Berlin Stories 1918 - 2000

GERM 165

TR 10:15 - 11:30 ICC 214

Stefan R. Fink

ICC 461

e-mail:finks@georgetown.edu

phone: 202-687 5819

This course is the story of the city of Berlin in the modern era. The course will utilize a variety of texts, including literary and journalistic texts, and visual materials, such as films, art works (paintings, prints, sculptures), to tell the changing stories of Berlin between 1918 and the new millennium. These cultural images of Berlin that will emerge reflect the many fascinating social and political changes Berlin has undergone in the last century - rapid industrialization, the first and second World Wars, its division and reunification, and the current transformation into the new capital of united Germany. Perhaps more than in any other 20^th century city, culture in Berlin has been determined by the state of its and Germany's political and social environment.

Berlin Stories focuses on helping students move beyond merely understanding the content of texts to analyzing that content. To this end, there are three primary goals in the course: providing tools for students to work with texts, helping students learn to synthesize and present information, and instructing students how to formulate and express their own opinions.

The requirements of this course are designed to give students a better grasp of formal writing and speaking in German. The writing assignments and speaking assignments emphasize descriptions and comparisons of cultural texts, historical narratives, and the formulation and synthesis of arguments.

Each student will be responsible for two oral presentations during the semester. In addition to the oral presentations, there will be two papers due throughout the semester. The goal of each paper is directly related to the themes, text types, and in-class work being used during that segment of the course. The writing assignments are viewed as a process, and as such, will be supported by in-class work such as working with appropriate lexicon, practicing summarizing ideas and arguments, and writing shorter analyses of texts. Class participation and class assignments will be integral components to the course. Since the texts act as a springboard for advanced language acquisition, it is necessary for the students to move beyond the reading of the text to actively engaging with the text, its textual, grammatical, and lexical organization, its historical relevance, and ideas.

Grade Breakdown

Class Participation & Homework 30%

Panel Discussions 15%

Referat 15%

Two papers 40%