German and German Studies

Kelly Roehl, Tomson Hall 331
507-786-3230

wp.stolaf.edu/german

In the St. Olaf German Department, we are committed to offering students a critical, socially engaged, interdisciplinary and inclusive German Studies to meet global challenges. At every course level, language learning and cultural understanding support and reinforce one another. Beyond acquiring vocabulary and mastering grammar, German courses allow students to explore topics from fairy tales to film, from everyday life to international politics, and from confronting the past to building a more sustainable future.

Studying German at St. Olaf is both fun and enriching. Our small class sizes allow students to get to know their classmates closely as they learn to converse in German with each other, with professors, and with the native speakers we welcome to campus each year. Using language skills to explore the German-speaking world of yesterday and today, students will learn to make connections among diverse texts, including poetry and film, literature, news media, political discussions, as well as music, art, and architecture. Students will encounter social, cultural, artistic, political, and economic phenomena that have shaped German-speaking communities over time and that continue to influence their evolution today.

In addition to a diverse range of courses in German that treat language and culture together, the German Department offers courses in English open to all St. Olaf students on a variety of cultural topics stemming from the German-speaking world.

Beyond the classroom, students may participate in the weekly German conversation table (Stammtisch), semester film series, German choir, events organized by the German Honor Society Delta Phi Alpha, and activities hosted at Deutschsprachige Wohngemeinschaft, a Residential Learning Community where St. Olaf students live in an immersive German language and cultural community together with an exchange student from the Universität Konstanz.

Overview of the Major

In courses for the German major, students gain an understanding of German-speaking cultures past and present while refining their oral and written German, building intercultural competence, and developing analytical and communication skills applicable to a wide variety of disciplines. Students need not be German majors to take level II and level III courses.

Level II courses are divided into three sequences:

  • GERM 231 and GERM 232 are topically organized, content-based courses, with lexical and grammatical work integrated into the study and discussion of a wide range of cultural perspectives through diverse written texts and visual media. GERM 231 focuses on questions of identity and belonging in German-speaking societies, historically and today. In GERM 232, students explore past and present experiences of everyday life and their implications for social justice;
  • 250-level courses prepare students to engage in informed conversations at a high level of discourse about core cultural narratives of the German-speaking world. In GERM 251, students analyze the interaction of history and memory in literary and filmic narratives about German history as they develop advanced writing skills. GERM 252 explores contemporary issues in a global context through the study of short texts in multiple media forms, with projects that include oral presentations in a variety of genres and registers.
  • 270-level courses introduce students to various ways of knowing: critical historiography, media literacy, and socially engaged scholarship. Students continue to refine their German language skills through tasks that emphasize reading against the grain and speaking to an audience beyond the classroom. Student products include web-based projects, research blogs, research presentations, interviews, and community engagement projects.

Level III courses are capstone seminars that require in-depth engagement with phenomena and discourses of German-speaking cultures, past and present. Students engage in original research that is presented publicly. Language work focuses on writing and speaking in a scholarly register. 

Intended Learning Outcomes for the Major


Overview of the Concentration

The German studies concentration provides students the opportunity to explore the cultures of German-speaking countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students combine intermediate and advanced-level coursework in the German language with a selection of courses with appropriate cultural content, in English or German, taken across the college or during study abroad, in consultation with the program director.

Intended Learning Outcomes for the Concentration


Distinction

In the spring semester of 2023, the German Department faculty voted to discontinue the awarding of distinction in the German department. This decision was the culmination of conversations over several years–conversations that acquired greater urgency as the department began a more rigorous and wide-ranging discussion of equity, inclusion, and antiracism during the 2020-2021 academic year. In reaching this decision, the German Department joined several other St. Olaf departments and programs that have made the same decision in recent years. The department also joined a number of other departments and programs that have not offered distinction for many years.

Special Programs

Study Abroad

St. Olaf College offers students three unique study abroad opportunities in German-speaking countries, for either a semester or a full year: the Universität Mainz in central Germany, the Universität Konstanz in southern Germany, and Webster University in Vienna. The two university exchange programs in Germany offer an extensive array of courses across all disciplines. Webster University in Vienna offers the unique opportunity for music students to take applied lessons. Students need not be German majors or German Studies concentrators to take part in these programs. For more information, see the Smith Center for Global Engagement.

Students may attend the Universität Konstanz for spring semester or for an entire academic year. The prerequisite for study at Konstanz is GERM 231 or equivalent. Students may attend the Universität Mainz for fall semester plus January term, for spring semester, or for an entire academic year. The prerequisite for study at Mainz is GERM 232 or equivalent. Both the Universität Konstanz and the Universität Mainz offer a pre-semester orientation during which students choose university courses in consultation with the St. Olaf German programs advisor.

Upon successful completion of an approved semester-long program of study in Germany, a student normally receives 4-5 credits on the St. Olaf transcript. Upon successful completion of an approved full-year program of study in Germany, a student normally receives 8-9 credits on the St. Olaf transcript. Up to 2 credits per semester can count toward the St. Olaf German major, excluding the 370-level course requirement. For a course to count toward the German major, the language of instruction must be German. Up to 2 credits total may count toward a German Studies concentration, one of which may be a course in English.

With approval from the St. Olaf German program advisor and/or the chair of the student’s major department(s), course credits also may apply to another major, general education requirements, or electives. Credits toward other majors must be pre-arranged with those departments' chairs. Students should know that specific courses might not be offered during their time at their chosen university and discuss this possibility with their advisors and department chairs. Grades earned for all courses taken are recorded on the St. Olaf transcript but not calculated into the St. Olaf grade point average. However, should a student decide to apply for professional or graduate school, that institution may recalculate the Grade Point Average to include grades earned abroad.
 
The study abroad program at Webster Vienna Private University is designed with music students in mind, who can take applied lessons on site. Classes in a variety of other disciplines are also available. Unlike the study abroad programs in Konstanz and Mainz, the Webster University in Vienna program has English as its primary language of instruction and therefore has no requirement of prior German knowledge. A limited number of introductory and intermediate German courses are available.
 

Courses in English and Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC)

German courses in English translation (GERM 245, GERM 247, GERM 249, GERM 263) and courses offered in other departments (e.g., HIST 224, NORW 260) that examine key aspects of the histories and cultures of German-speaking societies carry OLE Core curriculum attributes and are open to majors and non-majors alike. These courses require no previous knowledge of German. Both the German major and the German Studies concentration allow for a limited portion of the requirements to be met with courses in English.  Some courses in the German Department and in other departments at St. Olaf are offered with a German Languages Across the Curriculum component, which provide a certification when students complete two LAC courses in the same language. 

German Residential Learning Community

German majors, German Studies concentrators, and other students motivated to be part of an immersive German-speaking living community may apply to live in Deutschsprachige Wohngemeinschaft, a co-educational Residential Learning Community (RLC). Each year a native German-speaking student is selected from the Universität Konstanz to live in the RLC to speak German and help organize cultural events with the other residents.

Recommendations for Graduate Study

St. Olaf's German Education program has been discontinued. Students interested in obtaining a K-12 German teaching license are encouraged to complete an undergraduate major in German and then apply to a graduate program that offers a Master's degree combined with teaching certification in German.

Students planning on graduate study in German should major in German and take additional courses relevant to graduate studies in the field. An academic plan will be designed in close discussion with the student’s academic advisor. In recent years, St. Olaf German majors have been accepted for graduate study at the Universities of Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Students interested in graduate study in German are encouraged to pursue a research or teaching fellowship (e.g., Fulbright, DAAD, IPS, USTA, MLS-Rimbach) the year following graduation from St. Olaf, as intensive in-country language and cultural immersion in a professional or academic setting is a common and beneficial intermediate step before starting graduate study in the field.