Category Archives: Lectures & Events

GER 240 presents German poetry Slam

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What can we learn from reading and writing poetry? Why is it still important? Where do we encounter poems in our everyday-life? How can we bring back the fun into reading and writing poetry? How can poetry contribute to successful second language learning?

These were the questions that students in GER 240 discussed during the spring 2018 semester. Yet, the students did not only discuss form and function of German poetry, but also engaged in writing poetry themselves. In addition, they created beautiful small booklets, and collected their own and their favorite German poems in these books.

At the end of the course, the students presented a German Poetry Slam as final project. They read their own and classic poems in German and English. After the event, students, faculty and staff  celebrated the students’ accomplishments and the end of the semester.

 

Dr. Uta Larkey presented at Hebrew University

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During the spring semester 2018, Uta Larkey was invited to give a talk at Hebrew University. The talk examined the missing commemoration of the brutal expulsion of Polish Jews from Nazi Germany in October 1938 as well as the existence of hundreds of thousands Jewish displaced persons in German after WWII. Dr. Larkey discussed why these two historical events and developments have hardly played any role in the otherwise rich and considerate Memorial Culture in Germany. The talk was well received, and triggered a rich discussion.

Celena Dyal presents at Goucher Student Symposium

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(from left to right): Scott P. Sibley, Celena Dyal, Uta Larkey

On April 26, Goucher sponsored a day long student and faculty symposium. The symposium includes multiple events in one, such as the Digital Media Showcase and Contest, the Julia Rogers Research Prizes, and Independent Study and Research Presentations on research-based and creative works that stem from student-faculty partnerships.

 

As part of the symposium, Celena Dyal (Chemistry Major, ’17) showcased the outcome of an independent study project she conducted in fall 2016 in German with Uta Larkey. Her presentation was titled “Patente auf Pflanzen in Deutschland” (Patenting of Plants in Germany). For the project, she researched and studied laws, regulations, and problems that occur with the relatively new practice to patent plants. In particular, she discussed problems that stem from the fact that most patent seeds are now controlled by a few large companies such as Monsanto. The presentation was well attended and ended with a Q & A session.

Student Presentations at the Holocaust Student Symposium in Baltimore

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(student presenters from left to right): Madeleine Moss, Jenson Simmons, Elyse Pyle, Melissa Michon (not pictured), and Dr. Uta Larkey


On April 9 2017, four Goucher students who are currently taking Dr. Uta Larkey’s class “Literature and Film of the Holocaust” presented at the Holocaust Student Symposium. The event was sponsored and hosted by the Jewish Museum of Maryland. The symposium gives students the opportunity to publicly share their work while also inviting audience discourse and feedback.  The Goucher students explored topics such as the “Aktion T-4” – a program during which more than 70.000 people were killed in psychiatric institutions -, children in hiding during the Nazi regime, and individual stories of Holocaust survivors and non-Jewish victims. Dr. Larkey and Dr. Martin Shuster – who is currently teaching “Ethics after Auschwitz” took both of their classes to the event – a total of 30 Goucher students. All of the students attended the symposium and explored the current exhibitions in the Jewish Museum of Maryland after the presentations.

Workshop & Lecture by Simon Schwartz

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The German graphic novel artist and author Simon Schwartz visited Goucher College on Sept. 12+13 2016. He gave a workshop on drawing techniques for interested students, and also lectured about his graphic novel drüben! (2009). Born in Erfurt in 1982, Schwartz writes in drüben! about his parents’ difficult exit from the GDR to West Berlin (West Germany) in 1984. He recounts their lives in the GDR, their experiences with oppressions and state-surveillance, and how they came to the decision to leave. His paternal grandparents who had been life-long

 

ardent supporters of the real-socialist state resented that decision and refused all contact with their son and his family afterwards. In the lecture, Simon Schwartz gave insights into the production and writing process of the graphic novel, and also talked about his conversations with his parents and grandparents. Looking back, Simon Schwartz says that a tremendous rage at his family’s inability to speak with each other was the motivation behind drüben! His insightful lecture ended with a book signing that included original drawings by the author. This lecture was sponsored by the German program and the Evelyn Myers lecture fund.

 

DIY: German Food Specialities II

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Sarah Clark, Mary Heinz, Clara Symmes, Emma Rosenthal, Gretchen Kinkel, and Michelle McAdams.

As an event of the International Language House, about 10 students baked German Laugenbretzeln on October 14.

A typical staple in Southern Germany, these pretzels can be done easily by any home baker. The students produced nicely shaped pretzels with the typical salted tops and a glaze. The outcome was delicious. Bretzeln2

 

In addition, Clara Symmes (’18) produced a perfect Minibretzel.       — Antje Krüger

 

Deutschland 83 – German TV Series

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Throughout this semester we will be screening the new German TV series “Deutschland 83”. Watch for upcoming screenings on this page: Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 10.18.32 AM

DEUTSCHLAND 83 is a gripping coming-of-age story set against the real culture wars and political events of Germany in the 1980s. The drama follows Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) as the 24 year-old East Germany native is pulled from the world as he knows it and sent to the West as an undercover spy for the Stasi foreign service. Hiding in plain sight in the West German army, he must gather the secrets of NATO military strategy. Everything is new, nothing is quite what it seems and everyone he encounters is harboring secrets, both political and personal.

Episode 1: 09/24; Episode 2:09/30; Episode 3: 10/22, Episode 4: 11/05, Episode:5 11/12, Episode: 6 11/19, Episode 7: 12/03, Final Episode 8: 12/10 (6:00 pm, Welsh Hall 128)

DIY — German Food Specialties

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Gretchen Kinkel, Emma Rosenthal and Megan Schaeffer cooking Kartoffelpuffer

Käsespätzle, Reibekuchen, Spinatknödel?!  German cuisine is difficult to define as “one” cuisine as it is shaped by many regional dishes and specialties. In our German 120 class (second semester German), students learn about the German cuisine and discuss typical dishes and regional specialties. Very often, students express their love for certain dishes during these classes and find it hard just “to talk” about them. This spring semester, German 120 students did not only discuss German cuisine in class, but also cooked some of the dishes themselves with their professor Antje Krüger. During a cooking night, students tried the following dishes: Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes), Wiener Schnitzel (Viennese Schnitzel), Grüner Salat (mixed garden salad with a yoghurt dressing) and Laugenbrezeln (pretzels). Aside from a short “trial-and-error” phase with regards to frying, and weighing some of the ingredients with the metric system, all of the dishes turned out very well. The students got a good taste of German cuisine and of its reputation as comfort food in its own right.  — Antje Krüger

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Michelle McAdams and Gabriel Engfer preparing Schnitzel

 

 

German Pop Music since 1945

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Birgit2The German Program presents a lecture by music journalist Birgit Reuther, Tuesday, April 14, at 7 p.m. in the Batza Room, Ungar Athenaeum 448.
When thinking of Germany, pop music might not be the first thing that comes to mind. In her lecture, Reuther explains how the history of the country delayed and influenced Germany’s pop culture. What music did the German post war era listen to? How did the artists in East and West Germany act differently? And what does the reunited country sound like?
Learn how it became more and more common to produce pop music in the German language and how the lyrics reflected the political and social situation of every decade. The lecture also addresses whether or not pop these days affirms or criticizes the mainstream.
Birgit Reuther is an editor for the culture section of the daily newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. Her specialties are pop and subculture.
Sponsored by the Evelyn Myers ’37 endowed lecture fund.        — Antje Krüger

Movie Screening: This Ain’t California (04/06)

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CaliforniaPlease, join us for the screening of This Ain’t California on April 6th(7:00 pm in the Pinkard Room).

The movie will be introduced by         Dr. Johannes Birke.

 

 

(2012, directed by Marten Persiel)

“A spirited not-quite-documentary portrait of the skateboarding subculture that flourished in East Germany in the early 1980s.”
(Scott Foundas, Variety)