German 2253 •  Magic, Murder, Mayhem

Lawson | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Foundation: Historical & Cultural Studies

What makes a good knight, and who gets to decide?

When loyalty, love, violence, and duty pull in different directions, even the seemingly peerless reputations of heroes can reveal uncomfortable contradictions.  
Through German and Old Norse romance tales of adventure and desire, we’ll examine how their stories construct an ideal where aristocratic power is portrayed as attractive, violence is given a noble purpose, and honor is pursued at any cost. 

All readings are in English.

German 2254.02 • Grimms' Fairy Tales and their Afterlives

 Frazier | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Foundation: Literary, Visual & Performing Arts

In the present online course, we will be trying to understand the meaning and the enduring appeal of one of Germany’s greatest successes in the realm of cultural exportation—a book whose circulation figures are exceeded in Western culture only by those of the Bible: Grimms’ fairy tales.  This will mean asking a series of interlocking questions.  How did the fairy tales come about?  What were the aims of their compilers?  How do the tales play to those aims?  How do they exceed them?  How do the tales tend to work structurally?  What have their social and psychological effects been?  How have they helped shape—and been reshaped by—popular cultures outside Germany, like popular culture in the U.S.  In reckoning with these questions, we will be enlisting the help of a parade of great critics, including Vladimir Propp, Bruno Bettelheim, Erich Auerbach, and Jack Zipes.

All required texts are in English translation.

Taught in English. ONLINE course.

German 3250 • Citizenship in the Age of Technology: Exploring Social Justice through Science Fiction in Germany 

Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World

Investigating the promises & pitfalls that technologies once confined to the pages of science fiction pose to our relationships, our communities, and our world, with a specific focus on the challenges they will bring to our concept of citizenship. Recent German science fiction will illuminate the debate on the future of democracy as it unfolds in Germany, the USA & in a broader global context.

Taught in English. ONLINE course.

German 3252.02 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film

Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
  
Why, faced with a historical catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, would we devote a class to film and literature about it, rather than to “the facts”? HOW YOU SAY THINGS MATTERS! Come find out why.

~ Taught in English.  ONLINE course.
  Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 3252.01 or Yiddish 3399.

German 3434  • Bad Science

Aupiais | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations

Developments in science and technology raise key political questions and often reveal global fault lines. Recent debates around AI, climate change, pandemics and public health show this. 

This course delves into the sometimes-toxic cultural politics of science historically, surveying key case studies (in biology, linguistics, medicine and more) from German history between 1780 and 1940.

-- taught in English!  

German 3456 • Global Changemakers 

Birkhold | 4 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

 GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
[4 credits - High-Impact Practice - Interdisciplinary and Integrated Collaborative Teaching]

This course explores what it means to be a global changemaker, emphasizing critical thinking, truth- telling, and advocacy for change. Students will study the qualities of changemakers through and examine global citizenship, cultural diversity, and social equity. Team-taught with faculty members in South Asian Studies and Slavic.   
-- Taught in English! 

note: Not open to students with credit for SASIA 3456 or Slavic 3456.
- cross-listed with Slavic and SASIA 3456

Scandinavian 3270 • Revenge

Kaplan | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World

  Revenge is the engine of the medieval Icelandic sagas, stories of a Viking Age society just beyond the reach of kings, where honor is the main currency, and a pithy verse or a legal stratagem may overmatch even a steel axe. Learn about the workings of blood feud, about a distant society’s concepts of citizenship and justice, and find unexpected parallels in our here and now.  
-- Taught in English! 

Yiddish 3222• Jewish Humor

Zaritt | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations

   Taught in English. 

In this course, we will examine the history of Jewish humor, exploring the concept of therapeutic joking, the politics of self-deprecation, and strategies of masking social critique behind a well-timed joke. Rather than reach some essential definition, we investigate literature, stand-up comedy, film, and television of the twentieth and twenty-first century. 

Yiddish 3241 • Yiddish Culture

Zaritt | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027
GE Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations

Taught in English. 

A bastardized German, a jargon, a woman’s vernacular, an old-world language, a dying tongue, a Hasidic language, a queer language, a radical language—these are just a few of the ways that Yiddish has been labeled over its one-thousand-year history. This course will trace the shifting images attached to the language of Eastern European Jewry, from its early modern beginnings as a tool for translating between Jewish and non-Jewish cultures to its contemporary status as a language of mourning and nostalgia, Jewish American humor, Hasidic isolation, and Jewish radicalism. Through poetry, fiction, essays, and film, we will discover what this language can tell us about modern Jewish culture and what we might learn along the way about diaspora and migrant cultures more generally. All texts will be read in translation.

Cross-listed in Jewish Studies.

German 1101.01 • German I

4 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

GE World Languages  
 Introduction to language and culture of the German-speaking world, with emphasis placed on the acquisition of basic communication skills in cultural context. CEFR Level A1. 
Text: 

German 1102.01 • German II

4 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

GE World Languages
Text: 
Prereq: 1101.01, 1101.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1101.51

Continued development of German-language skills and cultural knowledge for effective communication. Emphasis on more advanced language structures, sustained interactions, reading and writing. CEFR Levels A1/A2

German 1103.01 • German III

4 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

GE World Languages
Development of skills for independent use of German. Discussions, presentations, writing, & listening/viewing activities that address topics of contemporary German-speaking world. CEFR Level A2. 
Text: 
Prereq: 1102.01, 1102.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1102.51 

German 1101.02 • 1102.02 • 1103.02

Distance Learning option

GE World Languages
4 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

German On The Ground series

1 credit unit per online course | Spring Semester 2027

GERMAN 1201.01 (online)
Basic Language Skills
1 credit hour; taught in German 
Learn basic German language and vocabulary useful for traveling and interacting with locals.

GERMAN 1201.02 (online)
Navigating German-speaking Europe
1 credit hour; taught in English 
Learn information about the cultures in the countries of German-speaking Europe, and 
how to navigate a variety of contexts and to interact with the German speakers.

GERMAN 1201.03 (online)
Navigating the professional world in German-speaking Europe
1 credit hour; taught in English 
Learn information about professional cultures in the countries of German-speaking Europe, and 
navigate a variety of professional life and contexts and to interact with German-speaking colleagues.

German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society

Beringer | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

Development of communication skills and knowledge about recent social, cultural, and political developments in German speaking countries through texts, media and film; CEFR level A2/B1. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 1103.01, 1103.02, or 4 sem cr hrs of 1103.51, or equiv, or permission of instructor. No audit. 

German 2102 • Texts and Contexts II: 20th-Century German Language, History and Culture

 Byram | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

Continued development of communication skills; gain an understanding of major social and cultural developments in 20th century German history through texts, media, film. CEFR level B1/B2. 
Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2101 or equiv, or permission of instructor. FL Admis Cond course.

German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives

Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

Development of intermediate/advanced communication skills; broadening of cultural and historical knowledge through interaction with literary and non-literary materials informed by historical perspective; CEFR level B2. Closed to to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.

German 3102 • News & Views

Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

This course aims to improve your German reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills through an engagement with current affairs in the German-speaking world. The course will hone your ability to interpret, paraphrase, summarize, and critically analyze German-language media content in different communicative contexts.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.

German 3300 • Rivers, Mountains, Forests - Topics in German Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History

Birkhold | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

Course description forthcoming

The class will be conducted in German. We will discuss and practice advanced topics in grammar and language, and the course will be structured to help students improve reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.

Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.

German 4604• From the German: Translation in the 21st Century - ALI

Aupiais | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

ALI seminar on translation for students of German using project-based learning to cultivate advanced strategic communication and intercultural skills for the contemporary world. Develops student A.I. competencies, rhetorical skills, and media literacies (including legacy and social media) across modules on literary, marketing, and legal translation, as well as trans-medial content adaptation.

Scandinavian 3270 • Revenge

Kaplan | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

  GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World

  Revenge is the engine of the medieval Icelandic sagas, stories of a Viking Age society just beyond the reach of kings, where honor is the main currency, and a pithy verse or a legal stratagem may overmatch even a steel axe. Learn about the workings of blood feud, about a distant society’s concepts of citizenship and justice, and find unexpected parallels in our here and now.  
-- Taught in English! 

note: Swedish language courses are offered online via BTAA CourseShare. 
UMN guidance

Yiddish 3222 • Jewish Humor

Zaritt | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027
GE Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations

Taught in English. T/R 12:45 - 2:05

In this course, we will examine the history of Jewish humor, exploring the concept of therapeutic joking, the politics of self-deprecation, and strategies of masking social critique behind a well-timed joke. Rather than reach some essential definition, we investigate literature, stand-up comedy, film, and television of the twentieth and twenty-first century. 

Cross-listed with Slavic.

Yiddish 3241 • Yiddish Culture

Zaritt | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027
GE Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations

Taught in English. T/R 11:10-12:30

A bastardized German, a jargon, a woman’s vernacular, an old-world language, a dying tongue, a Hasidic language, a queer language, a radical language—these are just a few of the ways that Yiddish has been labeled over its one-thousand-year history. This course will trace the shifting images attached to the language of Eastern European Jewry, from its early modern beginnings as a tool for translating between Jewish and non-Jewish cultures to its contemporary status as a language of mourning and nostalgia, Jewish American humor, Hasidic isolation, and Jewish radicalism. Through poetry, fiction, essays, and film, we will discover what this language can tell us about modern Jewish culture and what we might learn along the way about diaspora and migrant cultures more generally. All texts will be read in translation.

Cross-listed in Jewish Studies.

German 6601 • Teaching Practicum

Uskokovic | 1 credit unit  | Spring Semester 2027

This course is for GTAs who are teaching a 1000-level German language class. The course provides graduate students with instruction and practice in designing and implementing instructional materials for their undergraduate classes. It offers best practices in creating tests, developing speaking portfolios, designing culture components, and becoming reflective practitioners.
Prereq: Grad standing, and permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 10 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.

German 6200 • Literary & Cultural History (1850-1914)

Byram | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

German 8400 • Photography in Germany: Theory, Practice, and Critical Engagement  

Davidson | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

Mo 2:10PM - 4:55PM
Taught in English
Knowledge of German, German History, or Photographic Methods not required.

This course begins with a brief history of the origins and development of photography in German-speaking lands in the nineteenth century paired with an overview of critical approaches to the medium. We will then explore major developments, contributions, and (mis-)uses of this representational technology. The first two-thirds of the course will be concentrated mostly in the long century from the beginning of the German Empire (1871) to the end of the Cold War division of Germany (1990). Among the topics that will have dedicated threads spreading throughout the class: photography, the bourgeois subject, and portraits of the people; photography as art; photography and empire; the photographic industry / industry photography; photography, medicine, psychiatry; photography and the military; photography as politics. In the final third of the semester, students will pick an area into which to extend their work begun, producing a project proposal, a final presentation for the colleagues, and final project to submit. The shape of the final project is open – it may be a traditional research paper aimed at publication but might take other forms (subject to instructor’s approval) including but not limited to: an annotated, creative photographic project; grant proposal for a curated exhibition, or proposal for a symposium.

Some of the practitioners and theoreticians to be treated in “Photography in Germany”: Barnack, Barthes, Becher & Becher, Breslauer & Stern, Brill, Chargesheimer, Fotoform, Freund, Hajek-Halke, Heartfield, Höch, Kobell, Kracauer, Krauss, Newton, Ray, Riefenstahl, Sander, Solomon, Sontag, Zille…

German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium

Birkhold | 1 credit unit | Spring Semester 2027

Regular student-driven discussions of ongoing dissertations, current topics in the professional field, and new research approaches to Germanic Studies.
Prereq: Successful completion of Ph.D. candidacy exams or permission from Director of Graduate Studies and instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U. Admis Cond course.

German 8600 • Multilingualism: Practices, Research, History

Uskokovic | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2027

How do languages shape opportunities, identities, and social belonging in an increasingly interconnected world? This interdisciplinary graduate seminar invites students to critically examine multilingualism through the lenses of linguistics, education, sociology, history, and public policy. Together, we will explore who is recognized as multilingual, how multilingual practices become visible or invisible in society, and the ways language intersects with power, mobility, equity, and globalization.

Drawing on contemporary research and real-world case studies, students will engage with current debates on language ideologies, linguistic diversity, multilingual education, migration, and digital communication. The course is co-taught by Dr. Budimka Uskokovic from Ohio State University and Dr. Jessica Ammer from Bonn University, offering an international perspective and opportunities for rich interdisciplinary discussion. An integrated AI workshop series will help students develop practical skills for research, teaching, data analysis, and multilingual communication using emerging technologies.

Ideal for graduate students interested in language, education, culture, communication, migration, public policy, or global studies, this course combines critical inquiry with hands-on exploration of the multilingual realities shaping our world today.