Core modules
This joint degree is 50:50 between Politics and Modern Languages, with an optional split of 75:25 in the final year. It is four years and normally includes a year of study or work placement abroad in Germany or Austria.
Explore approaches to political ideas. Critically engage with national and global political issues. Improve your German language skills. You can focus on a range of sub-fields including:
- Political theory
- Political systems
- Comparative politics
- German and Austrian society and culture
- International security
- International political economy
- German literature
- German cinema
- International development
Address questions relating to the emergence and resolution of conflicts. The relationship between states and markets, the importance of international organisations. The significance of Germany in the political and cultural development of Europe.
Year One
Introduction to Politics
Introduction to Politics gives you a broad overview of the main issues and theoretical perspectives within Politics. You'll learn first to understand and then apply the core concepts of comparative political science and theory to processes, institutions, ideologies and practical policy-making. You'll conduct a comparative study of different political systems and political change, both in writing and in open debate.
Read more about the Introduction to Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
World Politics
In this module, you'll be introduced to world politics and the role that international relations plays in the interactions between nations. You'll gain a solid understanding of the historical underpinnings of the structure and systems of states, and become familiar with major theories of international relations post-1945. You'll analyse contemporary writings on world politics and engage critically, both orally and in writing, with key concepts and theoretical debates on the nature of international political systems.
Read more about the World Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Modern German Language 1
Over the year you will have four sessions in German language per week. These consist of (a) a weekly Translation class covering translation from and into German, and (b) a small language class working on Grammar. You will also have (c) one weekly Conversation and Comprehension class taught by our native-speaker LektorInnen and (d) one weekly Writing class which will introduce you to the German media, to different genres and writing styles and help you hone your own writing skills in German. In addition, you will be expected to work through exercises in the paper-based Hammer Grammar and its online version, which will be demonstrated at the first Translation Class in Week 2. You are also encouraged to explore other online and paper-based materials as directed by your tutors. In the spring term you will work in pairs on a German language topic (Media project) under the supervision of your Writing class tutor.
Read more about the Modern German Language 1 moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
Modern German Language for Beginners
As a beginner in the acquisition of the German language, you will cover the main linguistic skills in speaking, listening, writing and reading. You will focus on gaining grammatical accuracy as well and communicative fluency and competence. By the end of the year, you will be expected to be able to sustain everyday conversations in German, read authentic texts such as newspaper articles, follow the gist of TV extracts and be able to write an intermediate range of texts in German. You will also work on basic translations to and from German as a means of consolidating your knowledge.
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A German Studies cultural module:
Provincial - Pariah - Powerhouse: Reading German-language Culture in a Global Perspective
This module introduces landmarks in the history of modern Germany, which emerged as a nation out of a confederation of provinces and principalities in the 19th century. You will touch on the political turmoil, conflicts, and violence that at times made Imperial Germany, the Third Reich and the post-1945 Germanies pariah states in the eyes of the international community. You will also reflect on the developments that led to contemporary Germany's’emergence as a cultural, political and economic powerhouse, shaping global trends in film, literature, theatre and music. The module focuses on the media and representations through which many of us first encounter German-language culture: fairy-tales and their afterlives; performance, visual and screen culture; music and sound. In other words, students will sample the works and ideas that have put Germany and the German language on the world map.
We will engage with a number of key questions. How did German literature, film, art, and music transform the status of the German language? How did German-speaking artists shape the cultural genres that we consume today? How does engaging with these works give us a more differentiated understanding of the positive and negative aspects of Germany's’history and its global influence?
The module will help you develop skills that will be essential for the rest of your degree and your life after Warwick: critical reading; clear and concise argumentation; excellent written and oral communication skills; independent thinking and research.
Read more about Provincial - Pariah - Powerhouse: Reading German-language Culture in a Global PerspectiveLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Year Two
You can spend this year studying abroad, or on a work placement. Alternatively you can study the following modules this year, and spend the next year abroad instead.
Foundations of Political Theory
The aim of this module is to introduce you to some of the foundational arguments and debates in modern (mainly) European political theory, as well as some of the discipline’s most important primary texts. To this end, you will critically examine claims about freedom, equality, democracy, revolution and crisis made by some of the most important political thinkers from 1640 onwards.
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Topics in Political Theory
Politics considers how the political world operates, and how it ought to operate. In this module, we consider the “oughts” of politics. Building on Foundations of Political Theory, the module examines key thinkers and topics in contemporary normative political theory. The module is divided into two parts: key thinkers in contemporary normative political theory, including John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Susan Moller Okin; and key topics in contemporary normative political theory, including issues such as immigration, education, representation, microaggressions, and climate change.
Read more about the Topics in Political Theory moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
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 errors, and gain increased sensitivity towards language in general, and an awareness of register, semantics and style in particular. You will also gain important language research skills, including correct use of dictionaries.
Read more about Modern German Language 2Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
Modern German Language 2 (Post-beginners)
You will increase the range of your general and specialised vocabulary in German, improve your speaking, listening and comprehension skills, and develop your ability to translate from German, including through a sound knowledge of grammar, register, semantic nuances and style. There will be opportunities to write in German and to work on business-related materials.
Read more about Modern German Language 2 (Post-beginners)Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Year Three
Your third year will normally be spent abroad. If you did not spend your second year abroad, you will spend this year studying abroad, or on a work placement. If you spent your second year abroad, you will then follow the syllabus below for your third year.
Year Four
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 errors. An important aim of the course is to cultivate sensitivity towards language in general, and an awareness of register, semantics and style.
Read more about the Modern German Language 3 moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Zeitgeist Politics, Culture and Society in Germany Today
Optional modules
Year Two - optional modules in Politics
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Politics of International Development
- Politics in the UK
- Politics of the USA
- Theories of International Relations
- Politics of Contemporary China
- States and Markets: An Introduction to International Political Economy
- International Security
- Core Issues in Comparative Politics
- Themes in European Integration
- Capitalism and its Alternatives
- Political Economy and the Liberal Democratic State
- Introduction to Comparative Public Policy
- 21st Century Challenges and Public Policy Solutions
- The Political Economy of Southeast Asia
- Introduction to Casual Inference in Quantitative Political Analysis
Year Two - optional modules in German Studies
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- The Strange World of Franz Kafka's Short Stories
- Film in the Weimar Republic and under National Socialism
- Violent Women in the German Cultural Imagination
- Modernity and its Discontents
- Bertolt Brecht: Theatre as Revolution
Year Four - optional modules in Politics
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Gender and Development
- European Union Policy-Making
- Politics of Globalisation
- United States Foreign Policy
- Critical Security Studies
- Vigilant State: The Politics of Intelligence
- State, Power, Freedom: European Political Theory
- The Political Economy of Money
- International Relations of the Americas
- Latin America: Democratisation and Development
- War in the 21st Century
- Politics and Culture in the Middle East
- Violence, Rights, Justice and Peace in the Middle East
- The Global Energy Challenge
- The Politics of Climate Change
- Public Opinion
- Determinants of Democracy
- Dissertation
- The Politics of Religion
- Gender, War and Militarism
- Race and International Politics
- The Political Economy of Islam in Southeast Asia
Year Four - optional modules in German Studies
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- German Memories of WWII - From Perpetration to Suffering
- Gender Trouble in Contemporary German Culture
- Reflections of National Socialism in Post-war German Writing
- Germany and the Holocaust: Interpretations and Debates
- Business and Society in Contemporary Germany
- Self and Others: Identity, Ethnicity and Gender in German Culture around 1800
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Find out more about German modulesLink opens in a new window
