- Kursverantwortliche/r: Birgit Lettmann
Diesen Kurs in AGNES anzeigen.
Taking Andrew J. Webber’s eponymous recent study on Berlin as our updated travel guide to the physical localities of literature, art, political strife and philosophical resignation in the German capital, we will explore the constant interpretative effort that is encapsulated in a walk and consider perambulation itself as a scriptural paradigm. To this end, we will alternate our intensive seminar sessions with journeys to significant “Schauplätze der Evidenz”, libraries, museums,commemorative facades and relegated clubs, but also authors’ lived interiors, street corners and kiosks, as well as iconic urban areas and architectural emblems. In preparation for these field trips, we will read each time a chapter from our primer in English and decide on short German-language excerpts from the works addressed in this particular chapter, which we will then read and discuss in class. Such close textual and sometimes film analysis in this dual linguistic modality will allow us to reflect not least on theories of translation and intercultural transfer, in which accented expression, infelicities of meaning and even irritant code switching combine to strengthen and enrich the process of academic integration.
Students will be encouraged to keep a travel journal throughout the course, which they may use as the basis for their final project. A written travelogue connecting desperate topographical benchmarks or an oral account of a clearly defined urban quarter in the style of Janet Cardiff’s Berlin audiobooks are some of the suggested outcomes, the best examples of which may be featured on our seminar’s blog PERAMBULATIONS. Although walks are often construed as solitary undertakings and, in the writerly imagination, as a resolute analogue bulwark against incursions of the digital, participation is paramount in these joint class perambulations (as reflected in the 40%
grade percentile). Meanwhile, we will avail ourselves of all digital modes of distribution in order to make available in-class or electronically the short German primary texts which means that the only textbook students will need to independently source is our English-language primer. Engagement in discussions are important (20%) not least so all may mutually benefit from the multilingual classroom. Although English (and sometimes German) will be the spoken lingua franca, written work (40%) may be submitted in English, German, French, Italian, Russian (and several other Slavic languages).
Taking Andrew J. Webber’s eponymous recent study on Berlin as our updated travel guide tothe physical localities of literature, art, political strife and philosophical resignation in the German capital, we will explore the constant interpretative effort that is encapsulated in a walk and consider perambulation itself as a scriptural paradigm. To this end, we will alternate our intensive seminar sessions with journeys to significant “Schauplätze der Evidenz”, libraries, museums, commemorative facades and relegated clubs, but also authors’ lived interiors, street corners and kiosks, as well as iconic urban areas and architectural emblems. In preparation for these field trips, we will read each time a chapter from our primer in English and decide on short German-language excerpts from the works addressed in this particular chapter, which we will then read and discuss in class. Such close textual and sometimes film analysis in this dual linguistic modality will allow us to reflect not least on theories of translation and intercultural transfer, in which accented expression, infelicities of meaning and even irritant code switching combine to strengthen and enrich the process of academic integration.
Welche Geschichten über Berlin werden in Berlin-Filmen erzählt? Welches Berlin-Bild wird hierbei hergestellt? Diesen Fragen wird im Seminar anhand von Berlin-Filmen nachgegangen, die typische Lebensstile, spezifische historische Aspekte, typische Monumente
der Stadt oder besondere Berlin-Typen zeigen. In diesem forschungsorientierten Seminar entwickeln die Studierenden in Gruppen selbst eine Forschungsfrage zum Thema und planen jeweils gemeinsam die Umsetzung ihres Gruppenforschungsprojekts. Ihre Forschungsergebnisse
präsentieren die Gruppen anhand eines eigenen Films, eines Posters, einer Website oder einem anderen passenden Format. Studentische Motivation und Partizipation sind in diesem Kurs sehr zentral.
Im Rahmen des Seminars werden keine Film-Dokumentationen zugrunde gelegt sondern nur fiktionale Genres und zwar Filme der 1920er Jahre bis zur Gegenwart.
Die Filme werden für alle in einem Handapparat im Grimm-Zentrum (Mediathek) zur Verfügung gestellt.
Die zu lesenden Texte und Handouts können via Moodle heruntergeladen werden.
What kind of stories Berlin Films tell us about the city and the lifestyle in Berlin? How the films create this image? What is a typical Berlin-Lifestyle? What kind of figures could be find in the films? Those questions will be discussed in class not by only listening to the professor but by finding an own student research question on Berlin Films, which will be pursuited in groups. In this research based course the students work on a common question concerning Berlin Films and realise their research project by group work. The final presentation will be a student film, a poster presentation, a website or another available format. Please remark: Students motivation and participation are very important to this class.
We will not study documentaries, only motion pictures from the years 1920s until today.
The texts and handouts will be available for all students via Moodle.
You will find all the films in the handset „Berlin-Filme“ in the media center at Grimm-Zentrum, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 1-3, 10117 Berlin, 7th floor, opening hours: Mo-Fr 9-17h; Sa 10-15h
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Stefanie Rinke
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Flavia Hennig
Der HU-interne Think Tank zum Verbund berät das Präsidium zum Berliner Verbundantrag.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Anna Blankenhorn
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Astrid Dostert
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Annick Thomann
Course description:
Viele Filme werden derzeit in der Hauptstadt Berlin gedreht. Doch nicht jeder dieser Filme kann als „Berlin-Film“ bezeichnet werden. Er wird es erst dann, - so die Grundlage des Seminars, - wenn die Stadt mit ihren einprägsamen Orten im Film zu sehen ist, wenn ein besonderer Lebensstil, ein Lebensgefühl in Szene gesetzt wird oder wenn historische, kulturelle oder politische Besonderheiten Berlins zur Geltung kommen. Denn erst dann tragen Berlin-Filme zur imaginären Kostruktion der Metropole Berlin und zu ihrer Identität bei, so dass ein Berlin-Film ein Teil des großstädtischen thick spacewird. Es wird die Verflechtung realer Orte, der Lebensweisen der Stadt und dem Imaginären des Films analysiert.
Wir diskutieren im Seminar jeweils am Beispiel, warum ein Film ein Berlin-Film genannt werden kann. Hierbei werden keine Dokumentationen zugrunde gelegt sondern nur fiktionale Genres und zwar Filme der 1920er Jahre bis zur Gegenwart.
Die Filme werden für alle in einem Handapparat im Grimm-Zentrum (Mediathek) zur Verfügung gestellt.
Die zu lesenden Texte und Handouts können via Moodle heruntergeladen werden.
A lot of films are made in Berlin, but not every film could be called a „Berlin Film“. A film is a Berlin Film, so the definition in class, when the film shows special places of Berlin, when it shows a particular life-style or specific historical, cultural or political events. Only Berlin Films construct the identity of the metropole Berlin and are part of the thick spaceof a metropole: are intermingled in (imaginary) city relations.
In the seminar we discuss and analyse, why a film is a Berlin Film and deconstruct its position in the relation network between real place and imagination. We will not study documentaries, only motion pictures from the years 1920s until today.
The films will be available for all students in a handset in the Grimm-Zentrum (media center) and the texts and handouts via Moodle.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Stefanie Rinke
Welcome to the HU inhouse English course at NAWI Library online
Der Kurs des Tenure-Boards dient als Speicherort für Dokumente und Austauschplattform zwischen den Sitzungen.
Much of Berlin’s population and economic growth during recent decades has been driven by an influx of young persons, from both elsewhere in Germany and from across the world. The city is globally renowned for its vibrant, youthful culture; its diversity; and the excitement of new possibilities in a place where history looms large.
This course uses the theme of youth to explore Berlin’s (and more broadly, German) culture and history. In other words, it provides a chance to learn about Berlin, to understand German history, and to reflect on different (and changing) forms of youth culture and the student experience.
This course proceeds chronologically, from around 1800 to the present. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, including articles by professional historians, works of literature, the visual arts, film, and music. It includes recent research on topics such as pop culture, childhood, families, generations, the sociology of universities, and counterculture. It explores the diversity of everyday life in Berlin and analyzes how children, students, and young professionals have been shaped by and challenged assumptions about nationality, race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, and politics. It roots all these topics in the ever-changing fabric of Berlin, encouraging us not only to better understand the society in which we live and the urban spaces we inhabit, but to see the city as a dynamic space, shaped by people both like and unlike ourselves.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Renate Grasstat
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Jochen Hille
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Sanja Muessig
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Pierre Steuer
This course explores the city of Berlin through key contemporary and twentieth century prose as well as poems, films, and music. Class discussions will focus on Berlin as the stage for crucial events in world history and on representations of the city in German literature. Topics include contemporary Berlin as a magnet for international bohemians and hipsters, migration to Berlin, the fall of the Berlin wall, student movements and radical politics in the city, cold war Berlin, the city under National Socialism, Weimar republic, revolutionary times, and the German Empire. We will read and discuss Walter Benjamin, Rosa Luxemburg, Paul Celan, Alfred Döblin, Hans Fallada, Emine Sevgi Özdamar and others. The reading materials will be made accessible in German and English. Based on the group’s level we will adjust the linguistic standards of the course to facilitate a positive learning experience for students—as a group and individually. I.e., discussions may principally take place in English; based on students’ level and interest, we will, however, be able to offer a section in German.
Im Film überlagern sich die Ebenen des Sehens, des Interpretierens und des Wissens. In diesem Q-Tutorium möchten wir Dokumentarfilme der DDR analysieren und der Frage nachgehen, welche darin formulierten Frauenbilder herausgearbeitet werden können. Die Dokumentarfilmerinnen selbst, aber besonders historisch kontextualisierte Frauenbilder im Zeitraum zwischen 1946 und 1990 werden konkret im Hinblick auf Arbeit und Ausbildung, Gesundheit, sowie allgemein mit dem DDR Alltag verbundene Lebensbereiche in den Fokus rücken können sowie auch nicht zur Aufführung gelangte, verbotene Dokumentationen. Nicht nur im deutschsprachigen sondern auch europäisch und internationalen Wissenschaftsbereich besteht nach wie vor eine Fehlstelle in der Forschung zum Arbeits- und Lebensalltag der Frau in Ostdeutschland sowie der Transformation seit 1990. Das macht auch der Soziologe Nigel Swain deutlich. (Vgl. SWAIN 2013) Studierende aller Fachrichtungen, insbesondere Geschichte, Gender Studies, Medienwissenschaften, Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Philosophie, Kulturwissenschaften und Europäische Ethnologie sind eingeladen, eigene Teilforschungsfragen zu entwickeln. Ein Workshop, der für Ende November geplant ist, vermittelt uns eine filmpraktische Methode zur essayistischen Filmanalyse, die wir anschließend in kleineren Gruppen hinsichtlich unserer selbstgewählten Forschungsfragen erproben. Bereits konkrete Interessensgebiete sind herzlich willkommen. Es ist möglich, dass wir das Semester mit einer selbstorganisierten Veranstaltung abschließen, auf der unsere entstandenen wissenschaftlichen Essay-Filme für ein breiteres Publikum präsentiert werden. Ein wichtiges Grundprinzip des Q-Tutoriums ist unser motivierter Eigenanteil an der Forschung.
Weekly meetings.
Contact: Banu Çiçek Tülü >>> banuct@gmail.com
Duygu Kaban >>> 
dygkaban@gmail.com
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Banu Cicek Tülü
Course description: Berlin has a multi-layered and contradictory landscape; high-rise buildings and gated communities next to squats, dense urban areas next to a huge urban park, etc. Over the course of the 1990s and 2000s, over 50 percent of the city’s public housing stock has been sold to private investors and the city has become a highly desirable destination for international property investment (Holm 2007). The lack of affordable housing and a rise in the speculative real-estate market spur new discussions about gentrification. Meanwhile, inhabitants and newcomers fight for their rights in the city. The focal point of this course is an examination of the changes associated with urban development in Berlin and “counter actions” as urban social movements. This interdisciplinary course explores urban activism in Berlin through several lenses, including: housing, urban environmental activism, community gardening and political power relations in the city. From the perspective of urban activism, this course offers an analysis of the origin, context, and structure of theory of right to the city, urban commons, social justice, participation, grassroot organizing, and urban development policy. Within the broad theme of “urban activism”, the course focuses on the ways in which neighbourhood/inhabitant experiences and citizens’ collide to produce different forms of resistance within Berlin’s political sphere.
Weekly meetings.
Contact: Banu Çiçek Tülü >>> banuct@gmail.com
Duygu Kaban >>> dygkaban@gmail.com
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Banu Cicek Tülü
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Pierre Steuer
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Karina Theurer
In this course we will explore elite and everyday notions of identity and belonging in relation to the nation. Germany is a culturally and ethnically diverse country, and has been for many decades. Yet, only in the year 2000 were laws changed to allow for non-heritage based citizenship, and only in the past few years did politicians begin to acknowledge Germany as a country of immigration. In common usage, the word “German” is still often used to mean exclusively white German, drawing a racialized boundary between those with and without so-called migration background.
We will examine this and related issues through an interpersonal, institutional, and policy-based lens, using primarily social psychological and sociological theories. Specifically, we will focus on how understandings of German identity reciprocally affect norms (re)produced in media, policy, education, and everyday life. A focus will be given to narrative and discourse, both as tools for analysis and ways of understanding identity.
Berlin will be used as a case study for many of the topics covered, and students will be encouraged to reflect on their own identities and the identities they see enacted around them as they get to know Berlin.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Tim Müller
This course will introduce international students to visible traces of German colonialism in the Berlin urban landscape, departing from streets in the so-called “African quarter” in Wedding and the experience of local initiatives who have all been committed for an earnest remembrance of the genocides of the Herero and Nama, the Maji Maji War in former German East-Africa, or the entanglements between colonialism and present-day racism. Through discussion and a guided excursion in the city, we will address some important concepts of memory studies while engaging in a search for traces of the German colonial past in Berlin and connected histories of colonial violence remembered in memorials, exhibitions, performances and literature. On this basis, the course will introduce contemporary cultural projects which have anchored German colonial imperialism in contemporary debates on racism, discrimination and geopolitics.
The following questions will be addressed among others: how are we connected to colonialism and the persistence of colonial thinking in Berlin, Europe, Africa, in diasporic communities, or elsewhere? How might memory of the Holocaust help in a growing acknowledgement of other instances of genocide and violence? What have activist, academic and artistic voices in Berlin brought with regard to the importance of working through this history?
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Lars Ganser (komm.)
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Studentin Theresa Kohlbeck Jakobsen
- Kursverantwortliche/r: MA Theresa Kohlbeck Jakobsen
- Kursverantwortliche/r: PR studB
Für interne Informationen innerhalb des PR-Plenums und innerhalb des PR-Vorstands. In der Regel (noch) NICHT für die Öffentlichkeit bestimmt!
Urban history is a form of historical inquiry that enriches our understanding of cities and urban landscapes, often using an interdisciplinary approach. This course is an introduction to specific points of interest in the political, social and cultural developments in Berlin between the 1920s and the 1990s, showing how they illuminate German twentieth-century history. City sites, monuments and buildings are linked to collective memory and political debates.
We learn about the fascinating stories of twentieth-century political events, places, people, buildings and monuments in Berlin presented by three urban historians, but we also learn the basic principles and approaches of urban history. We make urban history come alive through audio-guide narrated city walks, develop our own piece of micro-history, and take part in an urban preservation project that brings this city’s urban history into the present.
Urban history is a form of historical inquiry that enriches our understanding of cities and urban landscapes, often using an interdisciplinary approach. This course is an introduction to specific points of interest in the political, social and cultural developments in Berlin between the 1920s and the 1990s, showing how they illuminate German twentieth-century history. City sites, monuments and buildings are linked to collective memory and political debates.
Berlin is the city of East / West competition. Since the division of the city into East and West, demonstrating the power of the capitalism and socialism respectively was central to urban planning. In the beginning, the solution of obstacles to urban development proved vital. This seminar examines the dualism in urban planning between East and West Berlin chronologically. Seminar presentations and two excursions trace the diverse targets and demands of capitalist and socialist urban planning. For the analysis, we do not only consider architectural and formal aspects. The Seminar provides a closer look to strategies and models of financing and commercialisation of urban planning. Cultural contexts, living and dwelling models and political strategies will be looked at as well.
This seminar targets students interested in urban sociology and planning, metropolitan studies, German cultural history, economics, art history, and architectural history. Interested students of the humanities and social sciences are invited.
Course taught in English (with parts of literature and sources in German)
ECTS Points: 5
Language requirements: min. English B2 / some basic German is useful for sources
Berlin is the city of East / West competition. Since the division of the city into East and West, demonstrating the power of the capitalism and socialism respectively was central to urban planning. In the beginning, the solution of obstacles to urban development proved vital. This seminar examines the dualism in urban planning between East and West Berlin chronologically. Seminar presentations and two excursions trace the diverse targets and demands of capitalist and socialist urban planning. For the analysis, we do not only consider architectural and formal aspects. The Seminar provides a closer look to strategies and models of financing and commercialisation of urban planning. Cultural contexts, living and dwelling models and political strategies will be looked at as well.
This seminar targets students interested in urban sociology and planning, metropolitan studies, German cultural history, economics, art history, and architectural history. Interested students of the humanities and social sciences are invited.
Course taught in English (with parts of literature and sources in German)
ECTS Points: 5
Language requirements: min. English B2 / some basic German is useful for sources
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Jochen Hille
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Pierre Steuer