GETTING READY FOR THE 21st CENTURY: GERMAN STUDIES
Whether you are studying German to fulfill your foreign language requirement, as preparation for study abroad in a German-speaking country, or for a major/minor in German, the German program of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department at Old Dominion University offers you both curricular and extracurricular means to meet your goals. Through its diverse offerings and opportunities, our program encourages students to work not only toward proficiency in the German language, but to learn about the history, literature, politics, geography and everyday life of the German-speaking countries as well. The German section is also offering a teacher education track with training and licensure in the Hampton Roads and Virginia secondary school system

Why Study German at Old Dominion University?

In today's job market, practical considerations are unavoidable, and students choose some of their subjects, including a foreign language, with an eye to their personal future. From this perspective, as well as from a purely academic one, the study of German offers some real advantages.

German is spoken in several countries with different cultural, political, and economic traditions: The Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and Belgium.
More Europeans (approximately 93 million) are native speakers of German than are speakers of English, French, Italian (58-60 million each), or Spanish (36 million).

As a language of business, diplomacy, and tourism in Western Europe, it stands second only to English, and in the Eastern Europe it holds first place.
Economy: The Federal Republic has the third-highest GNP in the world, is the second highest creditor nation, and every year occupies one of the top three spots among exporting countries.

USA and Germany: While Germany is economically the most important member of the European Union and invests heavily in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America, its economy is particularly connected with that of the United States. In the 1990's, German investments in the United States supported over 2500 separate enterprises and approximately half a million employees.
Nobel Prizes: Scientists from the three major German-speaking countries have won 21 Nobel prizes in Physics, 30 in Chemistry, and 26 in Medicine. Ten Nobel prizes in Literature have been awarded to German and Swiss writers, and seven Germans and Austrians have received the Nobel Peace Prize. Many laureates from other countries received their training in German universities.
Employment: In Virginia's Hampton Roads area, there are about thirty firms from German-speaking countries, such as Stihl, Siemens, and Bauer Compressors (Germany), Plasser International (Austrian), Clariant AG (Switzerland).

Thus it is obvious that a solid knowledge of the German language and culture grants access not only to rich literary, philosophical, artistic, and scientific traditions, but also to many kinds of contemporary economic, political, and cultural developments.

Consequently, Old Dominion's German Program curriculum is designed to appeal to a wide range of interests and to prepare students for a variety of professions. Knowledge of German also complements such fields as economics, government, history, engineering, and computer science. No matter what their future careers, students find that German Studies, as part of a liberal arts education, enriches their professional and personal lives.

Career Opportunities for ODU German Majors

Secondary Education (German and other Foreign Languages are in high demand in area high schools.)
Private and Non-profit Organizations (Advertising, Airlines, Amnesty International, Banks, Book Publishers, Hotels, Resorts, International Exchange Programs, Libraries, Manufacturing Firms, Newspapers, Magazines, Red Cross International, Television and Radio Stations, United Nations, International Law, etc.)
Government Agencies (Bureau of International Labor, CIA/FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency, Immigration and Naturalization, Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Peace Corps, Office of International Affairs, Military, etc.)
Related Occupations (Court Interpreter, Foreign Correspondent, Foreign Film Specialist, Foreign Student Adviser, International Conference Planner, Market Research Specialist, International Consultant, Proofreader, Social Worker, Teacher, Translator, Travel Agent, UNESCO Official, Diplomat, Sales Representative for German Products, etc.)

Faculty

Frederick A. Lubich, Professor of German and Chair of the Department
Dr. Lubich received a "Staatsexamen" (equivalent of MA) in German and English from the University of Heidelberg, Germany (1977), an M.A. in American Studies from Cornell University (1979), and a Ph.D. in German from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1983).
Dr. Lubich held teaching appointments at Brown University (1983-84), Columbia University (1984-92), Haverford/Bryn Mawr Colleges (1992-93), and Rutgers University (1993-97).

His former offices include: book review editor for The Germanic Review, chair of the German Department at Haverford/Bryn Mawr(1992-93), graduate director of the doctoral program of the German Department at Rutgers(1994-97) and chair of the German Department at Rutgers(1995-1997). Since 1997 he has been chair of the Department of Foreign Language and Literatures at Old Dominion University.

He authored books on Die Dialektik von Logos und Eros im Werk von Thomas Mann (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1986), Max Frischs 'Stiller', 'Homo Faber' und Mein Name sei Gantenbein - Modellanalysen zur deutschen Literature) Munich: Fink, 1990, reprints 1992, 1996), edited Thomas Mann - Death in Venice, Tonio Kroger and other Writings (New York: Continuum, The German Library, vol. 63, 1999), and numerous articles on European Romanticism (Bonaventura/Peacock/Pushkin/Flaubert) and German/European literature of the 20th century, including Hofmannsthal, Hesse, Thomas Mann, Weimar Culture, Frisch, Dürenmatt, Grass/Orwell, Bernward Vesper, Ingeborg Bachmann, Elisabeth Alexander, Anja Lundholm, and French Feminist theory (Cixous/Clément). He has given numerous conference papers and guests lecture in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and the People's Republic of China. He also translated film scripts German-American co-productions, Yoko Ono's rock opera New York City, and appeared on national public radio in Germany and the United States. His research interests are: Modern German literature, matriarchal mythography, gender ideology, fascism, film, the visual arts and popular culture, and Germans and Jews. He is currently finishing his book manuscript, The Discourse of Matriarchy in Twentieth-Century German Literary and Cultural History.

Heidi Schlipphacke, Assistant Professor
She received her Ph.D from the University of Washington. Her dissertation explored the concept of female masochism in modern German literature. Before coming to Old Dominion University, Dr. Schlipphacke held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor at the University if Illinois at Chicago where she taught courses on modern German literature, culture, language, and film.

In her research and teaching, Dr. Schlipphacke has focused on eighteenth- and twentieth-century German and Austrian literature and culture, German and European literary and intellectual history, gender and feminist theory, film, fascism and aesthetics. She has authored scholarly articles on G.E. Lessing, Lessing and France, Frankfurt School criticism, and Theodor Adorno and Arnold Schoenberg.

The Curriculum

With few exceptions, the department's courses are taught in German in an interactive seminar format. All members of the department share in the teaching of beginning and intermediate language courses.

The focus in the German program is on practical, culture-based proficiency in the use of German. Course content is both literary and more broadly cultural, drawing on fields such as history, philosophy, politics, economics, and the arts. In order to practice and improve their language learning skills, students can take advantage of the language lab facilities for additional practice in speaking and listening outside of the classroom.

Courses of Instruction
German – GER

101F-102F. Beginning German I and II. 101F is prerequisite to 102F. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits each semester. Oral drill and discussion of grammar principles, written exercises, and reading assignments. This course requires extensive work in the language laboratory.

195, 196. Topics in German. 1-3 credits each semester. Prerequisite: non. A study of selected topics designed as electives for non-majors. These courses will appear in the course schedule booklet, and will be more fully described in a booklet distributed to all academic advisors.

201-202. Intermediate German I and II. 201 is prerequisite to 202. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits each semester. Prerequisite: GER 102F or satisfactory score on the placement test.
An introduction to German grammar, literature, and civilization.

295, 296. Topics in German. 1-3 credits each semester. Prerequisite: none. A study of selected topics designed as electives for non-majors. These courses will appear in the course schedule booklet, and will be more fully described in a booklet distributed to all academic advisors.

311. Communicative Competence: Speaking and Listening. (oral communication course) Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: GER 202 or equivalent. An intensive study of the principles of German grammar and syntax accompanied by oral and written exercises.

312W. Communicative Competence: Writing and Reading. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: GER 202, advanced placement or permission of the instructor. A functional approach to the development of reading and writing skills targeting a variety of subjects, styles, and audiences.

321. German Civilization from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: GER 311 or 312W. A study of the major developments of German culture, highlighting its contributions to the modern culture of Western Civilization. Examples include the “German-Jewish Symbiosis” of the enlightenment, German Classicism (Goethe, Humboldt and their humanistic ideals), German Romanticism (music, poetry, “Lieder”), the German Gothic (the “uncanny” and its influence on the Western imagination from E.A. Poe to Baudelaire and Hollywood cinema), German philosophy, Vienna 1900 (“Art nouveau,” psychoanalysis), and German Expressionism (poetry, painting and the utopian imaginary).

350. Modern Swiss German Literature: A Multicultural Model. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: GER 311 or 312W or permission of the instructor. Readings and discussions of selected master works by Frisch and Durrenmatt, the two literary giants of modern Swill culture. Topic include the multicultural aspects of modern Switzerland, the dialectics of myth and modernity, provincialism versus globalism, Old World versus New World, the mixed blessing of technology, as well as the discourses of gender ideology.

355. Writings on the Berlin Wall: The Division and Unification of Germany. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: GER 311 or 312W or permission of the instructor. This course will focus on the process as well as the consequences of German reunification in politics, culture, and daily life in Eastern and Western Germany: minorities, right-wing extremism, democratic responses, Generation X, popular culture, and gender issues. In addition, the course objective is to fine-tune students’ proficiency in the four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, as well as in socio-cultural competence. Student will review and refine their understanding of grammatical structures, broaden their active and passive vocabularies, and probe more deeply into German culture and literature.

366. Business German: Language and Culture. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: GER 311 or 312W or permission of the instructor. An advanced language course focusing on practical vocabulary building, grammar, and cultural information for career and business-related situations.

369. Practicum. 3 credits. Prerequisites: nine credit hours of upper-level language at Old Dominion University and junior standing. Internships in private, public and business organizations that deal with foreign nationals, foreign products or are involved in teaching German. (qualifies as a CAP experience)

377, 378. Extracurricular Studies. 1-3 credits each semester. Prerequisite: approval by the department and the dean, in accordance with the policy on granting credit for extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities may be approved for credit based on objectives, criteria, and evaluative procedures as formally determined by the department and the student prior to the semester in which the activity is to take place. Such credit is subject to review by the provost.

395, 396. Topics in German. 1-3 credits each semester. Prerequisite: GER 202 or the equivalent. A study of selected topics designed for non-majors, or for elective credit within a major. These courses will appear in the course schedule booklet, and will be more fully described in a booklet distributed to all academic advisors.

407/507. Advanced Grammar and Syntax. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311 and 312W, or permission of the department chair. This course deals with idioms and the fine points of grammar with the aim of helping students to develop a good style in written and spoken German. After a short introduction to pronunciation, special problems of non-native speakers are analyzed and treated individually.

408/508. Conversation and Composition. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311 and 312W, or permission of the department chair. Designed to develop the mastery of spoken and written German. Recommended for prospective teachers.

410W/510. Berlin-Paris: Crucibles of European Ideas. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: German and French students must read and write in the target language. This course explores the cultural movements that hav4e characterized the German-French commonalities and differences from the early 1900s through the 1990s in cross-disciplinary discourses such as film, literature, art, politics, and economics. Cross-listed with FLET 410W/510.

420/520. Masterpieces of German Poetry. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311 and 312W, or permission of instructor. The course will focus on exemplary poems of distinct cultural periods, ranging from the courtly love tradition of the Middle Ages to the political poetry surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall.

430/530. Thomas Mann: Arts and Politics in the 20th Century. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: German section students must read and write in German. Thomas Mann is not only the prototypical German author of the 20th century, he is also his country’s most international intellectual (citizen/refugee/residence of Germany, Czechoslovakia, United States and Switzerland). His life and work represent and reflect in a unique fashion the many cultural trials and historical tribulations of the 20th century. The course will analyze these multi-faced contexts, including the musical cult of Wagner, “art nouveau” aesthetics, the evolution of psychoanalysis and homosexual politics (seguing into postmodern “camp”), the psychosocial dynamics of fascism, the experience of exile, and the modern dialectics of enlightenment, i.e., the merging of world religions into an Old Age/New Age spirituality. (Cross-listed with FLET 430/530)

435/535. Matriarchy and Modernity: Western Civilization and its Cultural Re-Orientation. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: German section students must read and write in German. German poets and cultural anthropologists of the 19th and 20th century wrote the first imaginary and scholarly accounts of archetypal mother myths and ancient Asian matriarchies, which in turn evolved into utopian counter-cultures to our Western civilization. As such they influenced and informed a variety of antisocial and sexual revolutions of modernity. The course will trace these cross-cultural developments through a variety of texts, including Goethe, Bachofen, Nietzsche, Freud, and Christa Wolf, as well as international samples of film, feminist art and feminist theory. (cross-listed with FLET 435/535)

445/545. New German Film. Lecture 2 hours; Laboratory 2 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisite: German section students must read and write in German. This course will focus on the development of the New German Cinema, its, its and its form of representation. Focusing on 6 directors and six films, it will explore major themes and trends of Germany after the war, terrorism in the 1970s, aestheticism, marginalization, and gender roles. (Cross-listed with GER 445/545 and COMM 444/544)

450/550. German Satires and Parodies. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311 and 312W, or permission of instructor. The course will analyze satirical features and parodic strategies in exemplary literature and visual texts from late medieval carnivals plays to contemporary cabaret. Texts include excerpts from Brant’s Ship of Fools, examples of romantic irony in Bonaventura and Heine, the graphic art of caricature from Reformation broad sheets to today’s political cartoons, as well as literary parodies from Wagnerian opera to Viennese chanson.

455/555. Hesse, Mann, Kafka, and Brecht. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311 and 312W; German section students must read and write in German. A study of representative works from the four most important twentieth-century German writers. Selected works in translation from Hesse, Mann, Kafka, and Brecht are studied as contributions to and reflections of the intellectual climate in Europe during the first half of this century. (Cross-listed with FLET 455/555)

460/560. The Weimar Republic and the Third Reich: Dreams and Traumas of Modern Germany. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311U and 312U, or permission of instructor. The twelve years of Hitler’s rule remain the most traumatic years of the 20th century. This course focuses on texts by German- speaking authors that explore the salient features of this time. It begins with a survey of the cultural and political development of Germany’s Weimar Republic from its origins in the chaotic aftermath of a lost war and failed revolution through the “roaring twenties” to its breakdown during the Great Depression, and its end with the Nazi’s seizure of power in 1933. Then, the focus shifts to Hitler’s rise of power, civilian life in Nazi Germany, World War II, the Holocaust, and ends with a glimpse of post-war Germany.

478/578. German Drama: From Utopia to Apocalypse and Beyond. Lecture 3 hours; 3 credits. Prerequisites: GER 311U and 312U. Beginning with Goethe’s Faust and its utopian aspirations and demonic temptations, the course will trace its dramatic trajectory through the plays of Wedekind, Zuckmayer and Weiss. Whereas the classical tragedy and modernist documentation drama of the two latter authors deal directly with the hubris and horrors of the Third Reich, the Epic Theater of Brecht attempts to radically change modernity’s corrupted society. Frisch’s post-epic theater transcends 20th century history, granting the human condition a modicum of tragicomic relief.

495/595, 496/596. Topics in German. 1-3 credits each semester. Prerequisite: appropriate survey course or permission of the instructor. The advanced study of selected topics designed to permit small groups of qualified students to work on subjects of mutual interest which, due to their specialized nature, may not be offered regularly. These courses will
appear in the course schedule booklet, and will be more fully described in a booklet distributed to all academic advisors.

497, 498. Tutorial Work in Special Topics in German. 1-3 credits each semester. Prerequisites: senior standing and approval of the department chair. Independent reading and study on a topic to be selected under the direction of an instructor. Conferences and papers as appropriate.

695/696. Topics in German. Lecture 1-9 hours; 1-9 credits.
Prerequisite: graduate standing. Advanced study of selected topics which may not be offered regularly. These appear in the course schedule booklet and are more fully described in a supplement distributed to graduate program directors.

697/698. Tutorial Work. 3 credits. Prerequisites: graduate standing and approval of project. This course will allow an individual student to pursue a special topic or project under the guidance of a professor.

For More Information
For further information regarding the programs described above, please contact the appropriate academic advisor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0085, (757) 683-3973, FAX (757) 683-5659.

For information and forms concerning your application, contact the Admissions Office, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0050, (757) 683-3637.
For complete instructions on obtaining financial aid, contact the Office of Student Financial Aid, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0052, (757) 683-3683.
Information about on-campus housing may be obtained from the Director of Housing Operations, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, (757) 683-4286.