German with a year abroad

Year 1

Each course is divided into modules. Each year you will normally take modules totalling 120 credits.

The degree structure in the German Department differs slightly depending on whether you are a native or non-native German speaker. Each year students take modules totalling 120 credits. Native speakers will take more optional modules because their language modules are worth 15 credits, rather than the 30-credit core language modules for non-native speakers.

Year 1:

If you are non-native German speaker, in your first year, you are required to take:

• German Core Language I (30 credits)
• Texts and Contexts (30 credits)

If you are a native German speaker, in your first year you are required to take:

• Translation from and into German I (15 credits)
• Texts and Contexts (30 credits)

You will then select further modules to bring your total credits to 120 for the year from a range of optional modules, which may typically include:

• Medieval Germany: language, literature & society (15 credits)

• Milestones in German History (15 credits)

• One Hundred and Twenty Years of German Cinema (15 credits)

• An Introduction to German Politics (15 credits)

You may also select 15 credits from outside the Department of German

Year 2

Students should take the core modules outlined plus up to six or seven options (depending whether you are a non-native or native speaker). One module may be taken outside the Department.

If you are a non-native German speaker, in your second year you are required to take:

• German Core Language II (30 credits)
• At least one of the 15-credit modules that contain some pre-modern content from a selection that may typically include:
  • The German Reformation
  • 18th Century German Thought: The Education of Humanity
  • Gender and Identity in Arthurian Romance

If you are a native German speaker, you are required to take:

• Translation from and into German II (15 credits)
• At least one of the optional 15 credit modules that contain some pre-modern content from a selection that may include:
  • The German Reformation
  • 18th Century German Thought: The Education of Humanity
  • Gender and Identity in Arthurian Romance

I you are a non native German speaking student, you are required to take 75 credits from a range of optional 15-credit modules, which may typically include:

• The modules that contain some pre-modern content
• German in London. The City in Literature and Film
• Society and Popular Culture in Germany
• A Year in the Life of German-language Film
• Hitler's Victim? Modern Austrian Literature & Film
• Berlin Past and Present: the Reconstruction of a Capital City
• History into Literature

You may select 15 credits from outside the Department of German

If you are a native German speaker you are required to take 90 credits from a range of optional 15 credit modules, which may include:

• German in London. The City in Literature and Film
• Society and Popular Culture in Germany
• A Year in the Life of German-language Film
• Hitler's Victim? Modern Austrian Literature & Film
• Berlin Past and Present: the Reconstruction of a Capital City
• History into Literature

You may select 15 credits from outside the Department of German

Year 3

You will spend your third year abroad at one of our partner institutions, which currently include:

• Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
• Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Universität Wien
• Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg
• Universität Mannheim

You will also have the opportunity to apply for the English Language Assistantship Programme or to undertake an internship/work placement in a German-speaking environment, which you will normally be expected to organise independently, allowing you to explore career prospects and personal interests.

Year 4

Students should take the required modules outlined plus up to six or seven options (depending whether you are a non-native or native speaker).

If you are a non native German speaker, in your fourth year you are required to take:

• German Core Language Module III (30 credits)
• At least one of the optional 15 credit modules that contain some pre-modern content from a selection that may include:
  • Goethe: From Sturm und Drang to Classicism
  • Religion, Sex, Politics: German Literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries
  • Death and the Afterlife in Medieval and Modern German Literature (15 credits)
  • Women’s Writing: Then and Now (15 credits)

If you are a native German speaker, in your fourth year you required to take:

• Translation from and into German III (15 credits)
• At least one of the optional 15 credit modules that contain some pre-modern content from a selection that may include:
  • Goethe: From Sturm und Drang to Classicism
  • Religion, Sex, Politics: German Literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries

If you are a non-native German speaker you are required to take a further 75 credits from a range of optional 15-credit modules, which may typically include:

• Dissertation
• Aspects of post-1945 German Culture
• German in the World: Afro-German Moving Images
• Contemporary German Politics [European & International Studies]
• New German Cinema in East and West
• Writing in Tongues: Literature & Migration in the Modern German Context

You may select 15 credits from outside the Department of German

If you are a native German speaker you are required to tak a further 90 credits from a range of optional 15-credit modules, which may typically include

• Aspects of post-1945 German Culture
• German in the World: Afro-German Moving Images
• Contemporary German Politics [European & International Studies]
• New German Cinema in East and West
• Writing in Tongues: Literature & Migration in the Modern German Context

Students may select 15 credits from outside the Department of German