Study Abroad | Berlin
January Term 2025: Academics

Course Code: Geography/Sociology 311

Instruction Language: English

In the age of climate change and mega urbanization, urban green and gardening, providing multiple functions and benefits to cities and their biodiversity and dwellers all season long. The course shows and discusses new perspectives of how cities can be developed greener, sustainable and resilient.<br/><br/>The classes will deal with the history of urban agriculture and garden cultures, for example from the old Persian world and the ancient cultures from Asia, Europe, North and South America. The students will follow in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt, who attempted to explain nature in its complexity through his research trips within Europe, South and North America, and Asia at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.<br/><br/>The course will discuss the history, current role and the future of urban gardening locally and worldwide. Por example the urban gardening movement that has its obstacles to be involved in the concepts of smart, clean, compact and global cities.

Course Code: German 101 or 201

Instruction Language: German

The course focuses on the development of communicative competence in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, grammar and writing.<br/>According to self-assessment and “Sprachpass” placement test, the participants are placed in groups of different language levels. For the best outcome to support the students’ progress, different methods are used according to the level and topics covered in class. According to the level of the participants, there might be a focus on certain exercises, in-class discussions and activities.<br/><br/>The respective schedule and content strongly depend on different aspects such as the course book and reading materials, the background of the students and personal interests in terms of topics. The course can be combined with an English content course above and is suitable for participants who really want to discover Berlin with weekly extra cultural and social activities offered.

Course Code: History/Cultural Studies 314

Instruction Language: English

As early as 1706 Berlin was referred to as Athens on the Spree as a homage to its burgeoning Prussian culture and museum landscape. Today, Berlin boasts well over 200 museums. In this course, we will explore a number of museums that highlight key aspects of Berlin’s history. The focus will be on the key issues of memory – especially that of WWII – and collecting practices – how did certain objects find their way here? How are such histories displayed and transmitted today? These are the questions that we will address as we explore the museums as dynamic fields that can inform our understanding of how Berlin presents itself both inwardly (in smaller city museums) and outwardly in larger, world-famous museums. This course is anthropologically inflected and treats the sites as field sites to be explored empirically and analyzed critically. It is well-suited to students who are interested in history, the social sciences, and/or more specific fields such as urban studies, ethics or museum studies.

Course Code: History/Political Science/Sociology 316

Instruction Language: English

In two world wars Germany tried to dominate the globe and all major decisions were made in the capital Berlin. Why was Germany such an aggressive power until 1945? How did Hitler manage to gain and keep power? Why were many Germans Nazis and deeply racist? How was the life of ordinary people during the war? Why did the Nazis kill millions of Jews and other innocent people in concentration camps? What were the long term effects of World War II? What happened to the Nazis after the war? The course will provide answers to such questions via readings of texts from political science, sociology and history, while also taking the opportunity to explore the locations in which the events between 1933 and 1945 took place. After a brief introduction to the historical and ideological backgrounds which led to the rise of the Nazi Regime we will turn to a detailed analysis of the event history which led to World War II. Finally, we will discuss the effects of World War II, on world history; e.g. the Cold War, European Integration, etc.

Course Code: Law 315

Instruction Language: English

With the rise of globalisation, businesses that enter foreign markets are exposed to the legal frameworks of the countries they choose to do business in. As a result, the field of international commercial litigation and arbitration has become increasingly complex. This class will give an overview of the most important issues raised in international commercial litigation. The course deals with cases where an international commercial transaction has given rise to a legal dispute between the parties and where this dispute is not decided by arbitration. In such a scenario, the parties have to litigate before the domestic court of a State. This raises a number of difficult issues, a selection of which will be dealt with in the course, primarily from a European (EU) and from a US perspective.

Course Code: Politics/Sociology/Education 324

Instruction Language: English

This course will give an overview of how global governance works in a world of networks, diluted power, fragmented organizational structures, renewed great power competition, and exceeded planetary boundaries. The focus will be on the actors, institutions and ideas of world politics today – from the UN family and Agenda 2030 to Great Powers to thematic alliances such as the OECD. Some hope Germany will take on the mantle of “leader of the free world”. While it is true that Germany has entered a phase of “new responsibility” in its foreign policy and remains strongly committed to the liberal order and global sustainability, it is becoming more and more difficult for such powers to project its influence into the global order. The course will take this German perspective as a starting point to try to understand the state of global governance more broadly. Who are the indispensable nations? Who are the spoilers? What kind of cooperation is needed to save the planet? Whose Global Order is it? How to save the world? We will look at multilateralist and unilateralist behavior of states, and also at recent efforts to bring more sustainability to global governance. We will also identify non-Western visions of global governance. Finally, the course will revolve around the question of how to make the global liberal institutionalist order (and ultimately, our planet) more resilient in the face of new authoritarian challenges – after all, this is what Germany and other countries like it are striving to do.