German at Colby is a lively academic community with a great deal of interaction among faculty and students. Classes are small, approximately 15 students per class at the beginning and intermediate level, and 5-10 students at the upper-level literature and culture courses. Outside of class a variety of activities enhance the German program including guest lectures, film showings and the weekly German Table. Our language assistant, typically a native speaker from Munich, Germany, meets with students for informal conversation and is available for tutoring. He or she is also involved in the activities of the German Club and helps with organizing events such as the weekly language tables and a Spieleabend (evening of German board games).

German Tables All levels of German are welcome! Every Tuesday 12:00 - 1:30 PM Camp Room, Dana Dining Hall Ranjas Corner- Language Table All levels welcome! Every Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 PM Camp Room, Dana Dining Hall Tutoring in German The German Language Assistant Ranja Radwan is available for review and conversation Office Hours: TBA Office: Lovejoy 452 Email: rradwan

Students of German enjoy the department's location on the fourth floor of the Lovejoy building. Open doors of faculty offices, a beautiful seminar room, and a state-of the-art Language Resource Center provide an enticing setting for studying German and socializing with fellow students and the German faculty. There is also a designated room just for our German and Russian Majors and Minors!

The German program offers language instruction from the beginning to the advanced level as well as a range of German Studies courses with a dual focus on literature and culture. Recent courses have included "Opening Doors: Multicultural Literature and Film in Germany," "Fin de Siecle Berlin and Vienna," "Heimat," and "Sex, Madness, and Transgression in German Literature". In light of Germany's increasingly important economic and political role in Europe and the world, we encourage students to choose German to fulfill Colby's three-semester language requirement. Students who have had one or more years of high school German must take a placement test administered during the orientation period before the beginning of the fall semester. Entering students who obtained a 4 or 5 on the German AP Exam or scored 600 or higher on the German SAT II are exempt from the language requirement and may enroll in upper-level German courses.

The major in German Studies requires 10 semester courses: six courses taught in German numbered above 127 including a 200-, a 300-, and a 400-level course and four additional courses chosen from the German curriculum, taken abroad, or from courses with a substantial German component in departments such as Arts, Government, History, Philosophy, and Music. Once declared, all majors must take at least one course in the German program each semester they are on campus until graduation.
Courses approved for the major in German Studies:

• Art
• 331 Art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe
  

• English
• 271 Critical Theory
• 493 Seminar: Franz Kafka

• Government
• 257 Politics & Government of West Europe
• 266 German Politics
• 272 Modern Political Theory
• 354 The European Union
• 358 Political Ideologies & Revolutionary Movements in Europe
• 359 Political Ideologies

• History
• 111 Europe from Late Antiquity to 1618
• 112 Survey of Modern Europe
• 182 Jewish History II
• 186 The Holocaust
• 215 Heresy, Humanism, and Reform
  
• 223 European Politics, Culture, Thought, 1789-1914
• 224 Germany and Europe, 1871-1945
• 321 The First World War
  
• 322 Europe and the Second World War
• 397 German Culture and Politics between the World Wars
• 421 Debating the Nazi Past

• Music
• 242 Music History II
• 352 Beethoven and the Myth of Beethoven
• 493 Seminar: Death in Venice

• Philosophy
• 314 Karl Marx and Marxist Philosophical Thought
• 359 19th-Century Philosophy

• Religious Studies
• 186 God After Auschwitz: Post-Holocaust Theory

• Sociology
• 215 Classical Sociological Thought

Requirements for the German Minor

 

The minor in German requires 5 courses in the German program numbered above 126 including a 200- and a 300-level course. Students who enter the program at the intermediate or advanced level should consult with their advisor in German regarding course selection.

 

The following statements also apply:

1. The point scale for retention of the major and minor is based on all required and approved courses numbered above German 127 for the major, and German 126 for the minor.
2. No major and minor requirement may be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.
3. Transfer of credits for courses from other institutions, including study abroad, will be evaluated by the advisor in German on an individual basis.
4. Teacher Certification: Students desiring certification for teaching German should consult the faculty in German and in the Education and Human Development Program.