JYM course descriptions

• JYG 3100, 3200: Advanced German Language I, II

  Required, credits: 3

  Developed in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), German language proficiency-based instruction at JYM focuses on increasing grammatical accuracy, expanding subject-specific vocabulary, and strengthening conversational skills. JYG 3100 is offered in the fall (Wintersemester) and JYG 3200 in the spring (Sommersemester).

  Upon arrival in Munich, students are evaluated to determine their level of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and writing as defined by CEFR benchmarks (see below). Students are then divided into sections of Advanced German Language with comparable proficiency levels. The goal of instruction is to solidify students' linguistic abilities at the level in which they were first evaluated and then help them achieve the next CEFR proficiency level.

  CEFR – Proficiency level B2

  Can understand the main contents of complex texts on concrete and abstract topics; also understands specialized discussions in his/her own primary area of specialization. Can communicate so spontaneously and fluently that a normal conversation with native speakers is easily possible without a great deal of effort on either side. Can express him/herself on a wide range of topics in a clear and detailed manner, explain his/her position on a current issue and indicate the benefits and drawbacks of various options.

  CEFR – Proficiency level C1

  Can understand a wide range of challenging, longer texts and also grasp implicit meanings. Can express him/herself spontaneously and fluently without having to search for words frequently and noticeably. Can use the language effectively and flexibly in his/her social and professional life or in training and studies. Can make clear, structured and detailed statements on complex topics and apply various means of text association appropriately in the process.

  Written work requirement 📝

  • Presentations (Referate)
  • Essays
  • Four tests
  • Final examination (Klausur)

  Textbooks 📚

  • Begegnungen B1+, Schubert Verlag Erkundungen B2 kompakt, Schubert Verlag Erkundungen C1 kompakt, Schubert Verlag
  • Lehr- und Übungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik, aktuell, Hueber Verlag Übungsgrammatik für die Grundstufe, Verlag Liebaug-Dartmann Übungsgrammatik für die Mittelstufe, Verlag Liebaug-Dartmann
  • Ein einsprachiges Wörterbuch, z.B. Langenscheidt Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache
• JYG 3110: Written Communication and Expression

  Credits: 3

  This course focuses specifically on developing students' writing skills in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Emphasis is placed on strengthening accuracy, appropriateness and clarity of written expression in German as needed in both academic and non-academic environments.

  Topics covered 📑

  Textsorte	Aufgaben
  Anzeigen und Privatbriefe	Sprachpartner suchen, auf Anzeigen antworten
  Anfragen	E-Mails im Studium schreiben
  Beschreibungen	Bild/Heimatuni/Wohnheimzimmer beschreiben
  Definitionen	Definitionen von konkreten und abstrakten Wörtern
  Zusammenfassungen, Exzerpte, Mitschriften, Protokolle	Zeitungsartikel zusammenfassen, Hörtexte exzerpieren, Protokolle erstellen
  Schilderungen	Erlebnisse schildern
  Erörterungen	Vor- und Nachteile einer Idee/Situation abwägen
  Stellungnahmen und Begründungen	etwas behaupten und durch Argumente belegen
  Berichte	Bewerbungen und Lebenslauf schreiben
  kreatives Schreiben	kreativ schreiben

  Written work requirement 📝

  Written assignments based on the above types of written communication and expression.

  Readings 📚

  Course reader and handouts.

• JYG 4100: Introduction to the Study of German Literature

  Credits: 3

  This is a foundation course for the study of German literature which will be of particular interest to students taking literature courses at LMU Munich. Includes instruction in literary genres, periods and terminology, survey of German literary history, methods of literary analysis and practice with strategies of literary interpretation.

  Topics covered 📑

  • Genre 1: Basic Forms of Narration – Prose
  • Genre 2: Basic Forms of Narration – Lyric
  • Genre 3: Basic Forms of Narration – Drama
  • Literary Technique: Rhetoric and Poetics
  • German Literary History: 1400 to 18th Century
  • German Literary History: 1800 to 1900
  • German Literary History: 20th Century
  • Techniques of Literary Scholarship 1 – Bibliography and Citing Sources
  • Techniques of Literary Scholarship 2 – Term Paper (Die schriftliche Hausarbeit)
  • Theories and Methods of Literary Studies – A Historical Overview
  • Theories and Methods of Literary Studies – Current Trends

  Written work requirement 📝

  Presentations (Referate) term paper (Hausarbeit).

  Readings 📚

  • Course reader and handouts
  • Gutzen, Dieter/ Oellers, Norbert/ Petersen, Jürgen H.: Einführung in die neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft. Ein Arbeitsbuch. 6. Aufl. Berlin 1989
  • Metzler-Literatur-Lexikon. Stichwörter zur Weltliteratur. Hg. v. Günther und Irmgard Schweikle. 2. Aufl. Stuttgart 1990
  • Neuhaus, Stefan: Grundriss der Literaturwissenschaft. Tübingen 2003
  • Petersen, Jürgen H.: Erzählerische Texte. In: Gutzen/Oellers, s.o., S. 13 - 34
  • Vogt, Jochen: Einladung zur Literaturwissenschaft. 4. Aufl. Tübingen 2002
• JYG 4200: Contemporary German Culture

  Credits: 3

  This course examines various issues with which the German public see themselves confronted today, from coming to terms with the past to the place of Germany today within Europe and within the European Union. How Germans today see themselves and Germany's role in the world is very much based on their lived experiences. Therefore knowledge of Germany's past since 1945 is necessary for understanding contemporary German everyday culture. Discussion of current events on a weekly basis is central to this course as it allows for contemporary issues and concerns to be placed within larger historical contexts, thus giving students a richer appreciation for "Germany and Germans Today."

  Topics covered 📑 

  • From Zero-Hour to Divided Germany
  • Denazification and Reconstruction
  • Political Parties and Social Market Economy
  • The Berlin Crisis and a Divided City
  • Student Protest Movement 1968
  • Terrorism of the 1970s (RAF)
  • Environment and Politics: the Greens
  • The Turning Point (Die Wende) 1989
  • Immigration and Integration: Foreign Workers, Asylum Seekers, Refugees
  • AfD, Pediga and Identity Movements
  • Coming to Terms with the Past
  • Germany, 30 Years after the Fall of the Wall
  • European Union in Crisis

  Written work requirement 📝

  • Weekly written reports (Themen der Woche - Berichte)
  • Presentations (Referate)
  • Essay final

  Readings 📚

  • Course reader and handouts
  • Wie wir Deutschen ticken. Wie wir denken. Was wir fühlen. Wer wir sind. Hrsg. Holger Geißler, Hamburg 2015
  • Reinhard Barth: Nachgefragt: Deutsche Geschichte. Basiswissen zum Mitreden, Loewe-Verlag, 2005
  • Forum Geschichte, Band 5: Von den 1960er Jahren bis zur Gegenwart, Cornelsen, 2015
  • Wolfgang Welsch: Ich war Staatsfeind Nr. 1- Als Fluchthelfer auf der Todesliste der Stasi, Piper-Verlag, 2015.
  • Immer bunter. Einwanderungsland Deutschland. Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
• JYG 4300: History of Art

  Credit: 3

  The collections of Munich's world-renowned museums, as well as famous architectural landmarks and buildings in and around Munich, provide the primary source material for JYM students to study the history of art from antiquity through the 20th century while in Munich. Methods and criteria of analysis contextualize exemplary works of German architecture, painting, sculpture, and decorative arts in relation to European artistic periods, styles and genres. Instruction takes place at JYM, in many of Munich's famous museums (ex. the Glyptothek, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek, Pinakothek der Moderne, Staatsgalerie der modernen Kunst, Schack-Galerie or the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus), as well as on field trips to landmarks of historical architectural importance.

  Topics covered 📑

  • Epochs and Genres of Art History
  • Factors and Processes of Artistic Production
  • Critical Methods of Analysis of a Work of Art
  • Classical Antiquity, Classicism, Neo-Classicism
  • Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance Architecture
  • Romanesque Sculpture to late Gothic (style and iconography – a comparsion)
  • Gothic Painting and Sculpture (the artist as craftsman)
  • Gothic Panel Painting (e.g. Stephan Lochner)
  • Renaissance Painting (e.g. Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder)
  • Genre Painting from late Medieval to Baroque (still life, portraiture, landscape)
  • 19th Century Painting (Romanticism, Historicism, Realism, Impressionism)
  • 20th Century Painting (Expressionism, Surrealism, Bauhaus)
  • Munich Today (city history of urban development and design)
  • Munich Today (architechtonic modernism)

  Written work requirement 📝

  • Presentation (Referat)
  • Review essay (Rezension)
  • Final examination (Klausur)

  Readings 📚

  • Course reader and handouts
  • Norbert Huse, Kleine Kunstgeschichte Münchens, München, 4. Auflage München 2002
  • Josef H. Biller und Hans Peter Rasp, München. Kunst & Kultur. Stadtführer und Handbuch, München 2003
• JYG 4500: Munich and National Socialism

  Credits: 3

  This course explores the origins of National Socialism, the establishment of Munich as the administrative, symbolic and artistic center of the Nazi movement, everyday life in Munich under the Nazi dictatorship, antisemitism and the holocaust, persecution and resistance, de- Nazification and coming to terms with the past. Includes visits to sites of historical significance in and around Munich, ex. the Dachau concentration camp memorial, and Nürnberg (site of the 1934 Nazi Party rally and stage for Leni Riefenthal's Triumph des Willens).

  Topics covered 📑

  • Hitler and Fascism as Fasinosum
  • World War I and its Results
  • Revolution and Counter-Revolution: Munich 1918-1920
  • The Weimar Republic and the Hitler Putsch
  • Rise of the NSDAP in Munich
  • Munich as Hauptstadt der Bewegung
  • Munich as Hauptstadt der deutschen Kunst
  • Mythos and Cult in the Third Reich
  • The Reichsparteigelände in Nürnberg
  • Everyday Life under the Nazi Dictatorship
  • The Concentration Camp Dachau
  • The Fate of Munich's Jewish Community
  • Resistance in Munich: Die Weiße Rose
  • De-Nazification and Comming to Terms with the Past

  Written work requirement 📝

  • Presentation (Referat)
  • Midterm and final examinations (Klausuren)

  Readings 📚

  • Course reader and handouts
  • Richard Bauer, et. al., München-Hauptstadt der Bewegung (München: Minerva, 2002)
  • Ulrikre Grammbitter u. Iris Lauterbach, Das Parteizentrum der NSDAP in München (München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2009)
• JYG 4800: Topics in German Studies – Comparative Eco-Politics

  Comparative Eco-Politics/Ökopolitik. Umwelt und Gesellschaft von der Aufklärung bis zu Fridays for Future

  Credits: 3

  Climate change, mass extinction, alternative energy—we cannot understand present-day debates about the future of our planet without looking to the past. This seminar examines the relationships between nature and society in Germany over the past 250 years. Our historical journey will take us from the belching smokestacks of the Ruhr Valley in the nineteenth century, to the protests against nuclear energy in the 1970s and 1980s, to the twenty-first-century wind farms that currently dot the German landscape.

  Students will learn to work critically with a range of historical sources and genres: texts, images, and films, and they will have the opportunity to meet virtually with environmental experts about the initiatives and challenges along the way to a green Germany.

  Topics covered 📑

  • Mensch und Natur im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert
  • Die Eroberung der Natur
  • Industrialisierung, Imperialismus & früher
  • Naturschutz Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus
  • Kontinuitäten und Brüche: Naturschutz 1945-1970
  • Von Naturschutz zu Umweltschutz
  • Atomenergie & Anti-AKW-Proteste
  • "Waldsterben"– Umweltverschmutzung, Klimawandel und Konflikte um Nutzungsregime
  • Natur & Gesellschaft in der DDR
  • Naturschutz und Protest von der Straße in die Parlamente tragen
  • Umweltschutz wird europäisch – Deutschland in der Europäische Union
  • Green Germany im 21. Jahrhundert – von der Energiewende zu Fridays for Future

  Written work requirement 📝

  • Written presentation (Referat)
  • Seminar paper

  Primary texts 📚

  • Frank Uekötter: Umweltgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, München 2007 (Chapter 1: Enzyklopädischer Überblick, S. 6-38)
  • David Blackbourn: Die Eroberung der Natur. Eine Geschichte der deutschen Landschaft, München 2008 (Chapter 1: Die Eroberung der Wildnis, S. 33-96)
  • Steigerwald, Joan. "The Cultural Enframing of Nature: Environmental Histories during the Early German Romantic Period." Environment and History 6, no. 4 (Nov., 2000): 451–496
  • Dominick, Raymond H. The Environmental Movement in Germany: Prophets and Pioneers, 1871–1971. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. (Chapter?)
  • Joachim Radkau: Die Ära der Ökologie, München 2011. (Chapter: Umweltbewegungen vor der Umweltbewegung, S. 38-81)
  • Frank Uekötter: Age of Smoke. Environmental Policy in Germany and the United States, 1880-1970, Pittsburgh 2009. (Chapter 2: Modern Times, Modern Problems: Controlling Smoke, 1880-1914, S. 20-66)
  • Joachim Radkau, Frank Uekötter (Hrsg.): Naturschutz und Nationalsozialismus, Frankfurt/New York 2003
  • Frank Uekötter: The Green and the Brown. A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany, New York et al, 2006
  • Sandra Chaney: Nature of the Miracle Years. Conservation in Western Germany, 1945- 1975, New York/Oxford 2008.
  • Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, Jens Ivo Engels (Hrsg.): Natur- und Umweltschutz nach 1945. Konzepte, Konflikte, Kompetenzen, Frankfurt/New York 2005. (Chapter: Frank Uekötter: Erfolglosigkeit als Dogma? Revisionistische Bemerkungen zum Umweltschutz zwischen dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs und der 'ökologischen Wende', S. 106-123)
  • Cioc, Mark. The Rhine: An Eco-Biography 1815–2000. Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002. (Chapter?)
  • Mauch, Christof and Thomas Zeller. Rivers in History: Perspectives on Waterways in Europe and North America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.(Chapter: Thomas Lekan: Saving the Rhine: Water, Ecology, and Heimat in Post-World War II Germany, S. 110- XX)
  • Katrin Kleemann. "'Moby Dick' in the Rhine: How a Beluga Whale Raised Awareness of Water Pollution in West Germany." Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (Spring 2018), no. 6. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
  • Rucht, Dieter. Von Wyhl nach Gorleben: Bürger gegen Atomprogramm und nukleare Entsorgung. Munich: Beck, 1980
  • Reimar, Paul …und auch nicht anderswo! Die Geschichte der Anti-AKW-Bewegung. Göttingen: Verlag die Werkstatt, 1997
  • Joachim Radkau: Die Ära der Ökologie, München 2011. (Chapter: Vom Atomkonflikt zum "Waldsterben": eine verwirrende Wende, S. 235-243)
  • Bemmann, Martin. Beschädigte Vegetation und sterbender Wald: Zur Entstehung eines Umweltproblems in Deutschland 1893–1970. Umwelt und Gesselschaft, edited by Christof Mauch, Helmuth Trischler, and Frank Uekötter, vol. 5. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co, 2012
  • John Mc Neill / Astrid Mignon Kirchhoff (Hrsg.): Nature Protection and the Iron Curtain. Environmental Policy and Social Movements in Communist and Capitalist Countries 1945-1990, Pittsburgh 2019
  • Tobias Huff: Natur und Industrie im Sozialismus: Eine Umweltgeschichte der DDR, Göttingen 2015.
  • Goodbody, Axel, ed. The Culture of German Environmentalism: Anxieties, Visions, Realities. New York: Berghahn Books, 2002
  • Milder, Stephen. "Thinking Globally, Acting (Trans-) Locally: Petra Kelly and the Transnational Roots of West German Green Politics." Central European History, 43, no. 2 (June 2010): 301–26
  • DM-Ausstellungskatalog: energie.wenden. Chancen und Herausforderungen eines Jahrhundertprojekts, München 2017
  • Frank Uekötter: Deutschland in Grün. Eine zwiespältige Erfolgsgeschichte, Göttingen, 2015
  • Frank Uekötter: Am Ende der Gewissheiten. Die ökologische Frage im 21. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt/New York 2011

  Note: JYG 4800 topics courses may change from year to year depending on student interest.

• JYG 4800: Topics in German Studies - Intro to the German Film Landscape

  JYG 4800: Topics in German Studies - Thinking, Speaking and Writing about Film. An Introduction to the German Film Landscape. 

  Offered: SoSe
  Credits: 3

  This course offers an overview over film theory, film history, and film analysis. Film theory provides answers to questions such as: Is cinema an art or rather an industry? What different ways are there of thinking about films in terms of social criticism, philosophy or content? In film history, we then learn about different eras of German film, starting with the invention of the bioscope in Berlin in 1895, through the expressionist avant-garde of the Weimar Republic and the New German Cinema, to the Berlin School of the late 1990s. In the film analysis, we then take a closer look at these films. What aspects need to be considered when talking about films? The knowledge gained in the seminar will be applied directly during the internationally renowned Munich Film Festival, which takes place at the end of June. Students will have the opportunity to view new films and television shows and write essays that deal with what they have seen on a theoretical, historical and analytical level.

  Topics covered

  Classical Film Theory

  History of Film I (Early History of Cinema; German Expressionism, Nazi Propaganda Films)

  History of Film II (Denazification Films; Rubble Films, Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, Early German Film, New German Wave, Berlin School)

  Film Analysis I (Vocabulary)

  Film Analysis II (Film and Affect)

  Written Work Requirement

  1 model film critique written prior to the start of the Munich Film Festival

  5 film critiques of films viewed during the Munich Film Festival

  Films

  Hamlet (1921). Dir.  Svend Gade 

  Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920). Dir. Robert Wiene

  Abschied von Gestern (1966). Dir. Alexander Kluge

  Transit (2018). Dir. Christian Petzold

  100 Jahre Adolf Hitler. Die letzte Stunde im Führerbunker. (1989). Dir. Christoph Schlingenseif

  5 new films shown at the Munich Filmfestival at the end of June/ beginning of July (tickets purchased by JYM)

  Secondary literature

  Arnheim, Rudolf. Film als Kunst [1932]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2002.

  Balázs, Béla. Der sichtbare Mensch, oder die Kultur des Films [1924]. Frankfurt am Main:
  Suhrkamp Verlag, 2001.

  Barthes, Roland, „Der dritte Sinn“ [1970]. Der entgegenkommende und der stumpfe Sinn. Kritische Essays II. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1990.

  Kracauer, Sigfried, Von Caligari bis Hitler [1947]

  Münsterberg, Hugo. Das Lichtspiel. Eine psychologische Studie und andere Schriften zum Kino [1916]. Hrsg. u. Übers. v. Jörg Schweinitz. Wien: Synema, 1996.

  Rosenstein, Tatiana. Kino der Attraktion und Kino der Unterhaltung 2016. https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/14701

• JYG 4900: Undergraduate Research Project

  Credits: 3

  Do you need to write a senior thesis? Complete a capstone research project? Are you working on a DAAD scholarship proposal or planning to apply for a postgraduate fellowship?

  Whether your interests include art and literature, contemporary history and politics, theater and film, international business and science, sustainable energy, the environment or urban planning, JYM can help you design a unique research project as a central component of your study abroad experience.

  Under the guidance and personal supervision of our resident director, we'll make sure that your research project consists of something you simply could not do back home. You'll be guided in your research and help you gain access to many of Munich's famous libraries and archives.

  Some of the research projects completed by JYM students include:

  • Art Restoration
  • Structural Transformation in the Industrial Ruhrgebiet
  • Restoring the City: German Urban Planning in the new Länder
  • The Politics of Derestoration: The Königsplatz Forum
  • Challenges for Global Managers
  • In the Footsteps of Theodor Storm
  • The North and South in German Literature
  • Politics in Goethe"s Wahlverwandschaften
  • Georg Simmel"s Philosophie des Geldes
  • The JYM Experience in Film
  • Stainglass Windows in Germany (Die Mayersche Hofkunstanstalt)
  • Fürst Pückler's English Garden in Görlitz
  • German Rap Music
  • Utopia in Michael Ende"s Social Criticism
  • Lou Salomé, Nietzsche and Feminism
  • Another Discourse on Method: Proof and Creativity in the Sciences
  • Ecology in Germany: Der grüne Punkt
  • Alternative Medicine in Germany Today
  • Physics in Germany Today: From Max Planck to Nanoscience
  • "Naturschutzgebiete in den neuen Bundesländern nach der Wende"
  • "Die Uminterpretierung von Karl May während drei großer Epochen deutscher Geschichte: Die Nazizeit, die Nachkriegzeit, und die Zeit nach der Wiedervereinigung"
  • "Polnische Künstlerinnen in München von 1828 – 1914"
  • ""I leave, julia, your country": Ausgewählte Übersetzungen der Werke von Gerhard Falkner"
  • "Umweltschutz in Deutschland: Geschichte, Struktur, Kontinuitäten (1798-1945)"
  • "Martin Heidegger: Brief über den Humanismus"
  • "Der Begriff der "Übersetzung" in den Werken von Gerhard Falkner"
• JYG 5890: Overseas Internship

  In today's competitive job market, experience matters. The Junior Year in Munich Program can provide you with overseas internship experience through our extensive international network of business and public sector partners. If you are interested in obtaining internship experience while in Munich, JYM offers you several options.

  Cultural Vistas internships

  Credits: 3

  JYM has formed a partnership with Cultural Vistas that allows students to integrate credit-bearing internship experience with their academic schedule of coursework during the second semester (SoSe). Under this arrangement, students earn credits for completion of JY 5890. Open to full-year and second-semester students only.

  Other internships

  Credits: 3

  Many full-year students only decide once they are in Munich that they wish to take advantage of internship or service-learning opportunities. In such cases, JYM's extensive network of contacts has allowed us to help students find learning experiences in the fields of marketing, publishing, education, the automotive industry, health care, e-commerce, government, foreign service, international trade, urban planning, economic development consultancy and more.

  This option is only available to students on the full-year program and consists of two modules. As part of the curriculum, students hone their language skills during the first semester and meet regularly with the resident director to plan their internship project and application strategy. During the second-semester students complete the practical part of their internship project, including the production of an Internship Portfolio (see below).

  View examples of past internships

  Requirements for awarding credit

  JYM does not award credit for the internship experience, but rather for written academic work completed in conjunction with the internship. To receive a grade for JYG 5890: Overseas Internship, students must submit an internship portfolio to the resident director.

  View internship portfolio requirements

  Readings 📚

  • Greg Nees. Germany. Unraveling an Enigma. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press, 2000
  • Publications of American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University
  • Collin Randlesome. The Business Culture in Germany. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann, 1994
  • Steven Hill. Europe's Promise. Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010
  • Thomas Geoghegan. Were you Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model can Help you Get a Life. New York: The New Press, 2010
  • T.R. Reid. The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. New York: Penguin, 2004