Germany is opening up, and people are planning their vacation. We are hoping to explore sites and places with our students, rich in culture and history as well as vibrant and lively in the present. Here are some pictures from one of the trips we did to nearby Hamburg and Lübeck:
This video features the song “Happiness” by Bensound, available under a Creative Commons license.
by Dr. Janine Ludwig
In response to the pandemic, Dickinson College developed the innovative format of the Globally Integrated Seminar (GIS) with many of our study-abroad sites. For Bremen, I was conducting a class on “Germany and the Cold War” this spring semester.
This seminar covered political and cultural developments in Germany throughout the 20th century. Through critical engagement with texts, documentaries and films, we tried to understand how people have felt about their times and the future, about modernity, about the block confrontation, their governments, and much more. We also occasionally examined the images of America that Germans produced at different times. The division of Germany, Europe and the world into East and West was discussed up to the revolution of 1989, which contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and led to German reunification as well as the eastward expansion of the European Union.
We started with the German Empire around 1900, World War I and the Russian Revolution, continued with World War II and the separation of Germany and then delved into the history of the two Germanies. Finally, we analyzed the peaceful revolution of 1989 and German runification as well as Ostalgie (nostalgia for the East). Every week, the students wrote a blog post answering a specific question related to the readings. While we were watching films, we chatted and commented on what we saw or discussed questions that occurred.
In order to offer international experiences and discussions to our students, we invited several high-level German guests to the sessions. Among them was Egon Krenz, Head of State of the GDR in the fall of 1989, who answered critical questions, for instance about his current judgment on socialism, about the moment he realized that his government was losing control and why he thinks the socialist Eastern Bloc eventually lost the Cold War. He described how accidental the fall of the Berlin Wall actually was and what the immediate Russian reaction was that he received.
Here are some students’ comments from anonymous evaluations:
“One of my favorite classes that I have taken at Dickinson.”
“This was one of the best discussion-based classes I’ve had at Dickinson, I enjoyed the openness of the professor to other pollical ideas and hard questions. She always tried to answer them the best she could without any prejudice and it was incredibly helpful.”
“Professor Ludwig’s enthusiasm helped make engagement in this course a meaningful experience.”
“Fantastic instructor, who showed great interest in the subject matter.”
“I liked the way the course was structured a lot.”
“This was a great course and I really enjoyed the professor’s teachings! I hope to hold onto what I learned in this class for the rest of my life. There was a lot of great life lessons mixed in with the political talks that we had.”
“This course challenged my language skills through the readings, writings and watching the films. I learned more about Germany’s history than I did before and want to continue to learn.”
“Amazing as always. Incredibly receptive to student feedback and opinions, understanding, very passionate about the subject material and about students doing well.”
“I know I was quiet again this semester. Zoom classes make me incredibly anxious which makes it incredibly difficult to participate often. But I did enjoy the class and learn a lot, and I’m going to miss Professor Ludwig a lot.”
“Dr Ludwig was very interested in the material we were learning, and her personal interest and input on content made the class more enjoyable. The classroom learning atmosphere was very comfortable. It felt that anybody could contribute and say what they wanted to say.”
And this is what two students wrote as open feedback:
“The Egon Krenz talk was truly fascinating and something I will never forget. It was really cool to speak with a former DDR leader, who was the leader when the Berlin Wall fell. While we both had different views on the world, we were able to have a very interesting discussion about topics like the Cold War, Donald Trump, and current world politics.” >Mac Tambussi ’23<
“I enjoyed Dr. Ludwig’s seminar examining Germany’s relationship to the Cold War not only because it was the first course I had ever taken about German history, but also because I was living with my German relatives for the first half of the semester and the course’s content helped me start some very interesting discussions with them. As a German major and a musician at Dickinson, I was also particularly fascinated by the history of Rock music in the GDR and how the attitude of government’s attitudes towards the genre shifted over time.” >Nick Rickert ‘23<
At the Rhododendronpark in Bremen, visitors get to enjoy one of the largest collection worldwide of these unusual, beautiful flowers: The park offers over 1,000 types of Rhododendron and Azalea bushes stretched over 46 hectares of parkland!
We highly recommend you to visit the park in the month of May: During this time of year, the Rhododendron starts to come into full bloom and shows its many vibrant colors.
For more information visit: https://www.rhododendronparkbremen.de/
Photo: Heinz-Josef Lücking, Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Running a successful Dickinson program in Bremen for more than 35 years now, is a team effort. That team includes: members and leaders of the CGSE, Dickinson’s German Department, and two on-site representatives on the ground, located at the University of Bremen: the Academic Director and the Program Coordinator.
With our new series, we want to show you the faces behind our program. Stay tuned!
Janine Ludwig is a literary scholar, co-editor of Dickinson’s literary journal Glossen (with Prof. McGaughey), Vice Head of the Institute for Cultural German Studies at the University of Bremen (ifkud), and Chairwoman of the International Heiner Müller Society. She studied Contemporary German Literature, Philosophy, and Theater Studies/Cultural Communication in Göttingen, San Diego, and Berlin. She is an expert on East German and post-war literature, but also an all-rounder with interests in medieval history, politics, and film.
Aside from numerous articles on a range of topics, she has published two books on the playwright Heiner Müller (“Ikone West” and “Macht und Ohnmacht des Schreibens”) and, together with Mirjam Meuser, two edited volumes on post-GDR literature: “Literatur ohne Land?”. Another edited volume with a colleague, Carsten Gansel, on the 68 movement is in print.
Dr. Ludwig teaches regularly at the Departments of Cultural and German Studies at Uni Bremen: seminars on German-American cultural history and relations, including German immigration, but also on literature, intercultural studies, German as a foreign language, and recently on Wende or post-reunification novels (publication underway).
She is a fan of the city’s soccer club “Werder Bremen” and a news freak; she enjoys trivia nights as well as a good German intensive debate on pretty much anything. Having been the Academic Director in Bremen since 2009, she was disheartened about the Covid break that the program had to take and misses students being around. She is looking forward to re-opening soon!
“Servus!” Prof. Haque has been teaching at Dickinson since 2008. He teaches all levels of the curriculum. Some courses he regularly teaches include Mountains in German Culture, German Literature and Film of the First World War and German Intellectual History. His research focuses on the Alps in German-language film and literature. When he is in Europe, you can find him in Munich or the mountains of Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. If he has to be somewhere flat, Bremen is a great place to be!
Prof. Pfannkuchen arrived at Dickinson in 2009. After living in Berlin, NYC and London, Carlisle was a bit of a change, but by now (and especially during the pandemic) small-town living has grown on her. At the moment, though, she is on leave as a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University, finishing her manuscript “Printing the Invisible.” This book studies the beginnings of photography in the early 19th century and how they were connected to research in electricity and to romantic poetry.
Prof. Pfannkuchen came to German Studies indirectly after a first degree in “Kulturwissenschaften” (Cultural History) with a focus on media theories and a second master’s from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) exploring technological innovations. Her current work is informed by her continued interest in the media-technological state of our world. That’s why students in her courses with topics as diverse as “German-Jewish Culture,” “Goethe Forever!” or “The German Political Landscape” are taught to produce podcasts and videos, instead of merely consuming them.
Normally she is back in Germany at least twice every year with regular stays in Bremen, Berlin, and her hometown Dresden.
Prof. McGaughey joined the German Department in 2007 and continues to appreciate being a part of creativity and interdisciplinarity of Dickinson’s liberal arts and sciences community. She enjoys teaching language, culture, and literary studies at all levels of the curriculum. Most recently, she has developed and taught courses such as German Environments, German in Performance, German Pop! and Architecture of the German-Speaking World. In her Intermediate German course, she created content on refugee history and Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) and changed the format of exams to focus on the skills of communication: reading, writing, and speaking. Students in her courses have created podcasts and presentations on topics such as Eurogames, Berliner club history, and 19th century nation building in German-speaking Europe. Creative student projects include a ghostly radio drama and a literary talk show modelled on Das literarische Quartett.
Most of her publications, including two books, focus on the early work of the Austrian Jewish author Hermann Broch (1886-1951), in particular the role of architecture and the environment in his pre-exile literary projects. Her current research focuses on homes and gardens in the interwar period in Central Europe. An additional area of interest is now contemporary young adult literature and environmental crisis. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, walking and hiking, cooking, and listening to lots and lots of German radio. She is also an avid fan of the longest running German crime series, Tatort.
Her interest is bringing the German and French speaking worlds to the elementary levels of the Dickinson classroom. Her specialty in second language acquisition is teaching not only how to communicate in both languages, but to also make connections and comparisons between our culture and the various communities of those worlds, so that the students will one day be able to use their target language(s) globally.
Todd Bryant is an adjunct faculty member in the German department and the liaison to the foreign language departments for the department of instructional media services. He focuses on bringing authentic materials into the language class room, collaborative activities in new media, and exchanges with native speakers via Skype.