German Language and Reading Courses
For further information on the department's German language program, please see the section Language Study. If you have additional questions, please contact the Director of the Language Program, Maeve Hooper.
German Language: First-Year Sequence
Elementary German for Beginners I, II, III
GRMN 10100-10200-10300
PQ for GRMN 10200: placement or consent of language coordinator. PQ for 10300: 10200 or 10201 or placement or consent of language coordinator. No auditors permitted. Must be taken for quality grades.
The goal of this sequence is to develop proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking for use in everyday communication. Knowledge and awareness of the different cultures of the German speaking countries is also a goal. Please note that if you have any prior knowledge of German, you cannot enroll in GRMN 10100. You are encouraged to enroll in GRMN 10201 instead, and/or to take the language placement exam to determine the most appropriate course.
Autumn, Winter, Spring
Elementary German
GRMN 10201
PQ: Placement or consent of language coordinator. No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
This is an accelerated version of the GRMN 10100-10200 sequence for students with limited prior knowledge of the language.
Autumn, Winter
Intensive German
GRMN 12001-12002-12003
This intensive, three-quarter sequence brings students to high-intermediate levels in all four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening so that students can enter third-year level courses in German. Learners who are starting German late in their College careers or who wish to move forward swiftly will gain skills corresponding to two full years of study. NOTE: Each course is 200 units and corresponds in workload to taking two courses.
Autumn, Winter, Spring
Intensive Introductory German
GRMN 10003 and 10006
Introductory German is a 6-week course designed for students wishing to develop intermediate proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking for use in everyday communication. Students will work with authentic materials as well as gain familiarity with the different cultures of the German-speaking countries. The course meets Monday through Friday for three hours per day, with additional 90-minute practice sessions twice per week in the afternoon. The GRMN 10003-10006 sequence is the equivalent of the 10100-10200-10300 sequence offered during the regular academic year at the University of Chicago.
For more information and to register, please visit the Summer Language Institute website.
Summer
German Language: Second Year Sequence
Deutsche Märchen: German through Fairy Tales
GRMN 20100
PQ: GRMN 10300 or placement. No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
This course is a comprehensive look at German fairy tales, including structure and role in German nineteenth-century literature, adaptation as children's books in German and English, and film interpretations. This course also includes a review and expansion of German grammar.
Autumn, Winter, Spring
(replacing all sections of GRMN 20200: Deutsch-Amerikanische Themen)
Grünes Deutschland
GRMN 20201
Over the past three decades Germany has become a global leader in environmentalism and sustainability practices. This course develops students’ proficiency in all four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) and reviews basic grammar while exploring various aspects of “Green Germany,” from recycling and transportation to renewable energies (die Energiewende) to the history of the green movement. We investigate environmental practices and attitudes in German-speaking countries while comparing them with those in the US and other countries. In doing so, we consider whether environmental practices in German-speaking countries represent positive and feasible models for other countries. Students work with authentic and current materials (articles, websites, videos) and pursue a variety of independent projects (research, creative), including a final project on how to make the university campus more sustainable. Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20100 or placement examDeutsch-Amerikanische Themen
GRMN 20200
PQ: GRMN 20100 or placement. No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
Autumn, Winter, Spring
Kunst und Kultur
GRMN 20301 (replacing all sections of GRMN 20300: Kurzprosa aus dem 20. Jahrhundert)
This course is designed to provide students with the tools to analyze and discuss works of art in their historical and cultural contexts, and to prepare them for more advanced coursework in German. Though the syllabus may differ based on the instructor, the course typically includes units on film, short fiction, poetry, and the visual arts. Driving questions include the role of art in society and politics, the construction of German identity through art, and the relationship between art and history. By the end of the quarter, students will have improved their reading, writing, speaking, and listening abilities, and will have solidified their understanding of select grammatical concepts.
PQ: GRMN 20200 or placement. No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
Autumn, Winter, Spring
German Language: Third Year Sequence
These courses need not be taken in sequence, three-six are required for a minor or major in Germanic Studies as a college student. Third-year language courses serve as preparation for seminar-style classes conducted in German, including those offered in the department (see undergraduate courses). Students work with a variety of texts and learn to present and participate in instructor- and student-led discussions. Assignments specifically related to grammar, structure, and vocabulary moves students toward more idiomatic use of German. Writing short texts and longer research papers is also part of these third-year language courses.
GRMN 21103. Erzählen. 100 Units.
Narrating the Animal from Lessing to Bachmann
The German literary tradition returns again and again to the question of the animal, whether in the form of Lessing’s Enlightenment animal fables, the Romantic Tiermärchen of Bettina von Arnim, or Kafka’s modernist tales of human-animal hybrids. This course will investigate the representation of animals in German-language narrative fiction from the Enlightenment to the 20th century. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, we will devote particular attention to the ways in which animal narratives reflect broader scientific and philosophical shifts in the European understanding of the animal (such as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, Friedrich Nietzsche’s insistence on the animality of the human being, and German biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s concept of the animal’s distinctive environment).
Terms Offered: Autumn 2024
Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20300 or placement
Note(s): No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
GRMN 21403. Philosophie. 100 Units.
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
It would be hard to overestimate the influence which Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud have exercised over intellectual modernity. Perhaps no other three figures have cast such a long shadow. For better or worse, they’ve left significant traces which persist in concepts like class struggle or ideology, nihilism or value-judgments, and subconscious complexes or repression, as well as infamously critical views of religion. Paul Ricœur once grouped them under the label of “masters of suspicion”, referring to a method of interpretation which searches for deeper, hidden meanings and regards the rest as mere illusions. But why should they be grouped together as such a trio or unholy alliance, as they so often are? What, if anything, do they really have in common? Why are their ideas so controversial and contested? And why might they continue to have such lasting power?
In this course, students will gain an insight into the works of these three giants of intellectual modernity by focusing on accessible excerpts from their most influential texts: Das Kapital, Zur Genealogie der Moral, and Vorlesungen. We will consider their characteristic approaches to explaining and critiquing our social world in terms of political economy, history, and the human psyche. We’ll be on the lookout to correct some common caricatures of their views, to which the various 20th-century uses and abuses gave rise. And we’ll be especially attentive to ways in which they might remain of interest and import for contemporary purposes. Course readings and discussion will be in German.
Terms Offered: Spring 2025
Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20300 or placement
Note(s): No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
GRMN 21503. Film. 100 Units.
The New German Cinema
The 1960s and 70s saw a radical turning point in German filmmaking. Younger auteurs, dissatisfied with what they saw as the mediocrity and escapism of much post-war cinema, began making aesthetically radical and politically and socially engaged works that challenged the status quo and achieved international success. This course examines this movement in its historical context. In addition to engaging with films by some of the most prominent representatives of the NGC– Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Werner Herzog, and Wim Wenders, among others–we will read key theoretical and historical texts, such as the famous “Oberhausen Manifesto” and Theodor Adorno’s critique of mass culture to develop our own understanding of how these films fit together and how they relate to the political and social concerns of their time. As an advanced German course, the seminar will also be using these materials to allow students to practice and improve their reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills. All discussion, reading, and assignments in German.
Terms Offered: Winter 2025
Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20300 or placement
Note(s): No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
GRMN 21803. Arbeitskulturen. 100 Units.
Trends in the Modern German-Speaking Working World
In this course we explore contemporary issues in German culture and society through the lens of working life. We examine the issues surrounding the notoriously high taxes that workers pay in German-speaking countries and the social services that these taxes fund, including socialized health care, unemployment insurance, and pensions. After a brief introduction to the post-war history of democratic socialism as a governmental type in German-speaking countries, students will explore the issues surrounding working life by reading texts from online newspapers, journals, social media and other sources. Students will also practice listening skills using a variety of streaming media such as newscasts, recorded speeches, and comedy shows. In our examinations and discussions of these materials, though, we will focus not only on the issues surrounding working life itself, but also, and especially, the balance that arises in regards to such personal choices as holidays, hobbies, and family choices. The American corporate world will be our primary basis of comparison. We will also review the current political landscape in Germany to contextualize the existing work-culture norms. Students will choose the topic and reading for the final week of class. Assignments for this course are designed to practice skills such as effective digital communication, presenting one's professional biography and opinion, as well as interviewing strategies. All reading and assignments in German.
Terms Offered: Autumn 2024
Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20300 or placement
Note(s): No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
GRMN 21903. Business German. 100 Units.
Students in this course acquire the language knowledge, skills and abilities that will help them to succeed in a German-language business environment. Students gain mastery of the various types, genres and contexts of German business communications, including business organization and meetings, job application and recruitment, advertising and marketing, business meetings and consultations, accounting and logistics. As students practice all four skills - speaking, listening, reading and writing - in these contexts, they review advanced grammar topics that are especially pertinent to them. They also gain familiarity with key features of German business culture, as intercultural competence is more than ever a top qualification. Finally, students exercise their creativity in all the work leading to the final project, in which teams collaborate to create a business plan and profile for an imagined German startup. Each of the four course units prepares the teams to produce and present one part of this plan, culminating in a final, comprehensive presentation in week 9. A German MBA-student from Booth will serve as a TA in this course to provide expert assistance and feedback in this project-based component of the course, as well as for the intercultural component.
Terms Offered: Spring 2025
Prerequisites: GRMN 20301 or 2 yrs. college German
Note(s): No auditors permitted. Must be taken for a quality grade.
German Language: Reading Courses
Reading German for Undergraduate Students.
GRMN 13100
Prior knowledge of German not required. No auditors permitted. This course does not prepare students for the competency exam. Must be taken for a quality grade.
This course prepares students to read a variety of German texts. By the end of the quarter, students should have a fundamental knowledge of German grammar and a basic vocabulary. While the course does not teach conversational German, the basic elements of pronunciation are taught so that students can understand a limited amount of spoken German.
Spring
Reading German for Research Purposes Prerequisite Course
GRMN 13333
This course is designed for students without prior experience or training in German who wish to take GRMN 33333, Reading German for Research Purposes. The prerequisite for GRMN 33333 is either one year of German language instruction (GRMN 10100-10200-10300) or successful completion of GRMN 13333. In this course, students learn the basics of German grammar and syntax, some basic German vocabulary, and they also begin to learn some of the reading strategies they will need to be successful in GRMN 33333.
Autumn
Reading German For Research Purposes
GRMN 33333, GRMN 23333
Reading German for Research Purposes prepares students to read and do research using scholarly texts in German. Students will build on their fundamental knowledge of German grammar and the most common vocabulary terms used in scholarly writing, while developing reading comprehension skills and working intensively with academic texts in their areas of research specialty. Students who perform well in GRMN 33333/23333 will be able to synthesize key points, arguments and evidence in scholarly texts into their own research. The course also includes practicing the skills necessary to pass the Academic Reading Comprehension Assessment (ARCA) in German, administered by the Office for Language Assessment (OLA). Undergraduate students have the option of taking the ARCA, or completing a final assignment in which they identify, cite, and describe the relevance of multiple German secondary texts in their discipline or to a specific project.
Note: This course may fulfill the graduate language requirement in some departments. Also offered through the Summer Language Institute.
Prerequisites
PQ for 23333: GRMN 10300 or one year of introductory German or the equivalent.
PQ for 33333: While there is currently no strict prerequisite for GRMN 33333, one year of introductory German or the equivalent is highly recommended.
Check the time schedules for quarterly offerings. Also offered through the Summer Language Institute
Reading German For Research Purposes
GRMN 33333
This course prepares students to read and do research in German. Students will gain a fundamental knowledge of German grammar and a basic vocabulary while developing reading comprehension skills and working intensively with scholarly texts in their areas of academic speciality. This course is offered twice each summer. Students should only enroll in one section. NOTE: This course may fulfill the graduate language requirement in some departments. If you are interested in this course specifically to prepare for a German exam at a school other than the University of Chicago, please contact summerlanguages@uchicago.edu to inquire whether this course will meet your needs. GRMN 33300 is not open to students in the Summer Programs for High School Students.
For more information and to register, please visit the Summer Language Institute website.
Summer