Group of Students to Visit Germany
Adam Sheets
Issue date: 3/3/10 Section: News
Students taking Dr. Thomas Piontek's course Post-War Germany in Film and Literature during the summer intersession will have the opportunity to visit Germany.
Piontek said the idea for the trip began during his second semester of teaching German at the University.
"There is cultural material in the textbook and I thought 'Wouldn't it be great if students could try out their German in a real-life situation?'" Piontek said. "When I heard about money being available, I proposed the trip to the University....The Committee felt that travel should always be related to academic projects. The idea is to focus on academic research and not to just be tourists."
Piontek said that the trip is being funded through the Betty Hodgden Fund.
"(Hodgden) left her estate to the department and asked for it to be used for student and faculty travels related to literature they were studying."
According to the syllabus, the course itself will focus on three issues: the reconstruction of post-war Germany, the division and unification of Germany, and the current issue of Turkish migrants in Germany.
Students will be reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" as a part of the course. A major focus of Vonnegut's novel was the controversial firebombing of the German city of Dresden during World War II by Allied troops. Piontek said the students will visit Dresden during the course of the trip.
"The students will be able to see in Dresden what the city was like in 1945 and also what was done under a socialist regime," he said.
The group will also visit Berlin, including remnants of the Berlin Wall.
"We will focus on the history of Berlin as a symbol of the changeable history of Germany, from the Weimar Republic, to the Third Reich, to being the capital of a democratic Germany," Piontek said.
Students will visit the Kreuzberg borough of Berlin during the trip to study the Turkish migration issue in present day Germany.
"30 percent of the residents of this area are Turkish and it has its very own unique cultural flavors," Piontek said.
Piontek said the idea for the trip began during his second semester of teaching German at the University.
"There is cultural material in the textbook and I thought 'Wouldn't it be great if students could try out their German in a real-life situation?'" Piontek said. "When I heard about money being available, I proposed the trip to the University....The Committee felt that travel should always be related to academic projects. The idea is to focus on academic research and not to just be tourists."
Piontek said that the trip is being funded through the Betty Hodgden Fund.
"(Hodgden) left her estate to the department and asked for it to be used for student and faculty travels related to literature they were studying."
According to the syllabus, the course itself will focus on three issues: the reconstruction of post-war Germany, the division and unification of Germany, and the current issue of Turkish migrants in Germany.
Students will be reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" as a part of the course. A major focus of Vonnegut's novel was the controversial firebombing of the German city of Dresden during World War II by Allied troops. Piontek said the students will visit Dresden during the course of the trip.
"The students will be able to see in Dresden what the city was like in 1945 and also what was done under a socialist regime," he said.
The group will also visit Berlin, including remnants of the Berlin Wall.
"We will focus on the history of Berlin as a symbol of the changeable history of Germany, from the Weimar Republic, to the Third Reich, to being the capital of a democratic Germany," Piontek said.
Students will visit the Kreuzberg borough of Berlin during the trip to study the Turkish migration issue in present day Germany.
"30 percent of the residents of this area are Turkish and it has its very own unique cultural flavors," Piontek said.
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