ClassInfo - Spring 2017 German Classes

Spring 2017 | GER 1909W Section 001: Freshman Seminar -- Politics, Art, & Propaganda: Film in Berlin (68362)

Instructor(s): Rick Mc Cormick
Class Component:: Lecture
Credits:: 3 Credits
Grading Basis:: A-F or Audit
Instructor Consent:: No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:: In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:: UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Freshman Full Year Registration
Freshman Seminar
Topics Course
Times and Locations:: Regular Academic Session

01/17/2017 - 05/05/2017

Tue 04:00PM - 07:30PM

UMTC, East Bank

Folwell Hall 123

Course Catalog Description:: Topics specified in Class Schedule.
Class Notes:: This course involves a study abroad component to Germany during Spring Break Break 2017. Please note that you must also apply for this seminar through the Learning Abroad Center. For more information, visit: https://umabroad.umn.edu/programs/europe/berlin-film/.
Class Description:: Berlin, German political history, and German film history are inextricably entwined. This Freshman Seminar will enable students to study films that document and represent Berlin's history, and when we visit Berlin during Spring Break, we will visit some of the key sites where that history was made or is now commemorated. We will watch German films: from the 1920s, when Berlin was the capital of Germany's first democracy and the center of a vibrant film industry that rivaled Hollywood; from the Nazi era, when the film industry conformed to the Nazi regime's goals; to the post WWII era, when Berlin became divided by the Cold War, with East Berlin the capital of East Germany and center for its state-run film industry, and West Berlin a favorite site for films by West German filmmakers; to the era after Germany unified in 1990, when the new Berlin Republic began. In Berlin over spring break, we will tour 1) the Film Museum of Berlin on the Potsdamer Platz; 2) the new Jewish Museum; 3) the old, pre-WWII Ufa film studios, which then became the East German Defa studios, in Potsdam-Babelsberg; 4) the new Holocaust Memorial near the new American Embassy; 5) the Olympic Stadium left over from the Nazis' 1936 Berlin Olympics and then revamped for the 2006 World Cup; 6) the site of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside of Berlin; 7) the Wall Museum; 8) remnants of the Berlin Wall and graffiti art at the "East Side Gallery"; and 9) the "Turkish market" in the Turkish-German area of the Kreuzberg district. We will also see sites from earlier eras of Berlin history, such as the Sans Souci Palace of Frederick the Great of Prussia, in Potsdam, as well as the massive new government buildings of the 21^st century German capital.
Grading:: Grades: Two 5-pp. papers (25% each), a midterm essay on a film we have studied due before spring break; a take-home final essay that is reflection paper on the course and the study abroad experience due at the end of the course; Moodle responses to individual films (20%); a journal in Berlin with daily reflections on field trips and other experiences (10%); finally, attendance & participation (includes a group presentation) (20%). This course fulfills the Liberal Education requirement for the theme of Global Perspectives (GP); it is also Writing Intensive (WI).
Exam Format:: Take-home essay final (5 pp)--more details under grading, above.
Workload:: See grading, above, for details.
Textbooks:: https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/68362/1173
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:: 28 October 2016

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