Events

Train with lots of people waving out of partially closed windows. Many people on train platform waving.

30.September 1989 kurz vor sieben Uhr abends. Fast 4000Menschen drängen sich im Garten der Prager Botschaft. Sie allewarten auf die Nachricht von Hans Dietrich Genscher. Schließlicherscheint er auf dem Balkon. „Liebe Landsleute. Wir sind zu Ihnen gekommen, um Ihnenmitzuteilen, dass heute Ihre Ausreise…“ Der Rest seiner Rede wirdvon lautem Jubelgeschrei übertönt. Es ist der Beginn einer derbedeutendsten Ereignisse der deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte.Noch am gleichen Abend soll der erste Zug von Prag aus in die BRDfahren. Doch was dann bekannt wird, sorgt für Entsetzen: Die Zügesollen einen Umweg fahren. Sie müssen durch die DDR...

Prague 1989, September 30th. The West German Embassy in Prague finds itself the centre of the world's political stage. Forweeks, refugees from East Germany have been crowding the premises of the Palais Lobkowitz and the surrounding streets.Within days, the fenced embassy compound transformed itself into a vast refugee camp. Wrapped up in blankets and living intents, men and women, young and old, and whole families are waiting for the politicians to act. A few belongings, memories of their past and dreams of a better life in the West is all they bring along...

In German with English subtitles.

Scaffolding and men in shadow, in front of a very large EU flag

Beginning with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the last century saw the rise of Italian fascism and Soviet communism, the world economic crisis, and the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, leading to the horrors of World War II.

Be it the depictions of castles and seductive sirens along the Rhine River in the poetry and prose of Brentano, Eichendorff, and Heine, the paintings of artists like Runge and Friedrich, or the fairy tales told by the Brothers Grimm, the German Romantics created landscapes whose images continue to resonate in the popular imagination.

Two plays, one drink:

Azmeras Entdeckung tells the comedic tale about the legendary Ethiopian goatherd Kaldi, his “entirely fictional” goat, Azmera, and how they discovered the miraculous powers of coffee 850 years ago.

Poster: title Fuehrerbunker in red Fraktur script, image of keyhole with light streaming through

Canadian composer Andrew Ager’s new chamber opera “Führerbunker” is receiving its premiere at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener.

Photo of Daniela Wolff, the author of the German novel Kurzsturz

Daniela Wolff published her first novel, Kurzsturz (Shortfall), in 2014. A resident of Canada since 2010, she lives and writes in Waterloo Region.

Sound research in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) necessarily draws upon established second language acquisition (SLA) constructs and approaches in exploring learner-computer and learner-learner interaction. At the same time, CALL research has the potential to shape (and also complicate) aspects of SLA theory. Indeed, the digital medium affords CALL researchers certain advantages; however, it also presents a host of methodological challenges. Among these challenges, sufficiently tracking learner behavior seems to be critical.

This is the annual conference of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. Keynote Speakers are Prof. Dr. Beate Henn-Memmesheimer from Universität Mannheim and German filmmaker and artist Marc Bauder. You can read more about it over at their website.

A large crowd of people at Lichtgrenze, the art installation by Marc and Christopher Bauder

Marc Bauder will talk about how he and his brother, Christopher, conceived and executed a public art installation to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the

Medicine dropper with a drop of a homeopathic remedy coming out and going into a small, brown glass bottle.

Homeopathy is a controversial form of alternative medicine. Some consider it a miracle, others a sham.

But where did it all start?

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Movie Night: Zug in die Freiheit/Train to Freedom

100 Years Since WWI: Dictatorship and Democracy in an Age of Extremes

Recreating Nature: German Romantic Landscapes as Cultural Ecology

Coffee, My Beloved!

Two plays, one drink:

Führerbunker: An Experimental Chamber Opera by Andrew Ager

Daniela Wolff, Kurzsturz: Public Reading and Discussion (in German)

What Do Language Learners Do, Exactly?

Visual, Cultural and Literary Codes: Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies' Annual Conference

Lichtgrenze (The Berlin Wall as a Border of Light): A Talk by Creator Marc Bauder

The Birth of Homeopathy out of the Spirit of 1800: Medicine as Cultural History