INSIGHTS

The protection of the most important human cultural achievements and natural phenomena is a responsibility for the international community as their disappearance would be an irreplaceable loss for humanity as a whole. Thus, the protection of unique objects like the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza, the Taj Mahal, the archaeological site of Olympia in Greece, Ayers Rock or the Grand Canyon is the aim of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention) of 1972. UNESCO’s World Heritage List, which has been growing steadily over the last fourty years, is considered by many to be the first example of a modern international cultural policy. Here, as a basic principle, cultures have equal rights. Meanwhile 1.121 cultural and natural sites from 167 states are listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

To date, 46 German sites have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List: Buildings, urban areas and archaeological sites, monuments to industrial history and cultural landscapes in Germany have become part of the world cultural heritage. World natural heritage covers important ecosystems, testaments to evolutionary history, natural paradises and protected reserves for animals and plants. As UNESCO World Heritage Sites are places of cultural encounter and understanding between peoples they provide the opportunity to enhance the knowledge about oneself by exploring one’s own and other cultures.

Therefore the lecture wants to inform the students about the different German sites and their outstanding importance. In particular we shall have to deal with the following objects: Aachen Cathedral (World Heritage site since 1978), Speyer Cathedral (1981), Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square (1981), Pilgrimage Church of Wies (1983), Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl (1984), St Mary’s Cathedral and St Michael’s Church at Hildesheim (1985), Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier (1986), Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1987), Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (1990), Abbey of Lorsch (1991), Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of Goslar (1992), Town of Bamberg (1993), Maulbronn Monastery Complex (1993), Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg (1994), Völklingen Ironworks (1994), Messel Pit Fossil Site (1995), Cologne Cathedral (1996), Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau (1996), Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg (1996), Classical Weimar (1998), Wartburg Castle (1999), Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin (1999), Garden Realm of Dessau-Wörlitz (2000), Monastic Island of Reichenau (2000), Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen (2001), Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar (2002), Upper Middle Rhine Valley (2002), Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen (2004), Muskauer Park / Park Muzakowski (2004), Frontiers of the Roman Empire: Upper German-Raetian Limes (2005), Old town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof (2006), Housing Estates in the Berlin Modern Style (2008), The Wadden Sea (2009), Ancient Beech Forests of Germany (2011), Fagus Factory in Alfeld (2011), Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps (2011), etc.

Lecturer: Dr. Peter A. Süß

This lecture will take the students on an interesting and informative trip through the German parliamentary history and the structure and functions of the German parliament, the “Bundestag”. It will furthermore show you round its most symbolic edifice, the “Reichstag” building. So the intention is to give the students the opportunity to learn about the development of parliamentarism in Germany through the last two hundred years as well as about the procedures and tasks of the German “Bundestag” today. We will also take a tour of its buildings, and undoubtedly discover a few surprises about Parliament of which most people were previously unaware, such as its remarkable art collection. The students will gain insights into the parliamentarians’ working week and how they negotiate the various, and occasionally arduous, stages in the passage of legislation.
     The glass dome of the “Reichstag” Building, designed by British architect Norman Foster at the “Bundestag’s” specific request, has not only rapidly become the new emblem of Berlin. It is also a tangible symbol of parliamentary reform, of greater transparency and openness. Norman Foster’s renovation now shows, in terms of both outer appearance and interior design, the extent of the transformation in Parliament’s self-image. When the “Reichstag” was built, at the time of the German Empire, the seat of Parliament had to be as imposing as possible to allow the young Parliament to demonstrate its self-confidence with regard to the Imperial Palace, the seat of the monarchy. Today, the renovated “Reichstag” exudes confidence with a note of self-irony; it is a building fittingly characterised by dramatic openings, clear perspectives and transparent structures – which phenomena are the signature features of contemporary parliamentary life in a modern democracy of the 21st century, too.

Lecturer: Dr. Peter A. Süß

In the last decades and in the course of worldwide cultural but also economic linking-up, events like Halloween or Valentine’s Day arrived in Germany and Europe. Formally, those originally American festivities were not known in Germany and the rest of Europe. However, this does not mean that these countries did not have their own customs and traditions. Actually, each of them looks back on a huge amount of different local, regional and even nationwide customs for any kind of event: practices for annually repeating feasts like Christmas and Easter or saints’ days, e.g. processions or parish fairs, as well as modes for special and individual festivities as weddings, baptisms and funerals. Furthermore, customs and traditions are still instrumentalised and interpreted for political and economic purposes today. With this in mind, it is also worthwhile to look at the way customs have changed in the recent past. The course will give an overview over different German regions and their churchly and worldly customs as well as a pass through the ecclesiastical year with its most important rites and traditions. It can help students from abroad, but also students from different German regions to understand the different practices they might see during their stay in Germany and maybe even participate in them to experience centuries-old traditions in different locations.

Lecturer: Luise Stark M.A.

What food is typically German? Everybody could name some traditional dishes like Sauerkraut, sausages, pretzels or Schweinebraten. But why are these dishes the traditional dishes of Germany? How and when were they created? And does really every German eat them? In this course, we will follow the history of German food. Our journey will start with the first inhabitants of the country we call Germany today and will follow the food through the markets of the Middle Ages to our supermarkets today. The German cuisine is rich in regional variations, which are not only due to geographical and climatic reasons but also influenced by the special German history. Besides the history of some German dishes and typical ingredients, you will also learn a good bit about German’s history and its (food-)culture. This course will also take a look at the ways food is prepared and how and when food is eaten in Germany.

Lecturer: Dr. Christina Schäfer

"True Crime" is becoming increasingly popular. The genre owes its rise in particular to the media coverage, but in doing so, the latter has perhaps also struck a nerve with recipients. On the one hand, the seminar will thus focus on the legal historical development in Germany, but on the other hand, it will also discuss spectacular legal cases. In this way, participants will gain an insight into the German legal and media system. On this journey through such cultures of memory in Germany, the participants will encounter, for example, the "Vampire of Düsseldorf" and assess for themselves whether they would have convicted someone or not. To successfully complete the course, participants will present and write up a well-known case from their home country (optionally a different country).

Lecturers: Dr. Christina Schäfer / Lisa Stolz M.A.

Germany is dotted with historical monuments of all decades – and so is Würzburg. The big mystic fortresses built during the Middle Ages that survived the centuries still haven’t ceased to fascinate contemporary visitors. Their stones may impress, but can they talk? Can they tell us how their inhabitants lived, what they thought and cared about? Places and buildings may take our bodies and eyes on an imaginary time travel, but only scripts and books of those times can take our minds back into the past and bring them close to the minds of former writers and poets.

We are going to set out on that journey, will dive into medieval literature written in Old and Middle High German and discover the oldest written testimonies about knights and heroes, courtly love and wild adventures. After the Reformation the next important step of the Early Modern Period is the Baroque era. The traumatic experience of the Thirty Years’ War is reflected in profund and rhetorically influenced poetry full of symbols worth explanation and interpretation.

The great authors of the Enlightenment, among them Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, or Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, the founder of humanitarianism, focus on human ‚ratio‘ to build a better world.

The second half of the 18th century is coined by the Sensibility, – its ultimate bestseller Goethe’s ‘Die Leiden des jungen Werthers’ – and by the movement of the highly emotional ‘Sturm and Drang’ as an opposition to the rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment. The protagonists – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich von Schiller both moved on to the Weimar Classicism, the most fertile and famous epoch in German literature.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, the pendulum swung back towards the idea of an idealized world of the Middle Ages and towards the rather irrational and supernatural facets of the human mind during the Age of Romanticism. 

Biedermeier and Vormärz, Poetic Realism and Naturalism – all oft hem focussing the material base of human existence – close the 19th century. The 20th opens with fresh ideas in Symbolism, Expressionism or Dada. During the National Socialist regime there were several movements in literature: the official propaganda, the literature of the ‘internal emigration’ and the works of authors who went into exile to write against the war and the Nazi regime, men like Bertolt Brecht or Thomas Mann.

Post-war literature dominates the decades after the end of 2nd World War. The situation in East Germany (GDR) is an important factor in both history and literature. Contemporary literature finally brings us back to the days of our lifetime.

Lecturer: Michael Burigk

As the impacts of the climate crisis intensify, sustainability is increasingly moving to the center of global attention. Yet its meaning is far from universal: it is interpreted, negotiated, and practiced in diverse ways across cultures, societies, and media. What one context regards as sustainable may be understood very differently in another, highlighting the cultural and communicative dimensions of ecological issues.

This course examines how sustainability is narrated, communicated, and understood in German literature, media, and everyday life, situating these perspectives within wider cultural and global contexts. Using methods from literary studies, media studies, and linguistics, the course investigates how ecological ideas are shaped by discourse, how media both promote and obscure sustainable action, and how cultural contexts influence our perception of ecological crises. By analyzing texts ranging from poetry and films to advertising and everyday communication, students will develop analytical and intercultural skills to critically engage with sustainability discourses. The seminar fosters intercultural dialogue, critical thinking, and creative reflection, inviting participants to analyze and co-create sustainability narratives from German and global perspectives alike.

Lecturer: Michael Rudolf

Currently consisting of twenty-seven member states with supranational and intergovernmental features, the European Union has not only created a political and economic community but also a single market by a system of laws which apply in all member states, guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods, services, and capital.
In this course, we will look at the development of the European Union from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), an administrative agency established by the Treaty of Paris in 1952 to integrate the coal and steel industries in western Europe, to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the inofficial EU constitution, and beyond. In particular, we will focus on Germany's role in the history of European integration. Topics presented include (but may not be limited to) decision-making in the EU, the various EU institutions such as the Commission, the Council of the EU, the EU Parliament, the EU Central Bank etc.; immigration and asylum; foreign and security policy; Brexit and Euroscepticism, the European Green Deal. Additionally, we will study and discuss national particularities such as the German social security system, the German labor market etc.

Lecturer: Sabrina Hüttner, M.A.

这门课的内容包括德国的地理与气候，行政区划，政治体制以及世界遗产。

教师：Birgit Herrmann

这门课的内容包括德国的人口变化，家庭与妇女，教育与创新，工作与休闲，宗教与节日以及饮食文化。

教师：Birgit Herrmann