85064 - German Language Lab (Advanced)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should be able to follow a lesson , to read a complex text about social or political sciences and make a fluent oral report. To this purpose they should reach a minimum level of B1 (Council of Europe framework) for spoken and written language, while the ideal level is B2. Moreover, they should be capable of writing a text (minimum level B2).

Course contents

The course will focus on the following macro-thematic area:

Geschichte und Geschichten Deutschlands zu 100 Jahren Weimarer Republik, 100 Jahren Bauhaus und 30 Jahren Mauerfall

With reference to the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Weimar Republic, the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Bauhaus School and the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the thematic path will analyze the peculiar aspects of these three moments of socio-political-cultural turning point that have had repercussions on the entire European and world history.
Starting from the historical notes, the attention will then also be focused on the many "stories" and events that have arisen and  have taken place during each era of radical changes, in which have worked and operated personalities such as Bertold Brecht, Kurt Weill, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Ernst Bloch, Thomas Mann, Marcel Reich-Ranicki or Maria Gräfin von Maltzan.

Readings/Bibliography

Thematic areas:

M. MEYER, L’anno che cambiò il mondo. La storia non detta della caduta del Muro di Berlino, Il Saggiatore, 2013
G. FALANGA, Non si può dividere il cielo. Storie dal Muro di Berlino, Carrocci Editore, 2009

A. WIRSCHING, Weimar cent’anni dopo. La storia e l’eredità: bilancio di un’esperienza controversa, Donzelli Editore, 2019
E.D. WEITZ/P. ARLORIO, La Germania di Weimar. Utopia e tragedia, Einaudi editore, 2019

N. FOX WEBER, Bauhaus. Vita e arte di sei maestri del Modernismo, Il Saggiatore, 2019
T. ENZENSBERGER, La ragazza del Bauhaus, Guanda editore, 2019
P. RÖSSLER, Bauhaus Mädels. A tribute to pioneering women artists, Taschen, 2019

Grammars and dictionaries:

U. ENGEL, Deutsche Grammatik, Heidelberg, Julius Groos, 1988.
U. ENGEL, Kommunikative Grammatik. Deutsch als Fremdsprache, München, Judicium Verlag, 1993.
G. WAHRIG, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Gütersloh, Zanichelli/Bertelsmann, 1997
W. MACCHI, Dizionario delle lingue Italiano e Tedesco, voll. I e II, Firenze/Milano, Sansoni, 1998
G. DEVOTO/G.C. OLI, Dizionario della lingua italiana, Firenze, Le Monnier, 1971

Texts for reading:

Reading texts will be handed over during classes.

Teaching methods

Texts will be read mainly together with the teacher, who will provide stimuli for in-depth lexical and grammatical analysis, moving from the text itself. Students will be encouraged to participate actively and, on a voluntary basis, there will be a space for short oral presentations on topics of their choice related to the course.

Assessment methods

Students who will have attended at least 70% of the lessons can take the exam in written form on the last day of class. The 2 hour test will focus on the comprehension of a written text on a subject related to those covered in the course, the written translation of a part of it and the verification of grammar skills acquired during the course.

Students not attending the course will take the exam during a normal exam session. The exam will be divided into three parts, all to be taken on the same day: a written exam in which grammatical, lexical and text comprehension skills will be assessed; an oral exam in which the student will be asked to report, in German, on a newspaper article provided during the exam; an oral exam, in Italian or in English, on one text chosen by the student and related to one of the three thematic areas of the course (see bibliography).

Teaching tools

Personal computer; video projector, web pages, videos, newspaper articles, historical and essays or literary texts. Lexicographic sources and dictionaries indicated in the bibliography.

Office hours

See the website of Bruno Persico