Fall 2025

Not open for credit to students who have had two or more years of high-school German. Such students should contact the German undergraduate director for more information.

 Taught by Nadja von Bossel in person (470:102:01) and Alexander Pichugin online (470:102:90)

This course will continue introducing students to the language and culture of German-speaking countries, using both prepared and authentic materials with theme-related vocabulary and grammatical structures. Students will have the opportunity to practice listening, reading, writing, and speaking in German through in-class activities and homework assignments. The program of the course corresponds to the Level A2 (Elementary) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a widely accepted European standard for language proficiency. By the end of the semester students will be able to:

• understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).
• communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
• describe in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.More specifically, students will be able to:
• understand non-fiction texts on some topics, including classified ads
• talk about migration, backgrounds, and languages, compare cities and countries
• talk about families and everyday life, about city and country life
• describe people
• talk about travel
• talk about leisure, hobbies and interests, as well as holidays and traditions
• talk about media
• talk about inventions, products and goods
• organize a trip to a theater, etc.
• talk about professional life
• leave a message on the phone
• express emotions and react to them using language

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points in English. 

This course will introduce students to the language and culture of German-speaking countries focusing on the language competencies particularly relevant in travel situations.

By the end of the semester students will be able to speak about themselves in general and as travelers, ask basic questions about travel, discuss their travel interests and express likes and dislikes, speak about German-speaking countries and their inhabitants, orient themselves in means of transportation and accommodations used in Europe, purchase tickets and book hotel rooms on German-language websites.

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points and cultural references in English. Not open to students who have completed 01:470:102 or the equivalent.

This course will introduce students to the language and culture of German-speaking countries focusing on the language competencies particularly relevant for oral communication in everyday situations. By the end of the semester students will be able to:

• speak about themselves;
• ask basic questions;
• share basic information about their families and relatives;
• speak about their studies;
• speak about objects relevant to everyday situations;
• speak about the weather;
• express likes and dislikes. The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points and cultural references in English.

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points and cultural references in English. Not open to students who have completed 01:470:102 or the equivalent.

Professor Alexander Pichugin

This course, taught in English and German, is intended for undergraduate students without previous knowledge of the German language. The course develops basic reading competencies in German. The texts read in the course are chosen from the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.

By the end of the semester students will be able to:

• apply specific reading strategies to reading a text in German;
• read a text in German with correct pronunciation;
• recognize some grammar phenomena and apply this knowledge to understanding;
• apply some basic passive vocabulary to reading German texts;
• efficiently use online and paper-based dictionaries.

Prerequisite: 01:470:102, 01:470:108, 01:470:121, or placement.

The first semester of Intermediate German further develops students' German language skills with an emphasis on conversation and composition based on everyday situations, aspects of culture, contemporary German short stories, and review of major grammatical points. Students will strengthen their listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as cultural competency by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German-speaking world, including personal and community life, media, travel, and art. 

Fulfills SAS core goal AHq.

Kevin Wiesehahn

Certainty in Uncertain Times: Über Gewißheit

Fall 2025, meeting times by arrangement with instructor.

Course taught in the two following sections that meet together but that have distinct prerequisites and assignments, and that fulfill distinct requirements. Students who have completed Intermediate German 132 are normally expected to enroll in section 470:301.

Meeting times to be arranged at start of semester to accommodate students’ schedules, in coordination with the instructor.

Description:

This course addresses a defining question of Western philosophy from the unprecedented perspective of our times. How do we know what we know? Can we really be so sure? And what is that, anyway: being certain?  Each week we will dedicate one session to a sequential reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s groundbreaking yet surprisingly accessible work Über Gewißheit, and the other session to a close examination of a shorter text or film from visionary thinkers of uncertainty: Heinrich von Kleist, G.W.F. Hegel, Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Haneke, and more. The course is hybrid in nature: it is as much a literature course intended to provoke critical thought as it is a language course intended to broaden and strengthen one’s knowledge of German.

Readings and screenings will be in German, with discussions conducted primarily in German. The instructor will work with students to help them through the texts and ensure that students are not overwhelmed!

Professor Nicola Behrmann

Vampires and zombies, doppelgänger and artificial humans continue to haunt our cultural imagination throughout the centuries. This course explores the return of the repressed in some of the most spellbinding creatures and fantasies. We will consider the psychological underpinnings of each tale and the ways in which a text or a film establishes, fears, safeguards or releases its horrific kernel. We will investigate why moving images relate particularly well to horror and the uncanny. And we will play close attention to the historical and political context of each tale of horror and to the ways in which these narratives speak of violence, racism, homophobia, and misogyny.

Readings include fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Ludwig Tieck’s “Eckbert, the Blonde,” E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Sandman,” Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat,” Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw,” and Franz Kafka’s “A Country Doctor”. Filmic contributions are coming from F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu), Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds), Michael Powell (Peeping Tom), and Jordan Peele (Get Out), theoretical inflections from Sigmund Freud, Barbara Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Slavoj Zizek.

Taught in English. No prerequisites. Fulfills SAS core goals AHo and AHp.

Prerequisites: German 132 or placement test.

In German.

Advanced German. An emphasis will be placed on written exercises, listening and reading skills developing the ability to discuss and argue opinions, as well as a thorough review of grammar. All readings, discussions, and written works are in German.

Taught by Eva Scheicher

Taught in English. NO Prerequisites or knowledge of German necessary. Credits may be applied toward the German major or minor.

What do cities dream of—and how do those dreams shape us? This course explores two very different “Cities of Dreams”: Vienna at the turn of the 20th century and contemporary New York City. Both have been called dream cities, but for radically different reasons. Vienna’s dreams were inward—psychoanalytic, philosophical, artistic. We will draw on Freud, Schnitzler, and Kafka to explore the subconscious mind and the darker corners of modern life in this world. New York’s dreams, by contrast, are outward-facing: ambitious, fast-moving, and tied to the American Dream of reinvention and success. Think Broadway, Wall Street, and the city that never sleeps. Using literature, film, art, and pop culture, we’ll look at how these two cities imagine themselves and what they represent in the wider cultural psyche. Why does Vienna dream while New York hustles? What connects these urban fantasies across time and space? From Schnitzler’s “Dream Story” to Kubrick’s controversial erotic drama Eyes Wide Shut, from Bernstein’s West Side Story to Mary Harron’s American Psycho, this course will offer students a chance to think about cities, culture, identity, and the strange power of dreams both sleeping and waking.

Learning Goals:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Identify key characteristics of Vienna’s and New York’s cultural identities at the turn of the 20th century and in the current period, respectively.
- Analyze literature, film, and visual art through the lens of “dreams” as both personal and collective experiences.
- Compare how cities express ambition, fantasy, and failure in different cultural contexts.
- Connect urban spaces to broader themes of globalization, migration, and modernity.

This course is a 1.5-credit mini-course starting on Thursday, October 23, 2025 and running for seven weeks. The meetings of the course are conducted face-to-face.

Prerequisite: 01:470:102 or 01:470:121, or higher. 

In German. If taken twice, 470:299 may be counted for three credits towards the major or minor. 

The main goal of this course is to increase the students' cultural awareness through the study of the various media and their role in contemporary German society, while furthering the students' German language skills through consistent speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In this course, students will explore the traditional, modernized, and news media and the role they play in different realms of contemporary German society. Chosen topics of the course are crucial to understanding the modern German-speaking world and include themes such as social structure, politics, culture, and everyday life. Special attention is paid to cultural comparisons between Germany and the United States.

Professor Dominik Zechner

Justice & Violence
crosslisted with Comparative Literature 01:195:373:01 and Social Justice 01:904:309:01

“The relationship between justice, violence, and the law is deeply vexed. While we may assume that strict adherence to the law ensures just outcomes, justice inevitably exceeds the boundaries of legal frameworks. Indeed, the very possibility of making a just decision—of acting or speaking justly—remains uncertain. In its attempt to uphold justice, the law, in turn, is paradoxically reliant on violence. As Thomas Hobbes famously stated, “covenants, without the sword, are but words.” This raises a critical question: how does legal violence differ from the unchecked violence of lawlessness? And might we imagine a legal order grounded in what Judith Butler calls “the force of nonviolence”? Our course examines these tensions by engaging with foundational texts alongside contemporary perspectives on social justice, political resistance, and revolutionary violence. We will analyze how social inequalities and the marginalization of certain identities and ways of life are justified through the fraught relationship between legality and violence. By studying the mechanisms of power this dynamic produces, we will explore the possibilities—and limits—of justice within the law.

Taught in English. Fulfills goals AHo, CCD-2.

Professor Regina Karl

Cross-listed with Cinema Studies 01:175:349:01 

Taught in English. No prerequisites.

Contemporary German and European Cinema

Students will be introduced to a variety of contemporary German and European films from 2007 to the present which reflect upon the current cultural and socio-political climate of the European Union. In light of the 2008 economic crisis, the refugee and humanitarian crisis, the Corona pandemic as well as the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the EU has seen a troubling resurgence of inequality, racism, and political hatred. We will tackle these issues through close critical analysis and ask ourselves what it means to build and maintain a European Union after 1945. Pairing the formal and stylistic specificities of contemporary German & European filmmaking with essays, poems, and short fiction by young, post-migrant, and queer voices, we will investigate the formation of history, memory, and cultural identity in Europe today, shed light on the role of film festivals, consider the impact of streaming platforms, and reframe the concept of national cinema. The course includes several workshops to train and hone your writing skills, including instructions on how to write a film review. Additionally, you will get to know and personally interact with filmmakers via virtual guest visits.

Satisfies SAS Core requirements AHp and WCD. 

Professor Michael Levine

The course provides an introduction to Franz Kafka’s work and its impact on World literature. Among the texts to be considered are the introduction to his writing in “comix” form by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb; the fiction of Clarice Lispector, Jorge Luis Borges, Mana Neyestani, JM Coetzee, and Philip Roth; the music of Philip Glass; and films of David Cronenberg and Orsen Welles. Readings also include canonical texts by Ovid and Homer and critical/biographical works by Benjamin, Butler, Deleuze and Guattari, and others. Taught in English. Course fulfills the Core requirements AHo & AHp.

Professor Nicholas Rennie

German 01:470:371-01, Comparative Literature 01:195:374-01, Philosophy 01:730:344-01

Monday/Thursday 12:10 PM - 1:30 PM College Avenue Frelinghuysen Hall [FH] B2

• Exploration of the work of three German writers who revolutionized modern philosophy, theology, psychology, aesthetics, social and political science, gender studies, historiography, literature and the arts. We will be reading and discussing a selection of key writings by Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Along with these we’ll examine a sampling of texts that were important for their work, and writings that later both reflected their influence and drew their ideas in new directions. 
• Students who have completed Introductory German 101 or the equivalent, or who have Prof. Rennie’s permission, are encouraged to enroll in the 1-credit, optional companion module “The Language of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud” (01:991:121:E1, meeting times to be arranged with participating students in September), which will focus on the original German-language concepts and formulations in select passages relevant to the principal themes of the main course “Marx, Nietzsche, Freud.” Contact Prof. Rennie at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information and/or to register.
• In English. No prerequisites. Fulfills SAS core goals HST-1, AHo.

Readings for “Marx, Nietzsche, Freud” (other readings available in PDF form):

• Freud, Sigmund. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (Psychopathology of Everyday Life, the Interpretation of Dreams, and Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex) [ISBN: 9780679601661]
• Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels. The Marx-Engels Reader [ISBN: 9780393090406]
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Nietzsche Reader [ISBN: 9780631226543]