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German Studies BA (R220)

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Find out more about our German Studies degree at Warwick

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2a

R220

2b

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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4 years full-time, normally including a year abroad

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26 September 2022

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Modern Languages and Cultures

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University of Warwick

3a

German Studies at Warwick provides the opportunity to explore the extraordinary breadth and depth of German language and culture in collaboration with recognised experts in the field.

3b

Germany has always been at the heart of the European intellectual tradition and is now the driving force of its economy and the EU.

Our modules reflect the range and diversity of Germany’s culture, history and society. Intensive language work opens up the richness of German language and cultural life. This means you will graduate as a highly qualified linguist with advanced intercultural skills, and a deep understanding of key issues and developments in Germany’s past and present.

Your second or third year is normally spent abroad, either as a language assistant, or working or studying at one of our partner universities (at present including Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Dresden).

3c

In your first year, you will take language classes designed to develop your knowledge and understanding of written and spoken German. To complement your language skills, you will follow two cultural modules that focus on the history and culture of German society since 1945 and German culture in the late eighteenth century. These modules provide an excellent and comprehensive foundation for studying further aspects of German literary, visual and political culture in the later stages of your degree.

Every year, throughout your degree, you will be able to choose one further module; this may be one of the interdisciplinary cross-School modules, a new language (from one of the four major language departments or the Language Centre), or a new module from another academic department. In your intermediate and final years, you will go on to further develop your German language skills.

In addition to cultural modules on nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century German culture, you will have an opportunity to develop your own particular interests by choosing from a wide selection of modules offered by German specialists that cover a broad range of subjects in German culture, society, literature, politics, philosophy, film, history and business, as well as translation and transnationalism. You can also opt to study some of our interdisciplinary cross-School modules.

You can normally choose to spend your year abroad studying at a university in a German speaking country or on a British Council Assistantship or a work placement. Currently, during the year abroad, students usually attend a residential orientation course in Germany at Easter time. Led by departmental staff, who travel out to lead the event, the course offers skills development, pastoral care, careers advice and guidance on final year study.

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We employ a variety of teaching styles within the School of Modern Languages including:

• Lectures
• Seminars (consisting of around 15 students and focussing on student participation)
• Written and spoken language classes in small groups

You will spend the rest of your time:

• Studying independently
• Preparing for classes
• Reading
• Analysing materials set for study
• Writing essays
• Working on your language skills

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Seminars generally involve around 15 students.

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There will be around 12 contact hours per week.

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We will track your progress through:

• Language assignments
• Essays
• Presentations
• Portfolio submissions
• Examinations (written and oral)

To help you improve your skills you will receive detailed and personalised feedback throughout your course.

Your intermediate- and final-year marks each contribute 50% of your final degree classification.

3h

Study abroad

We strongly recommend that you take a year abroad as part of your modern languages degree, if you are able to. If you are unable to take a year abroad you will move to a three-year. You will be required to complete further language reinforcement work. You will also be encouraged to spend time abroad in other ways, during vacation times.

You will usually spend your year abroad doing one of three things:

• Working as a language assistant teaching English in a primary or secondary school
• Studying full-time at a partner university in your chosen country
• On a work placement

Find out more about flexible Year Abroad options.

4a

A level typical offer

ABB to include German.

A level contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is BBB including B in German. See if you’re eligible.

General GCSE requirements

Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept. We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.

4b

IB typical offer

34 to include 5 in Higher Level German.

IB contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is 32 including grade 5 in Higher Level German. See if you’re eligible.

General GCSE requirements

Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept. We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.

4c

We welcome applications from students taking BTECs alongside A level German

5a

Year One

Modern German Language 1

You will develop your translation, grammatical and speaking skills in German, and in doing so broaden your vocabulary and range of idiom, expression and awareness of various stylistic registers. You will work in a pair or group on a media project under the supervision of a tutor, which will contribute to your end-of-year mark in spoken German.

The Changing Face of Germany in Film and Text

In your study of the intellectual history of post-war Germany, you will consider the rise of the mass media and the role played by writers and intellectuals. Through your analysis of diverse literary and filmic texts, you will build your understanding of major landmarks in German history, including post-WWII political reconstruction, the development of the press in the Federal Republic, unification and military reintegration, the opposition to rearmament and student movements, and migration and settlement. The work of intellectuals such as Heinrich Böll, Peter Weiss, Bernhard Schlink, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Paul Verhoeven will inform your studies.

Power and Passion: The Making of Modern German Culture

Starting with the study of the social milieu of late 18th century Germany, you will consider the cultural and intellectual changes of this period, and in particular the rise of the middle classes in the Age of Enlightenment. You will engage with the work of the globally significant writers of this period, including Goethe and Schiller, and study the light they cast on the emerging middle-class consciousness just prior to the cataclysmic changes of the French Revolution of 1789.

Intermediate Year

Modern German Language 2

In this second-year module, you will increase your general and specialised vocabulary in German through translation into English and German, essay-writing in German, spoken and listening comprehension, and work on business-related materials. In pursuit of these aims, you will learn to identify and rectify grammatical problems, and gain increased sensitivity towards language in general, and an awareness of register, semantics and style in particular. You will also gain important research skills, including correct use of dictionaries.

Reason, Romantics and Reactions. Germany in the Age of Revolution

You will get to grips with the emerging sense of German nationhood, against the background of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. You will study concepts such as the state, the nation and the classical ideal as an aesthetic and political model through the work of authors such as Goethe, Schiller and Hölderlin, before exploring German Romanticism up to its critical reappraisal in the 19th century. You will develop your appreciation of the role of the artists in the German Weltanschauung and the rise of nationalism to broaden your understanding of how literature reflects different models of progress and anticipates social and political change.

Read more about Reason, Romantics and Reactions. Germany in the Age of RevolutionLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).

Final Year

Modern German Language 3

In this third-year module, you will use vocabulary of increasing sophistication in both general and specialised fields, and improve your skills in spoken and written German and translation. You will improve your listening and reading comprehension skills, and learn to identify and rectify grammatical problems. An important aim of the course is to cultivate sensitivity towards language in general, and an awareness of register, semantics and style in particular.

The Rise of Capitalist Modernity: Gender, Class, Identity

You will study the evolution of modern German literature, from Poetic Realism, through Naturalism and Modernism across a wide spectrum of authors, genres and themes in dialogue with major social, cultural and political movements that mark the transformation of Germany and Austria from the 1870s onwards. Themes include the Industrial Revolution, social critique and the dramatic form, sexuality, adolescence and education in the Wilhelmine period, gender roles and modernity, and the lead-up and response of German writers to the First World War. You will analyse major literary movements through the work of, among others, Theodor Fontane, Gerhart Hauptmann, Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and Georg Kaiser, and appreciate how the arts became a vehicle for expressing ambivalent attitudes to modernity.

Read more about The Rise of Capitalist Modernity: Gender, Class, Identity moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).

5b

• No Place like Heimat: Narratives of Belonging in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century
• Film in the Weimar Republic and under National Socialism
• Bertolt Brecht: Theatre as Revolution
• The Strange World of Franz Kafka’s Short Stories
• Violent Women in the German Cultural Imagination
• German Memories of WWII - From Perpetration to Suffering
• The Self and the Others I: Identity, Gender and Ethnicity in German Culture around 1800
• Business and Society in Contemporary Germany
• Germany and the Holocaust: Interpretations and Debates
• German Terror and Cultural Memory
• Gender Trouble in Contemporary German Culture
• Translation Studies modules
• Exploring Zeitgeist: Politics, Culture and Society in Germany Today

6b

There may be costs associated with other items or services such as academic texts, course notes, and trips associated with your course. Students who choose to complete a work placement or study abroad will pay reduced tuition fees for their third year.