Department of German

The German department at Princeton is recognized as the leading department in the nation, with special faculty strength in the literature of the Middle Ages, late 18th- and early 19th-century literature, 20th-century literature, literary theory, linguistics, visual arts, and film. With 10 faculty members, the department is large enough to offer coverage of all major periods in the history of German literature, as well as many courses focused on special interests: literary theory, philosophy, German intellectual history, German cinema, Jewish studies, feminist theory, history of science, contemporary German theater, and interdisciplinary approaches to specific periods and cultures (for example, Weimar politics and culture, postwar German culture, and the legacy of fascism). Yet we are small enough to offer the potential concentrator small classes (all of our upper-division courses are taught as seminars) and extensive faculty contact, both in the adviser-advisee relationship and in the general life of the department.

Central to the success of our program are the many opportunities open to our majors for experience abroad in the German-speaking nations of Europe. By enrolling in the Berlin Consortium for German Studies, students can spend either one semester or an entire academic year studying abroad at the Freie Universität Berlin for full Princeton academic credit; participants in this study abroad program pay normal Princeton tuition, and those on financial aid will continue to receive aid during their stay. Opportunities for summer employment are also available to all Princeton students through the Summer Work Program; German majors are generally placed in selected jobs well suited to helping them develop a sense of the culture as well as advanced language skills. In addition, the department has funds for our majors to enable them to travel to Europe for research related to the junior and senior independent work.

German department majors have their choice of five distinct programs of study: German literature, German cultural studies, the study of two literatures, Germanic linguistics, and German culture and politics. The program in German literature focuses on the major periods and forms of German literature. The German cultural studies program offers an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of modern Germany through a combination of literary, cultural, historical, political, philosophical, and economic perspectives. The study of two literatures allows students to develop a focused comparative program, and the program in German linguistics concentrates on the history and structure of the German language. Students design their own programs in consultation with the departmental representative. These programs often include independent work that draws on faculty from other departments. For students particularly interested in politics, there is a special joint program in German culture and politics in which the student does half of his or her coursework and independent work in each department (German and politics).

Our graduates frequently go on to attend graduate and professional schools (medicine, law, and business school, as well as graduate programs such as German or comparative literature, philosophy, political science, and history). The linguistic and cultural skills gained here are particularly suited to further study and work in international law and business. Recent graduates are management consultants, partners in investment banks, historians for the Swiss Holocaust research project, students at leading law and medical schools, and professors at distinguished universities around the nation.