Though I come from the south of Germany (Baden-Württemberg), it would never have occurred to me to ever visit an Oktoberfest. I was convinced that was something only some of our Bavarian neighbors would do - until I came to the United States where the Octoberfest was all over the place and considered "typically German!" So why is it that elements of Bavarian folklore came to represent Germany as a whole? And why are Germans considered to be jolly Oktoberfest-goers, but still pretty humorless? How do they see themselves? How important is the Nazi past to young Germans? To what degree do Germans see themselves as Germans at all - or rather as Bavarians or Berliners, "Ossis" or "Wessis" (Easterners or Westerners), or Europeans? In this course, we will examine a broad range of materials on Germany and Germans, including newspaper articles, short stories, jokes, cartoons, comics, and movies. We will explore the structures, functions and pitfalls of stereotypes and self-images in general and will discover the histories behind an array of places, characteristics and characters often labeled "typisch deutsch." We will also discuss multicultural identities in Germany and the dramatic changes in Germany's international image within the last years due to the so-called "refugee crisis" and ideological tensions between President Trump, who prefers to hide his German origin, and chancellor Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, but seems to many a perfect embodiment of all-German qualities.