FUBiS Term I 2023 (January 3 - 26)
Departure day/ Move-out day: Thursday, January 26, 2023
You can register here until December 6, 2022.
See here for an overview on fees and deadlines.
Program structure:
- A combination of courses is not applicable.
- The number of participants in each course is limited to 18 (15 in language courses). In exceptional cases, more participants per class may be allowed.
- Course enrollment is guaranteed after complete registration and full payment of course tuition and program fees.
- Credits can only be awarded if you are currently/ have been enrolled at a university.
Course schedule
German Language Courses
Course type: Language course
Contact hours: 72 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Student Profile
This course is designed for the beginner student with no previous knowledge of German.
Course Objectives
This course focuses on encounters with various written, spoken and audio-visual texts and exchanges with other course participants. You will develop basic competencies in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and an understanding of German culture while being enabled to learn reflectively and strategically. The course addresses cultural, political, and historical aspects of the city of Berlin and the German-speaking countries, which you will analyze and compare with your own background and experiences. At the end of the course, you will be able to
- deal with a range of everyday situations (in a German-speaking environment) and engage in simple conversations.
- use reading strategies to understand the main features of short newspaper articles and literary texts.
- write short texts and revise and correct them independently.
- understand the main features of conversations and lectures dealing with familiar topics.
Course type: Language course
Contact hours: 72 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Student Profile
This course is designed for beginners with basic knowledge of German.
Course Objectives
This course focuses on encounters with various written, spoken and audio-visual texts and exchanges with other course participants. You will continue to develop and expand basic competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and your understanding of German culture while being enabled to learn reflectively and strategically. The course addresses cultural, political, and historical aspects of the city of Berlin and the German-speaking countries, which you will analyze and compare with your own background and experiences. At the end of the course, you will be able to
- deal with various everyday situations (in a German-speaking environment) and engage in simple conversations.
- Successfully use reading strategies to understand short newspaper articles and literary texts.
- write short texts on various topics and revise and correct them independently.
- understand, in some detail, features of conversations and lectures dealing with familiar topics.
Course type: Language course
Contact hours: 72 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Student Profile
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Course Objectives
This course focuses on encounters with various written, spoken and audio-visual texts and exchanges with other course participants. You will further develop and expand your competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as your understanding of German culture while being enabled to learn reflectively and strategically. The course addresses cultural, political, and historical aspects of the city of Berlin and the German-speaking countries, which you will analyze and compare with your own background and experiences. At the end of the course, you will be able to
- use new strategies for learning and using the German language.
- participate in conversations and discussions of various topics in a German-speaking environment.
- successfully use reading strategies to understand texts of various levels of difficulty and from a variety of genres.
- write texts of various length on a range of topics and revise and correct them independently.
Course type: Language course
Contact hours: 72 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Student Profile
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level and the first part of the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Course Objectives
This course focuses on encounters with various written, spoken and audio-visual texts and exchanges with other course participants. You will further develop and expand your competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as your understanding of German culture while being enabled to learn reflectively and strategically. The course addresses cultural, political, and historical aspects of the city of Berlin and the German-speaking countries, which you will analyze and compare with your own background and experiences. At the end of the course, you will be able to
- use new strategies for learning and using the German language.
- participate in conversations and discussions of various topics in a German-speaking environment.
- successfully use reading strategies to understand texts of various levels of difficulty and from a variety of genres.
- write texts of various length on a range of topics and revise and correct them independently.
Course type: Language course
Contact hours: 72 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Student Profile
This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Course Objectives
This course focuses on encounters with various written, spoken and audio-visual texts and exchanges with other course participants. You will further develop and expand your competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as your understanding of German culture while being enabled to learn reflectively and strategically. The course addresses cultural, political, and historical aspects of the city of Berlin and the German-speaking countries, which you will analyze and compare with your own background and experiences. At the end of the course, you will be able to
- regularly employ new strategies for learning and using the German language.
- participate in conversations and discussions of various topics in a German-speaking environment while being aware of the appropriate linguistic register.
- read and understand texts of various length and from a variety of genres without difficulties
- to write, independently revise, and correct term papers that meet the basic requirements for academic writing.
Subject Courses
Language of instruction: English
Course type: Subject course
Contact hours: 48 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
🌍 Critical global issues addressed in this course: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16) |
Course Description
The course will introduce the basics of the European Union and describe and explain the processes of widening and deepening of this unique political entity. This will cover an overview of European Union history, its evolution in economic and political terms as well as of its institutional structure up to today.
Internal politics and policies, for example the decision-making process, the balance of power, questions about identity and democracy in this new system of governance will be discussed. We study the causes and effects of the war in Europe, its geopolitical dimension and how it affects policies and relations with neighbors and other parts of the world. Particularly important aspects include the discussion on relations with the UK after Brexit, the future of transatlantic relations and how the EU is dealing with China’s and Russia’s alternative models of governance. We will discuss migration as well as the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. If students express specific interests in other topics or case studies sessions can be adjusted.
The morning sessions consist of lectures, literature-based discussions and oral presentations from working groups. After lunch the course will visit various institutions in Germany`s political center. Students will have the chance to discuss the topics from the morning sessions with international experts from political institutions, embassies and think tanks.
Language of instruction: English
Course type: Subject course
Contact hours: 48 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Course Description
This course addresses the question of what Fascism is, how it developed and changed over time, and how it unfolds in different regional contexts. We will compare various Fascist movements and regimes that existed in different times and spaces with a focus on Europe. The course will start with a discussion of a wide range of theories and definitions of Fascism, both contemporary and scholarly. From there, we are going to analyse distinct key aspects of historical Fascism in the first half of the 20th century (ideology, organisation, practices). The second half of the course deepens the comparative aspect when we look at very different movements and regimes across the globe that have been labelled as either “Authoritarian”, “Populist”, or “Fascist”. Relating and comparing such different political systems to each other as well as to the historical Fascist regimes helps us to get a better understanding of what exactly might be “Fascist” about them.
Language of instruction: English
Course type: Subject course
Contact hours: 48 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Course Description
The ‘Thousand Year Reich’ promised by Hitler when he became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 lasted but 12 years. During this time, Hitler and his Nazi Party came to dominate the continent, terrorized vast numbers of Germans and Europeans, launched a devastating war, dominated, and laid waste to much of Europe, and orchestrated the murder of more than five million Jews. Despite the terror and vast destruction, Hitler and the Nazi Party gained and retained the active support and involvement of most Germans. How was this possible? What roles did seduction and terror, consent and coercion, play?
This class focuses on Hitler’s Germany, and it begins with the 19th century background. Central to this session will be a discussion of the broad political currents, the agitators and petty demagogues who fueled the dissatisfaction and spread it widely. We will also examine the popular literature that Hitler and many of his supporters read and absorbed.
Crucial to understanding the lure of Hitler and the Nazi Party was Germany’s experience in the First World War, a conflict that decimated a generation and destroyed Europe as it was known. In its wake it left a shattered, humiliated, and deeply torn Germany. In this climate of uncertainty and despair, Hitler and the Nazi Party grew from a small group on the fringe of radical politics in Munich into a national force. This development is of central importance to this session. Those traits of Hitler crucial to his success, particularly his charisma, will be defined and analyzed within the broader political context of the political and cultural life of the Weimar Republic.
On January 30, 1933, Hitler gained the long desired but elusive goal: he became chancellor of Germany, the leader of a coalition government. The political intrigues leading to his appointment will be discussed. Much attention will be paid in this session to how Hitler, his cabinet, and supporters were able to consolidate the control over the state and society within a matter of months. This came at the cost of political liberties, through the growing use of terror, oppression, and intimidation. Yet, Hitler gained supporters as he seemingly offered economic stability and a new unity to the German people. How did the regime solidify its control over society and over political life? Was it seduction or terror, consent or coercion?
A key element of Hitler’s rule was the concentration camp system, what came to be a vast network of prisons, centers of oppression and death. How this developed from the hundreds of small concentration camps set up in Berlin and across Germany shortly after Hitler’s takeover of power in 1933 to the well-organized and highly centralized system by 1939 will be the focus of this session. During the war, the concentration camp system spread across Germany and occupied Europe.
Hitler’s ambitions, the conquest of ‘living space’ in Eastern Europe, the ruthless exploitation of these territories, and the annihilation of the Jews, motivated his foreign ambitions and led directly to World War II, the most destructive conflict in human history. We will also discuss the measures taken against POWs, the handicapped, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma within Germany and in the occupied territories.
In Germany and in occupied Europe opposition and resistance emerged and challenged Nazi rule. Opponents were motivated by a variety of reasons, some personal, some political. These too will be discussed as well as the regime’s ruthless efforts to eradicate all opposition.
Lastly, the class will examine the end of the war, the so-called ‘zero hour’, the destruction and collapse of Nazi Germany. Soon, the reckoning with the Nazi past through investigations and criminal prosecutions, and the widespread non-reckoning among the German public, began. Only since the late 1960s has Germany looked openly and critically at its Nazi past and only then began establishing a series of memorials and monuments, a number of which we will be visiting.
We will be visiting local museums, historical sites and locations that reveal the operations of Nazi rule. These visits to sites in and near Berlin are a key element of the class and the experience of studying here. Please note that field trips are subject to change depending on the availability of appointments and speakers; on field trip days, class hours may be adjusted.
Download Syllabus (printable PDF incl. day-to-day schedule)Language of instruction: English
Course type: Subject course
Contact hours: 48 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
Course Description
Philosophy has constituted a central element in the emergence of modern German culture. In the late 18th century, German philosophy participated in the broader European Enlightenment culture, which was in turn connected to the development of modern empirical science. Under the impression of the historical changes brought about by the French Revolution and by the ‘Industrial Revolution’ in Great Britain, a special constellation of German philosophy emerged at the end of the 18th century, which has deeply left its mark on subsequent philosophical thinking far beyond Germany.
This philosophy course addresses the historical reality of this ‘German moment of philosophy’ in two subsequent phases: In the first part, we follow the emergence and full deployment of German philosophy from its Kantian beginnings to Hegel’s grand but fragile synthesis, trying to understand its richness as well as its fragility. In a second part, we discuss the later renewal of German philosophy in the late 19th century and its historical tragedy in the 20th century. This will include a discussion of the new beginnings of philosophy since the mid-19th century, from Marx, and Nietzsche, via Frege to Husserl and Wittgenstein, who have been reacting to the scientific and political revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th century. Martin Heidegger as an established pro-Nazi philosopher and Max Horkheimer as the leading philosopher of the “Frankfurt School” driven into exile are studied as philosophers immersed into the Night of the 20th century.
Finally, post-World War II developments in philosophy (as exemplified by Jürgen Habermas) will be looked at as pathways out of the self-destructive turn the ‘German moment of philosophy’ in Germany had taken in the first decades of the 20th century, and as passages into an emerging world philosophy.
The course will be based upon contemporary attempts at rethinking a global philosophical perspective. The focus is on the tension between the Enlightenment heritage of a universalizing human philosophy and a national culture project, as well as on the tension between classicist rationalism and romantic emotionalism in its construction as a series of philosophical projects. From the perspective of a German version of the dialectics of the Enlightenment, the German philosophers of the 19th and 20thcenturies will be studied in context - combining the reading of key texts with a reconstruction of their historical contexts and their interaction.
Download Syllabus (printable PDF incl. day-to-day schedule)Language of instruction: English
Course type: Subject course
Contact hours: 48 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
🌍 Critical global issues addressed in this course: Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10); Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16) |
Course Description
In the last decade, EU experienced unprecedented migration movements. EU’s response has been shaped by distinguishing between “deserving refugees” and “undeserving economic migrants” and has oscillated between humanitarian and securitarian approaches. Whereas the recent developments on the EU borders such as pushbacks, the containment of migrants in the hotspots signalize the abandonment of humanitarian approach, the quick and less bureaucratic protection of Ukrainian refugees demonstrates more of a selective humanitarian approach.
As the visibility of migration increases in various ways, certain migrants are often represented and imagined as a homogenous mass of ‘the other’. This leads to a problematic understanding of migration as something to be controlled and governed from a top-down perspective alone. But the respective processes of negotiation on migration policy, within and across the outer borders of the Union, take place not only between the official institutions of nation-states, but on all scales of European populations. They also take place from a bottom-up perspective in the centers and at the margins of societies alike.
Departing from diverse theories of migration, we will gain an overview of EU-level migration polity and recent migration- and border-management policies. We will analyze the conflicts, debates and discourses around the last years of increased immigration.
Scaling down, we will engage with the local authorities’ perspective in Berlin. Diving deeper down we will start to change perspective: How do local activists develop and implement their own ways of welcoming migrants? Where do migrants work and how are they represented in trade unions? Finally, focusing on the history of migrant struggles in Berlin, we will encounter migrants’ viewpoints, which reach beyond the usual framings of migrants as ‘passive victim’ or as a threat. We will encounter viewpoints on the conflicts, compromises, resistances, solidarity and social transformation shaped by recent migration movements to Europe.
Language of instruction: English
Course type: Subject course
Contact hours: 48 (6 per day)
Course days: see class schedule
ECTS credits: 5
Course fee: € 1,300
🌍 Critical global issues addressed in this course: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16) |
Course Description
This course explores theoretical and historical perspectives on the intersection of law, society and politics, and aims to foster discussion of contemporary issues among students from different cultures and disciplines. After an introduction to comparative law and legal culture, we read some classical social theorists (Durkheim, Weber and Marx), and consider their relevance to contemporary debates about morality, (dis)obedience, conflict, and property. Next, we investigate the role and operation of law in totalitarian settings such as Nazi and Communist Germany. Finally, we consider the difficulties that such legacies pose for democracy, the rule of law, and the economy in post-totalitarian societies. In this context, we examine the need for ‘transitional justice’, the relationship between law and the market, and the challenges posed by freedom of speech.
Overall, the course aims to develop skills at using theory and history to inform debates on contemporary challenges, such as multiculturalism, punishment, (illegal) downloading/streaming/file-sharing, and economic development. In addition to gaining substantive expertise in various socio- and politico-legal fields, students develop communicative competence through participatory exercises, and intercultural competence through discussion with other students.
Class times
Weekdays | Monday to Friday | Field trip days for the German courses |
---|---|---|
Teaching hours |
9:00 - 10:30 am |
9:00 am - 3:30 pm |