 – Elementary German I, multiple sections
Instructor: TBA
For more information, contact:
Dr. Christian Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316c
Email: cweber@fsu.edu
Introduction to German. Oral comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing are stressed.
May not be taken by native speakers. Students with more than two years of high school German or the equivalent should consult the department for placement. May not be taken concurrently with GER 1110, 1111, 1121, or 2220. Can be taken concurrently with GET 3130, GET 3524, or GEW 4592.
GER 1121 – Elementary German II, multiple sections
Instructor: TBA
For more information, contact:
Dr. Christian Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316c
Email: cweber@fsu.edu
Introduction to German. Oral comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing are stressed.
Prerequisite: Ger 1110 or 1120. May not be taken by native speakers. May not be taken concurrently with GER 1110, 1111, 1121, or 2220. Can be taken concurrently with GET 3130, GET 3524, or GEW 4592.
GER 2220 – Intermediate German, multiple sections
Instructor: TBA
For more information, contact:
Dr. Christian Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316c
Email: cweber@fsu.edu
Serves as final semester of the language requirement and as the transition to upper-level study. Contemporary reading matter, including films, slides, and recordings, serves as the basis for discussion. Prerequisite: GER 1121. May not be taken by native speakers. May not be taken concurrently with GER 1110, 1120, and/or 1121. Can be taken concurrently with GET 3130, GET 3524, or GEW 4592.
GER 3400 – Composition and Conversation
Course meetings: Mo/Wed 3:35 – 4:50 pm
Classroom: DIF 116
Instructor: Dr. Birgit Maier-Katkin
Office: Diffenbaugh 368
Email: bmaierkatkin@fsu.edu
This course is designed for students who have completed GER 2220 or the equivalent. The objective is to bring the language skills from the intermediate level to the beginning advanced level.
Students have an opportunity to develop their ability to write and converse in German at a beginning advanced level on topics of general interest. A student entering the advanced level can narrate and describe events in the present, future, and past (e.g., talk about past events, discuss plans, retell a story). In addition, students can express opinions (e.g., have an argument, participate in a discussion) as well as ask and answer questions and initiate, continue, and close a conversation. A student at the beginning advanced level can speak and write with enough grammatical accuracy that errors do not interfere with comprehension and do not contain mistakes made by beginners. This course is required for German majors, in addition if fulfills FSU´s Oral Communication Competency Requirement.
GER 3440 – German Business: Culture, Language, and Practice
Course meetings: Tu/Th: 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm
Classroom: BEL 0045
Instructor: Dr. Christian Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316c
Email: cweber@fsu.edu
This course will introduce the intermediate-level student to German of the business world (speaking and writing). The student will gain a basic understanding of German business practices and the economic, political, social, and cultural structures of business in the German speaking countries. The course also investigates historical and present developments of/in Germany, the European Union, the relationship of Germany with the US, and selected German companies.
A major objective of the course is to improve the students’ abilities to read, write, and speak German. In addition, the student will practice basic correspondence and speaking skills needed in business, e.g., letters, resumes, interviews, presentations.
Prerequisite: GER 2220 or permission of the Instructor.
Textbooks
Wehage, F.-J., Clay, G. Geschäftsdeutsch: An Introduction to German Business Culture. Updated edition (2015). ISBN-13: 9781585108008
Schroll-Machl, S. Doing Business with Germans: Their Perception, Our Perception. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 6th edition (2016). ISBN-13: 9783525461679
GER 3930 – Special Topics
“Guten Appetit!” German Food Culture
Course meetings: Tu/Th: 12:30 – 1:45 pm
Classroom: BEL 118
Instructor: Dr. A. Dana Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316
Email: aweber@fsu.edu
From Rumpelstilzchen’s song about beer-brewing and baking to the cannibal witch’s gingerbread house that Hänsel and Gretel discover in the woods; from family recipes and seasonal culinary traditions to the hybrid foods of German immigrants to America: German culture is preoccupied with food and drink. This course will introduce students to fairy-tales, short-stories, novellas, and films on German food themes. We will explore them with the help of “foodways” theories and methods from literary and culture studies, folklore, and anthropology. While learning about conceptions and representations of German foods as they have changed historically, students will train their German language skills in oral and written communication, in reading and in listening. At the end of this course, they will be familiar with the specificities of a fundamental area of German culture and will have increased their German language abilities. Expect field research and at least one cooking assignment. We will also create a class cookbook together.
Prerequisite: GER 2220 or permission of the Instructor. All readings will be on Canvas.
GET 3524 – German Cinema
“The Haunted Screen: German Cinema’s Tormented Souls and Eerie Strangers”
Course meetings: Tu: 5:15 – 7:30pm (screenings)/ Thur 5:15 – 6:15pm (discussions)
Classroom: DIF 129
Instructor: Dr. Christian Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316c
Email: cweber@fsu.edu
German cinema is one of the most distinct national cinematographic traditions. It is the cinema of the tormented soul that suffered from the negative effects and atrocities of two lost wars. As a consequence of the historical tragedies their country and culture experienced, Germans constantly needed to renegotiate their cultural self-understanding, to handle the traumatic experiences of the recent past and to find solutions for a peaceful co-existence with other nations that had been perceived as essential threats at various points in time. This course compares representations of the demonic in the “Gothic” movies of the expressionist period after World War I with more realistic demons in movies of the Nazi-time and after World War II (in the so-called “Rubble Films,” the “New German Cinema,” and the more recent “Berlin School”). German film provides a great case study for how film as modern art form with tremendous stylistic and aesthetic power is involved in defining and constructing a national culture.
This course is taught in English and has no prerequisites. It meets the Liberal Studies for the 21st Century competencies in the area of Thoughtful Patrons of and Participants in Cultural Practices and Diversity in Western Experience. It also offers credit for German majors and minors.
GEW 4591/GEW 5597 – Studies in an Author or Theme/Studies in a Period: Special Topics
“Concepts of Masculinity in German Literature and Film”
Course meetings: Tu/Th: 5:15 – 6:30 pm
Classroom: DIF 216
Instructor: Dr. A. Dana Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316
Email: aweber@fsu.edu
Chivalric values, duels, and bromances; soccer and figure-skating; Bluebeards and ladies with beards: this course introduces students to theoretical perspectives about masculinity and men studies by examples from German literature, films, and media from the Middle Ages to the present. How do they define men in their various social roles as sons, fathers, brothers, friends, and enemies? What conceptions of masculinity appear and disappear throughout time? What are their continuities and what aspects of gender trouble do they address? Students will analyze these works with the help of theories from masculinity and men’s studies (for example Butler, Connell, Derrida, Horlacher, Szczepaniak, and others). The course will be conducted in German, but we will read some theoretical readings in English, and some texts will be available in both languages. At the end of this course, students will be familiar with cultural perspectives on gender, and masculinity and men’s studies as currently developing fields of research. They will have gained an overview of German literature and culture and trained their critical skills alongside their German language abilities.
GEW 4592/GEW 5596 – Studies in an Author or Movement
“Postwar Collective Memory Through Film: The Legacy of Nazi Crimes Against Humanity”
Course meetings: Mo 5:15 – 8:00 pm
Classroom: DIF 216
Instructor: Dr. Birgit Maier-Katkin
Office: Diffenbaugh 368
Email: bmaierkatkin@fsu.edu
This course explores cinematic responses to Nazi crimes against humanity from a Postwar German perspective. Drawing on the perceptions of victims, perpetrators, bystanders, helpers, resisters, and members of subsequent generations, the course investigates how cultural memory is created in the aftermath of these horrific events. It explores how filmmakers, writers, and memorials reveal a multiplicity of voices and reflect on the indelible mark of the Nazi past in Germany. Using Hannah Arendt’s discourse on thinking and moral consideration, the course aims to study the ways in which one represents, remembers, and comes to terms with traumatic historical events from the perspective of survivors as well as members of the second and preceding generations. This course is taught in English.
GER 5060 – Graduate Reading Knowledge in German
Course meetings: Mo/We 5:15 – 6:30 pm
Classroom: DIF 232
Instructor: Ray Hattaway
Office: Diffenbaugh 316b
Email: rhattawa@fsu.edu
The focus of this course and/or exam is to enable students to develop techniques essential in attaining a proficiency in the reading and translation of German language. With the assistance of a good dictionary and traditional resources, students will be able to read and understand scholarly material in their respective fields. This course offers students a way to adequately prepare for the GER 5069 Graduate Reading Knowledge Exam (German) (please see below).
Texts: Richard Alan Korb, Jannach's German for Reading Knowledge, (6th edition - previous editions will not work) // Good German/English dictionary (required).
GER 5069 – Reading Knowledge Examination
Course meetings: TBA
Classroom: TBA
Instructor: Ray Hattaway
Office: Diffenbaugh 316b
Email: rhattawa@fsu.edu
GER 5940 – Teaching Practicum
Course meetings: TBA
Instructor: Dr. Christian Weber
Office: Diffenbaugh 316c
Email: cweber@fsu.edu