German is the ticket to Europe. One of the three official languages of the European Union, German is spoken by more than 120 million poeple worldwide (around 95 million in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein). It is also one of the most widely used business languages in Eastern Europe (including Russia). Middlebury's School in Germany has two sites in the country:
• The first Middlebury Program is located in Mainz, a city founded by Roman legions 2,000 years ago. In the middle ages, Mainz was one of the imperial residences of the German emperors; around 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the world's fist printing press here. Today, Mainz is the capital of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and one of the centers of the European media industry. Close by is Frankfurt/Main, the hub of Germany's banking and financial activities and, as of 1999, headquarters of the European Central Bank.
• The second Middlebury Program is located in Berlin, the capital city of Germany before the division and after the unification. Besides being the political center of Germany, Berlin is also a cultural capital. More than 160 museums invite you for a voyage of discovery through the world of the arts and of civilisations, of history and technology. Every night the curtain is raised in three opera houses and more than 50 theatres. It's impossible to keep count of the innumerable cultural initiatives: dance, variety shows, cabaret, classical concerts, jazz, rock, techno. Young people in particular have conquered Berlin with their music clubs and parties. The yearly held 'Love Parade' is their showpiece.
Germans are one of the most influential ethnic groups in the U.S.—30 percent of Americans have German ancestry. Among the many Americans of German descent are Dwight Eisenhower, Levi Strauss, Babe Ruth, Clark Gable, Doris Day, Elvis Presley, Johnny Weissmuller, John Augustus Roebling (he designed the Brooklyn Bridge), Thomas Nast (he drew the Republican Party's elephant and the popular image of Santa Claus), Sandra Bullock, and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.
German was the language spoken by Martin Luther and Hildegard von Bingen, Karoline von Günderode und Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche und Hannah Arendt, Clara Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven, Albrecht Dürer and Gertrud Kolmar, Christa Wolf and Bertholt Brecht, but also by Hitler, and Goebbels. Expressionism, Dadaism, and Bauhaus design originated in the German-speaking world. So did the Waltz ... and Techno Music.
Students and faculty in the Department of German are engaged in an ongoing dialogue that covers the range of German-speaking culture, its achievements, and its traumas. We offer an exciting program of intensive language study that introduces students to the cultural, socio-political, and economic issues of life in German-speaking countries.
Are you interested in languages and literature, political science, international politics and economics, business, philosophy, history, natural sciences, music, art, or environmental studies? Thinking about majoring in the new international studies program? For each of these fields, familiarity with the German language and culture is an important asset. In the past, a few Middlebury College valedictorians held a German major.
The Department of German's interactive, communicative approach to language teaching provides an exciting multimedia classroom setting in which to absorb the culture of one of Europe's leading economic and political powers. It is also a fresh approach to the understanding of one of the world's most productive and, at the same time, most controversial cultures. It is geared toward students with interests in the above areas that want to gain a well-grounded international perspective.