DOCUMENT R: SYLLABUS
1. Date Prepared: September 2012
2. Prepared by: Luke Springman
3. Department: Languages and Cultures
4. Course Numbers: GERMAN 212
5. Course Title: German Culture and Civilization II
6. Credit Hours: 3
Goal 4 - Cultures and Diversity
Goal 7 – Arts and Humanities
2 GEPs
1 GEP
7. Prerequisites: No prerequisites.
8. Catalog Description:
Presents the history of German culture and civilization from 1800 to the present, with emphasis
on art, literature, ideas, historical events, and cultural exchanges. Intended for students seeking
an introductory course on German culture. Students gain insights in the cultural history of
German culture, including geography, society, politics, philosophy, art, literature, and the
sciences. Course is taught in English through lectures, projects, discussions, readings, and audiovisual media. GERMAN 212 partially fulfills the requirements for the German Minor. Course is
offered in alternating semesters.
9. Content Outline:
Selections of readings and media illustrate the history of German-speaking peoples and cultures,
with emphasis on minority and gender issues. Required course content addresses cultural topics
as they develop over time, especially the German language, the arts, humanities, science and
technology, geography, major historical events, and social and political structures and traditions.
A course plan could include, but is not limited to the following:
Period
Napolean and
Liberation,
German
Romanticism
Disunity, Poverty,
Early
Industrialization
and Revolution
Readings
 Karoline von Günderrode (female
poet)
 E. T. A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman”
 Art: Caspar David Friedrich
 Music: Beethoven and Schubert
 Nestroy: “Freedom in Krähwinkel”
(play, excerpt);
 Börne: letters (excerpts);
 Marx: “1844 Manuscripts,” and
Topics
 Emergence of German
National Identity;
 Women in Early 19thCentury Germany
 Madness and Society
 Emergence of Class
Society
 Jews in Germany up to
1850
Prussian
Unification;
The Foundation
Period
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WWI and Weimar 
Republic 19181933
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Fin de siècle
Vienna
Nazi Germany
Reconstruction,
Cold War
East and West
1945-1989
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1990-present
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“Communist Manifesto” (excerpts)
Storm: “The Dykemaster”;
Heine: “Rabbi of Bacharach” (excerpts)
Nietzsche: “The Antichrist” (excerpts)
Ernst Haeckel: “Riddles of the World”
(excerpts)
Music: Wagner
Selected Art
Schnitzler: “Roundelay,”
Kafka: “Metamorphosis”
Art: Secession, Blue Rider, Dada
Music: Brahms, J. Strauss, Mahler
Remarque: “All Quiet on the Western
Front” (excerpt);
Freud: “Civilization and its
Discontents”
Film: Metropolis
Brecht: excerpts from plays
Art: Grozs, Beckmann and others
Poetry by Celan, Sachs, and others;
Holocaust diaries (excerpts)
Children’s Art from the Holocaust
film documentaries
Brecht: “Galileo” (excerpt)
Borchert: "Of course rats sleep at
night…”
Böll: "And said not a word…" (excerpt)
Escapist film: “Heimat”
Wolf, “Divided Heaven” (excerpt)
Schneider, “The Wall Jumper”
(excerpt)
Müller, “The Scab” (play, excerpt)
Film: “One, Two, Three” or “Marriage
of Maria Braun” or “Wings over Berlin”
Music: Wolf Biermann, Udo
Lindenberg and others
Art: Joseph Beuys and others
Selected readings by Schami, Özdamar,
and others.
Brussig, “Heroes like Us” (excerpt)
Grass, “Too Far Afield” (excerpt)
Music: German Pop Music in the USA
Film: “Goodbye Lenin”
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Emigration
Industrialization and
International Presence
Jews and Political antiSemitism
Science and Society
Africa: German
Imperialism
Immigration to the USA
Middle-Class Alienation
Austrian Empire: MultiEthnic (Dis-)Unity
Social Experimentation
Mass Destruction
The “New Woman”
Berlin: Flourishing Culture
New Politics
Futurism and Youth
Culture
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Holocaust
Culture in Total War
Exiled Germany
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Zero hour, Reconstruction
Economic Miracle
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Dealing with Nazi Past
Building Socialism
The Wall
New Immigrants: Turks
and Vietnamese
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Unification
Multiculturalism
10. Methods:
Course is taught in English and includes a combination of lecture and discussion. Class size is
limited to 40 students in order to facilitate discussion and manage complex material. Students
work on projects, take tests and quizzes, and participate in class discussions. Written
assignments and oral presentations investigate specific topics. Activities outside class, such as
participation in informal conversation groups or film viewings, may be assigned. Alternate
assignments may be provided in lieu of out-of-class or co-curricular activities. Access to
electronic resources such as the Internet is required. GERMAN 212 is offered in alternating
semesters.
11. Student Learning Objectives:
Student Learning Objective
11a. Compare and contrast historical, social,
political, geographical, intellectual and
aesthetic features that shape the traditional
German societies with one’s own society.
Gen. Ed.
Goal
associated
with GEPS
Cultures and
Diversity
11b. Communicate basic information
pertaining to the cultures of traditional
German societies and compare those cultures
with one’s own during the historical times.
Cultures and
Diversity
11c. Identify biases held personally and by
one’s own culture and apply critical reflection
on those biases.
Cultures and
Diversity
11d. Apply approaches and methods of
cultural inquiry, particularly, from historical
and philosophical perspectives toward a
grasp of another world view.
11e. Analyze critically the historical, ethical,
political, cultural, environmental,
circumstantial settings and conditions that
influence ideas in German literature and
culture.
Arts and
Humanities
Arts and
Humanities
Related VALUE Rubric
Elements
RUBRIC: Intercultural
knowledge and
Competence
ELEMENT:
Knowledge—Cultural selfawareness
RUBRIC: Intercultural
knowledge and
Competence
ELEMENT: Knowledge—
Knowledge of cultural
worldview frameworks
RUBRIC: Intercultural
knowledge and
Competence
ELEMENT: Attitudes—
openness
Attitudes—Curiosity
RUBRIC: Critical Thinking
ELEMENT: Explanation of
Issues
RUBRIC: Critical Thinking
ELEMENT: Evidence—
Selecting and using
information to investigate a
point of view or conclusion
GERMAN 212 is designed both to support the department’s established program goals, and to
enhance the university’s General Education program. Cultural traditions and cultural
interpretations of historical experience play a central role in general education. Cultural history
examines the records and narrative descriptions of past knowledge, customs, and arts of a
group of people, constituting a continuum of events leading from the past to the present and
into the future. Because studies in culture and civilization records and interprets past events
involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political settings, GERMAN 212 fulfills 2
GEPs for Goal 4 - Cultures and Diversity. Culture and civilization is inextricably integrated with
Arts and Humanities and therefore a significant portion of historical study includes creative,
philosophical, literary, and performative works. Hence GERMAN 212 fulfills 1 GEP for Goal 7 –
Arts and Humanities.
12. Student Assessment:
Assessment instruments may include the following:
1. 11a: Tests and the final exam include sections that specifically address German cultural
history. Possible individualized and collaborative projects may focus on one or more specific
selected cultural topics. On-line and in-class discussions also indicate the specific knowledge
acquired regarding German society.
2. 11b: Tests and the final exam include sections that specifically address the relevance of
socio-cultural issues pertaining to race, gender and class, including those problems that
arise in the students’ own world. Possible individualized and collaborative projects may
focus on one or more specific selected issue of general relevance, as will on-line and in-class
discussions.
3. 11c: Guided written and oral presentations are structured to reflect the level of critical
understanding of intercultural awareness.
4. 11d: Guided written and oral presentations are structured according to approaches and
methods of cultural inquiry.
5. 11e: Independent projects and prepared discussions based on readings from German
literature and culture are devoted to the critical confrontation with the products of German
culture in their historical and social contexts.
13. Evaluation of Individual Student Performance:
Evaluation of student performance may include but is not limited to projects, tests and quizzes,
discussions during class, written assignments and oral presentations which investigate specific
topics, activities outside class, such as participation in informal conversation groups or film
viewings, and alternate assignments completed through co-curricular activities. Other measures
of evaluation may be integrated as appropriate or necessary.
14. Course Assessment:
Specific course assessment will take place as imbedded test questions on final exams or
embedded material on final exam projects. Additional assessment data may be gathered using
independent projects and writing assignments. The assessment data gathered, as well as the
tools used to gather the data, will be reviewed at appropriate intervals both by the department
Assessment Committee and by the department General Education Committee to verify the
extent to which student learning objectives are being achieved. Modifications to the course will
be made accordingly. Course assessment data will be reported to the Office of Planning and
Assessment.
The study of cultures and civilizations necessarily entail VALUE rubrics regarding cultural selfawareness and cultural worldview frameworks, and thus foster curiosity, empathy and openness
to other peoples and nations. To this end, students need to explain issues, select and use
information to investigate cultural points of view in comparison. Because cultural history
necessarily involves the arts and humanistic achievements of a culture, student should select
and use information to investigate critically points of view and conclusions.
15. Supporting Materials and References:
(Items marked with an asterisk * are available in the Andruss Library.)
Bax, Ernest Belfort. German Culture: Past And Present. New York: McBride, Nast & Co., 1915.
Print.
Brockmann, Stephen. A Critical History of German Film. Rochester: Camden, 2010. Print.
*Burns, Rob. German Cultural Studies. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.
Fulbrook, Mary. A Concise History of Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.
Hofmann, Gert, Marko Pajevic, Rachel MagShamhráin, Michael Shields. German and European
Poetics after the Holocaust: Crisis and Creativity. Rochester: Camden, 2011. Print.
Horrocks, David and Eva Kolinsky. Turkish Culture in German Society Today. Providence:
Berghahn, 1996. Print.
Joachimides, Christos M., Rosenthal, Norman, and Schmid, Wieland. Ed. German Art in the
20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1905-1985. New York: teNeues Publishing Group, 1985.
Print.
Koepke, Wulf. Die Deutschen: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. 5th ed. New York: Holt, 2000.
Print.
Lepenies, Wolf. The Seduction of Culture in German History. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2006.
Print.
Reimer , Robert C., Reinhard Zachau and Margit M. Sinka. German Culture Through Film: An
Introduction to German Cinema. Eds. Newburyport, MA : Focus Publishing, 2005. Print.
Reinhardt, Kurt. Germany 2000 Years. Vol. II. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1961. Print.
Sanford, John. Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture. New York : Routledge, 1999.
Print.
Schulze, Hagen. Germany: A New History. Harvard UP: Cambridge, 2001. Print.
16. Prototype Text:
Kolinsky, Eva and Wilfried Will Van Der. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Modern German
Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.
Selected Primary readings.