German Studies Program
Requirements and Courses

Requirements and Courses

A student can moderate into German Studies with a focus in German literature and culture. Joint majors moderate separately into German Studies and the related discipline (e.g. philosophy, music, history, written arts) or they may integrate German Studies and another field of inquiry into one moderation.

Requirements

For German Studies at Bard language and culture go hand in hand. Our language sequence courses integrate literary and philosophical texts with study of the culture. After completing the language sequence, all German students take upper-level seminars taught entirely in German. 
  • Moderation Requirements
    A student moderates into German Studies with a focus in German literatures and cultures. Joint majors may moderate separately into German Studies and the related discipline (philosophy, music, economics, etc.), or they may integrate German Studies and another field of inquiry into one Moderation. At Moderation, students demonstrate progress in their primary discipline and are actively pursuing inquiry into aspects of German Studies.
  • Second Focus Requirements
    Students who wish to pursue a second focus in German Studies must complete at least 16 credits in the German language sequence. They must also take either two upper-level German literature/culture courses, or one upper level German literature/culture course and two German culture courses taught in English and cross-listed with German Studies.
  • Graduation Requirements
    After successfully moderating into the German Studies Program, students take at least one upper-college literature/culture course per semester in ascending sequence. We strongly recommend and support moderated students spending a semester of Study Abroad, for instance through our tuition exchange program at Humboldt University Berlin. Graduating in German Studies culminates in writing a Senior Project over the course of two consecutive semesters.
    More about the Senior Project

Sample Four-Year Plan

First Year Sophomore Year Junior Year Senior Year
  • GER 106: Beginning German Intensive plus Intensive Abroad in Berlin
  • GER 202: Intermediate German II
  • GER 301
  • GER 302
  • GER/LIT 200
  • HIST 100/200
  • GER 401
  • GER 402
  • GER 400-level
  • Senior Project

Note: Starting in your second year or even third year is also possible! Please feel free to ask the Program Director if you have any questions.

Core Courses

100-Level
  • GER 106: Beginning German Intensive plus Intensive Abroad in Berlin
 200-Level
  • GER 202: Intermediate German II
300-Level
  • GER 325: German Theater
  • GER 326: Literature Between Languages
  • GER 327: Psychoanalysis and the Invention of Sex
  • GER 329: Memory Strays
  • GER 331: Poetry and Philosophy
 400-Level
  • GER 409: Dreaming the 20th Century
  • GER 419: Hannah Arendt: Writing Sense
  • GER 424: Hedgehogs: The German Romantics
  • GER 421: The Experience of the Foreign in German Literature
  • GER 422: Contemporary German Literature and Film
  • GER 467: Correspondences: Figures of Writing