About the Program

Herzlich Willkommen to the German Studies Program at Bucknell University! German is one of the major languages in the European Union and is quickly becoming the language of commerce throughout Eastern Europe. In addition, it is the language of some of the most seminal thinkers in modern times, Goethe, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Einstein, Luxemburg, or Habermas, to just name a few. German is also considered one of the most useful languages in many other fields such as art history, music, philosophy, or engineering. Studying German at Bucknell will allow you to be an active participant in a global economy, pursue graduate work in many different fields, or form a part of a solid liberal arts background.

Bucknell offers a full range of courses to meet the diverse needs of our students: language, culture, literature, business and economics, as well as technical German. Advantages to the courses offered on campus are small class sizes, German as the language of instruction at all levels, and enthusiastic faculty members who are dedicated to helping you improve your knowledge of the language and its associate cultures. Most majors and minors also spend at least one semester, if not a full year abroad in Austria, Germany, or Switzerland. Outside of the classroom, the German Club provides various opportunities to use German in an informal setting and a teaching assistant from the University of Heidelberg provides you with up-to-date information about student life in today’s Germany/Europe.

After graduating from Bucknell, many German majors (most of whom have a second major in another field) return to Germany to study or work. Unique to the German Studies Program at Bucknell is the Bucknell-Heidelberg Exchange. This exchange allows one graduating senior to study for one year at the University of Heidelberg on a fellowship. Other majors have returned to Germany on Fulbright scholarships, internships administered by the Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft, or as interns for the German parliament.

 

Learning Outcomes:

Majors in German Studies will be able to:

  1. Speak, read, write, and understand German at an "Advanced-Low" level as defined by the proficiency criteria of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages ("ACTFL guidelines").
  2. Demonstrate familiarity with cultural artifacts produced in German-speaking countries from the 19th to the 21st century. 
  3. Demonstrate the ability to adapt to a living/learning/work situation in a German-speaking country.
  4. Demonstrate competency in written and oral communication through the production of analytical texts and presentations supported by structured arguments that demonstrate knowledge of the historical context and use appropriate forms of textual, cultural and visual analysis and evidence. Such texts and oral presentations will respect disciplinary norms for evidence and citation.
  5. Demonstrate the ability to synthesize learning from within and outside German Studies in order to develop a global view of the discipline and how the knowledge and skills it promotes can be applied beyond Bucknell.

Minors in German Studies who begin in German 101 will be able to:

  1. Speak, read and write German at an intermediate-mid level according to ACTFL guidelines.

Minors in German Studies who begin in German 103 will be able to:

1.   Speak, read and write German at an intermediate-high level according to ACTFL guidelines.