Department Events

Modernist Memories: Architecture and Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany

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Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche

Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin), an expert on 20th century German architecture and author of numerous publications will lecture on architecture and identity in Germany at Wesleyan University on Tuesday,  Sept. 25, at 4:30pm, in 41 Wyllys, room 112.

Although the most prominent buildings  in Berlin since the fall of the wall in 1989, such as Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, Norman Foster’s renovation of the Reichstag, and David Chipperfield’s reconstruction of the Neues Museum, are often understood as examples of a postmodernist strategy, their juxtaposition of historic architecture, often damaged in the Second World War, and modern forms that recall the architecture of the Weimar Republic, are in fact only relatively recent examples of an architectural strategy that can be traced back to the founding of the Federal Republic.  Now associated with coming to terms with the atrocities of the Third Reich, in its original entirely modernist context this pairing originally encompassed conservative nostalgia for a pre-democratic past even as it helped define a specifically non-Communist present.  Following reunification it served as alternative to the postmodernism with which it is too often confused in part because the degree of modernism’s rupture with the past is often exaggerated.

This talk is made possible through the Department of Art and Art History, Samuel Silipo ’85 Distinguished Visitor Fund, and the German Studies Department.

German Studies End-of-the-Year Party

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The party started off with Leo Lensing introducing our two senior thesis writers, Lynn Heere and Matthew Alexander. They both gave excellent presentations of their works. While Lynn talked about the German student movement in the Sixties, Matt introduced us to the German playwright, Lord Schadt.

Lynn Heere: “From Spassguerilla to Stadtguerilla: The Theory and Praxis of the West German Student Movement.”

Matthias Alexander: “Lost Modern Love by German author Lord Schadt: A Translation and Adaptation.”

Leo Lensing thanked faculty members Krishna Winston, Uli Plass, Katja Straub, Angela Guliemetti, and Iris Bork-Goldfield for their many contributions to the department and its students.  Iris thanked Stefanie Schaffler for her excellent work as a Teaching Assistant.

 

Then it was time to barbecue, sample deviled eggs, stuffed breads, and the many different salads.

GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL – (Re)imagining Post-Industrial Urbanity: Films of the Ruhr Area, Germany

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The German film festival will be held in Downey House 113 on April 13 and April 14, 2012. We will be showing three films from this large post-industrial area in western Germany. The first film, Bang Boom Bang by Peter Thorwart, will be shown on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The other two-Losers and Winners, a documentary by Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken, and Solino by Fatih Akin-will be screened on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., followed by a discussion. The introductory session by Sina Nitzsche, Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Oglethorpe University, and Kate Thorpe, Teagle Writing Fellow at Wesleyan will place these films in the context of the transformation through art and image-making that the region is experiencing.

The event is sponsored by the German Studies Department, Writing at Wesleyan, and the Goethe Institute Boston.

 

Newer and Newest German Cinema

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Film Studies & German Studies will continue their annual film series with Maren Ade’s comedy drama, Everyone Else (2009).

 “…watching the film is to watch the emergence of a very particular and potentially galvanic cinematic talent.”   – Glenn Kenney, The Los Angeles Times

Powell Family Cinema, CFS, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 7 p.m.,

with an introduction by Katja Straub

Newer and Newest German Cinema

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Film Studies & German Studies will kick off their annual film series with Christian Petzold’s enigmatic thriller, Yella (2007). It  “offers a surreal X-ray vision of cutthroat capitalism in 21st-century Germany.”  – Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Powell Family Cinema, CFS, Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 7 p.m., with an introduction by Leo Lensing

We will continue our series in March with Maren Ade’s comedy drama, Everyone Else (2009).   “…watching the film is to watch the emergence of a very particular and potentially galvanic cinematic talent.” – Glenn Kenney, The Los Angeles Times

Powell Family Cinema, CFS, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 7 p.m., with an introduction by Katja Straub

 

The Baader Meinhof Complex – German movie night

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The German department will show Uli Edel’s film The Baader Meinhof Complex (with English subtitles) on Monday, November 28, at 7:00 p.m., in Fisk 210. The film is based on Stefan Aust’s book of the same title. Prof. Leo Lensing will give an introduction to this thought-provoking film.

Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks, the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy inside are rocking the very foundations of the yet fragile German democracy. The radicalised children of the Nazi generation lead by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society but by employing inhuman means they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lose their own humanity. The man who understands them is also their hunter: the head of the German police force Horst Herold. And while he succeeds in his relentless pursuit of the young terrorists, he knows he’s only dealing with the tip of the iceberg. Written by Constantin Film

Prize-winning novelist, playright, and screenwriter Christopher Kloeble to read at Wesleyan

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The German Studies Department and the Writing Center invite you to meet Christopher Kloeble on Tuesday, October 18, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Shapiro Center/Allbritton 311. Join us for stories by Christopher Kloeble and a sneak preview of his latest novel, Almost Everything Very Fast, which will be published in March 2012. Mr. Kloeble will read in English and German. English translations will be available for the parts he reads in German. A discussion will follow.

Christopher Kloeble grew up in Königsdorf, a small town in Bavaria. He has studied in Dublin and at the Literary Institute in Leipzig. Recently, he also attended the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa. For his debut novel, Amongst Loners, published in 2008, he received the Juergen Ponto-Stiftung Prize. A collection of 11 short stories followed a year later. His plays have been staged in major theaters in Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Heidelberg and Nuremberg. The film,Inclusion, for which he wrote the movie script, will air on December 12, 2011, on BR-alpha, a German television station owned by the regional broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk. Kloeble lives and works in Berlin.

Study Abroad in Regensburg

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Interested in studying abroad in Regensburg, Germany?

Join us for an informal information session on Wednesday, September 21 from 5-6 p.m. in Fisk 414. You will meet former Wesleyan students who have studied in Regensburg and our German exchange student Stefanie Schaffler. We will start with a presentation on living and studying  in Regensburg and then will have time for questions.

Celebration and Prizes

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Anya Olson ’11 and William Krieger ’11 present their Honors theses in Uli Plass’ garden to a spellbound audience.

Anya Olson “Gender and Society in Selected Works by Irmtraud Morgner, Christa Wolf, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Heinrich Böll”

William Lawrence Krieger, IV: “Framing the Dilettante: The Art of Martin Kippenberger”

Anya received a Baden-Württemberg scholarship and will be studying in Tübingen next year. Will received a Fulbright scholarship to study and do research at Humboldt University in Berlin next year.

Will Krieger, Profs. Leo Lensing and Arne Höcker "im Gespräch."
Teaching Assistant Anna Huber and recently reappointed professor Iris Bork
Alexandra Scherbl, Maddie Smith-Huemer, Anya Olson, Catie Steidl

 

We celebrated the following German Studies Majors

Matthew Alexander – COL Short Story Prize

William Krieger – Fulbright Fellowship, Beulah Friedman Prize, Blankenagel Prize

Benjamin LaFirst – Fulbright Teaching Fellowship to teach English at a high school in Linz, Austria, Prentice Prize

Anya Olson – Baden-Württemberg-CT Sister State Exchange, Scott Prize

Catherine Steidl – Baden-Württemberg-CT Sister State Exchange, and Blankenagel Prize

In the back, BBQing - our host and recently tenured professor Uli Plass (right)

The German Consulate Book Awards were presented to

Isadora Danim, Mari Jarris, Steven Le, Hannah Overton, Oscar Takabvirwa, Alexandra Scherbl, and Carmen Yip