To introduce students to a range of key political events / developments in contemporary German history and to the historical development of the German language;

To assist students in learning how to engage in the study and critical discussion of a range of primary and secondary historical, political, journalistic and linguistic texts in German and in English;

To teach students completing a comprehension task and writing commentaries and employing the correct forms of bibliographical citation.

(LO1) By the end of the module students will have a good overview of political debates in post-1945 Germany, and the development of the German language.

(LO2) Students will be able to understand and critically discuss a range of primary and secondary materials and deploy the terms used by academics to describe key concepts in the areas studied.

(LO3) Students will be able to write critical commentaries on the areas/materials studied. To this end, they will have learned to find and use appropriate materials using library and IT resources and glean data from secondary works. They will be able to use the conventional forms of bibliographic citation.

(S1) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Listening skills

(S2) Critical thinking and problem solving - Critical analysis

(S3) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Academic writing (inc. referencing skills)

The majority of teaching will be delivered face-to-face on campus. Online delivery will be used to complement the on-campus delivery and where technology affords a better learning experience.

Lecture:
Description: This module will be taught using a combination of lectures and tutorials. The lectures will introduce students to key events, issues or themes within German Studies.

Tutorial:
Through the study of related academic sources / documents, the tutorials consolidate the material taught in the lecture, as well as instruct and equip students with the skills to apply the concepts introduced to close reading of related texts. Stepped assignments - beginning with a very structured comprehension task and moving towards a more open commentary form - provide students with the opportunity to practice critical reading, summarising and commentary-writing, as well as to develop synthetic arguments.

Workshop:
Students are required to take part in a compulsory in formation and workshop session delivered by the library staff.

Topics covered during this module may include:

Tutorial: Introduction to the module;

Lecture: 1945: The end of the German nation state.

Tutorial: Richard von Weizsaecker, Der 8. Mai 1945;

Lecture: 1945-61: The division of Germany.

Tutorial: Guenter Grass / Wolfdietrich Schnurre: Wer schweigt wird schuldig;

Lecture: 1949: The foundation of the GDR and the FRG;

Tutorial: Constitutions of the FRG and the GDR;

Lecture: 1989/90: The East German revolution;

Tutorial: Mark Thompson: The East German 'Wende';

Lecture: German unification;

Tutorial: Helmut Kohl's Zehn-Punkte-Programm;

Lecture: The history of the German language;

Tutorial: Barbour / Stevenson: Variation in German;

Lecture: Language and nation;

Tutorial: M. Townson: Mother-tongue and fatherland / bibliography;

Lecture: Linguistic similarity, standardization, codification;

Tutorial: P. Stevenson: The German Sp eaking World;

Lecture: Dialects, sociolects, purism;

Tutorial: N. Langer: Sprachverfall in the New Germany;

Lecture: The German language in the FRG and the GDR;

Tutorial: P. Stevenson: Once an Ossi, always an Ossi;

Workshop: Feedback on assessment.