German Studies - Macalester College

German Studies from Macalester College is a Campus Bachelor Language degree that prepares you for a Liberal Arts career. The German program aims at enabling students to develop full proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing the German language. It also offers an interdisciplinary approach to German literary, intellectual, and cultural history as well as to the intellectual, cultural, economic and political life of the contemporary German-speaking countries. German is the language of many of the greatest and most influential minds of world history?of Luther, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Kant, Hegel, Arendt, Goethe, Freud, Marx and Einstein?and also of the Austrian Adolf Hitler, who sponsored the most tragic episode in two thousand years of German history. German-speaking writers have won ten Nobel Prizes for literature alone, the latest being Elfriede Jelinek in 2004. To a significant extent, the thoughts and compositions of uncounted giants of the mind and spirit are formulated and recorded in historical, literary, philosophical, musical and scientific works in a way that cannot be adequately understood by anyone who does not know the German language well. With over a hundred million native speakers, German is the European language to know, since it is the native language of all Germans, Austrians and of 70 percent of the Swiss, and is the second language of many Eastern Europeans. Germany alone has not only the largest population in Europe, it is Europe's strongest economic, political, and military power and the core of the European Union. ?German? companies such as Bertelsmann, Siemens, Bayer, and Daimler-Chrysler are among the largest and strongest international conglomerates today. It has been predicted that the Euro will rival the dollar as the world's leading currency in the twenty-first century, and that Europe, with Germany at the forefront, will be the world's strongest economic power. The German-speaking countries have adopted a pro-active, cosmopolitan approach to the world's problems. They will be primary players in the new century and millennium. While English is sure to dominate world commerce, knowledge of German will provide a competitive advantage to those who strive to gain commercial preeminence. German Studies builds a foundation for graduate work in many academic fields that call for a thorough knowledge of German language, culture, and history. It also helps prepare students for employment in teaching, foreign service, the media, business, law, tourism, translation, publishing, and arts administration. The German department also provides offerings in English directed at the broad Macalester community as well as departmental majors. Since 1971, more than 60 Macalester graduates in the field of German have won Fulbright, DAAD or ITT Fellowships for study in Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia, a record paralleled by few American colleges of comparable size. View more details on Macalester College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Language courses.