Courses

All of the courses listed on this page count towards Notre Dame’s Globally Engaged Citizens Program. For more information, visit the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures website. 

Our courses are designed to help students become fluent in the German language while simultaneously developing deep expertise in the culture and history of the German-speaking world. Faculty employ their areas of specialization and personal interests to create a course of study that ranges from medieval minnesang (a type of lyric and song-writing) to issues of multiculturalism and environmental change in contemporary Germany.

Each semester, the department also offers several courses in English that are open to students without any background in the department.

Please visit Class Search for our full range of courses, which include a large assortment of offerings in both German and English. 

Courses offered every semester

GE 10101 – Beginning German I

An introduction to spoken and written German, as well as to the culture of the German-speaking world. Aims at the acquisition of basic structures, vocabulary, and sound systems. For students with no or little previous study of the language. 4 credits; meets 3 days a week.

GE 10102 – Beginning German II

Continuation of the introductory course to spoken and written German. Open to students who have completed GE 10101 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 4 credits; meets 3 days a week.

GE 20201 – Intermediate German I

A course that develops the communicative abilities acquired in Beginning German I and II and provides a more in-depth introduction to the culture of the German-speaking world. Open to students who have completed GE 10102 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

GE 20202 – Intermediate German II

A thematic class in which students work toward greater fluency, accuracy, and complexity of expression, while simultaneously gaining an appreciation for the role of German culture in the larger world. Serves as the first course that can be counted towards a major or minor in German. Course theme chosen by the instructor. Open to students who have completed GE 20201 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

Courses offered every Fall

GE 30303 – German before Germany

In this course, students will learn to challenge the easy association of "German" with the contemporary country of Germany by considering the extraordinary diversity of what "German" meant before the modern country was founded. Students will examine German-speaking Central Europe from the Middle Ages until the beginnings of modern Germany, focusing primarily on literary works in their historical context. The course's historical outlook gives students the tools to critically examine today's discourses of national identity, race, and German tradition by understanding how the meaning of "German" has transformed over time. 3 credits.

GE 30305 – Contemporary Germany: Society, Politics, and Culture

This course introduces students to the society, politics, and culture of contemporary Germany. The main focus is on Germany after 1989, but analysis extends back as far as 1945 and includes comparisons to other German-speaking countries as well as the United States. Topics include social values, government and media, as well as issues currently in the news. Students also develop interpretative skills by applying them to recent films and literary works. Open to students who have completed GE 20202 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

Courses offered every Spring

GE 20113 – German for the Business World

This course offers an overview of major developments in the literary and cultural history of the German-speaking world. The course explores significant figures and works of literature, the visual arts, music, and philosophy as well as their interrelationship and historical context. Students read, discuss, and analyze selected texts in German representing all genres, and become familiar with fundamental techniques of interpretation. Open to students who have completed GE 20202 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

GE 30304 – German Literary and Cultural Tradition(s)

This course offers an overview of major developments in the literary and cultural history of the German-speaking world. The course explores significant figures and works of literature, the visual arts, music, and philosophy as well as their interrelationship and historical context. Students read, discuss, and analyze selected texts in German representing all genres, and become familiar with fundamental techniques of interpretation. Open to students who have completed GE 20202 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

Spring 2024 courses taught in German

GE 43204 – Social Engagement in German Literature and Film (William Donahue)

How can we work for a more just world? Major works of German film and literature insightfully depict a variety of paradigmatic scenarios of social injustice, suggesting ways these conditions might be ameliorated and perhaps even overcome. Topics include: misogyny; child-murder; prostitution; poverty; workers’ rights; just distribution of resources; wealth and income inequality; the status of minority, migrant and refugee populations; religion and the state (Jewish emancipation and oppression); and the individual’s striving for freedom within an authoritarian regime. This upper-level course taught in German, surveys major works of German literature and film from the 18th to the 21st centuries that prominently engage themes of social engagement. 3 credits.

Spring 2024 courses taught in English

GE 13186 – The German Influence on American Culture (Robert Norton)

This course introduces German literature and culture while also serving as an introduction to the seminar method of instruction. The course is writing-intensive, with emphasis given to improving students' writing skills through the careful analysis of specific texts. 3 credits. Counts for USEM, WKAL and LIT

GE 23620 – The Death of God. Atheism in Modern European Culture and Thought (Robert Norton)

Over the last decade or so, there has been a new and prominent wave of "New Atheism," often promoted in popular books that reach a wide and, apparently, appreciative audience. Yet, atheism is as old as religion itself, and in the Western tradition has roots that extend into the earliest recorded history. In this class we will consider atheism on its own merits - its arguments, values, and intentions - but also as a historical phenomenon, tracing its original expressions and especially its rise during the "modern" period beginning in the 17th and 18th centuries. We will thus focus on Spinoza, Hume, d'Holback, Ludwig Feuerbach, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and among the "New Atheists" Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchins. This course will be taught in English.  3 credits. Counts for WKSP

GE 30112 – Germany and the Environment (Tobias Boes)

Germany is globally recognized as a leader in the fields of renewable energy, sustainable development, and environmental protection. But how did this come about? In this course, we will examine the roles that culture and history play in shaping human attitudes towards the environment. Our case studies will range over two centuries, from damming projects in the Rhine valley at the start of the nineteenth century to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster at the end of the twentieth. We will study novels, films, and philosophical essays alongside works by leading environmental historians. Over the course of the semester, students will develop a richer understanding of German environmentalism that also includes an awareness of its dark sides, such as the role that nature conservancy played within Nazi ideology. This course will be taught in English. 3 credits. Counts for ENST, LIT, MESE, SUS3, WKAL and WRIT

GE 33027 – Germans in the Americas (CJ Jones)

As soon as Europeans began exploring and colonizing the so-called New World, Germans were there. Germans came to the Americas as conquistadors, settlers, refugees, missionaries, and merchants. The German colony in Venezuela was disastrously short-lived, but Germans came to play a significant role in the colonization of North America through the settlement of Pennsylvania. This course introduces students to the varieties of German presence in the Americas from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Topics may include the colonization and conquest of South America, German interactions with Indigenous communities, German missionaries to the enslaved peoples in the Caribbean, the role of German immigrants in early anti-slavery and pacifist movements, and the origin and afterlife of the language called Pennsylvania Dutch. This course will be taught in English. 3 credits. Counts for WRIT

Previously Offered Electives

Generally, courses with 4xxxx course numbers are taught in the target language. Courses with 3xxxx course numbers and below are taught in English. Detailed class descriptions can be accessed via the ClassSearch tool on InsideND.

Fall 2023

GE 20453 - Self-deception, Life-lies and Sincerity

GE 30008 - Medieval Violence

GE 33245 - Great War and Modern Memory

Spring 2023

GE 30109 – Jews in European Middle Ages

GE 30214 – The Holocaust and its Legacies

GE 33023 – Medieval German Epic

GE 43000 – Imagined Futures German Sci-Fi

Fall 2022

GE 30010 – Sinners, Saints, & Sorceresses

GE 30011 – Weimar Republic/Rise of Hitler

GE 30207 – Intro to Gothic Language

GE 33021 – The Early Holy Roman Empire

GE 40324 – Germany’s Interwar Years

Spring 2022

GE 20430 – Existentialist Themes

GE 30112 – Germany and the Environment

GE 30214 – The Holocaust and its Legacies

GE 30401 – Nazi Germany, Nazi Europe

GE 33205 – Europe & the Migration Crisis

GE 43203 – Self, Society and the Sacred

Fall 2021

GE 20452 – Philosophy & Narrative

GE 30008 – Medieval Violence

GE 30465 – Modern Germany since 1871

GE 43300 – Seminar in German Studies