This paper is available for the academic year 2024-25.
New students in Michaelmas 2024: please see our advice on how to prepare for GE1.
GE1 introduces students to the many different aspects of German culture taught at Cambridge: literature of all periods as well as film, linguistics, history and thought. No prior knowledge of any of these areas is presumed. Each module covers the topic “from scratch” and provides students with the relevant analytical skills. Having completed GE1, students will have a better sense of what German studies at Cambridge entail and what courses to take at Part IB (the second year) and Part II (the fourth year).
The paper consists of the following six modules:
Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Herzog Ernst
Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg: Geistliche Sonnette, Lieder und Gedichte
Andreas Gryphius: Gedichte
The poems by Greiffenberg and Gryphius can be found here.
Modern Literature I: the 18th and 19th Centuries
Goethe, Faust. Erster Teil
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: Die Judenbuche
Modern Literature II and Film
Kafka: Die Verwandlung
Akın, Auf der anderen Seite
History: Imperial Germany 1871-1918 – Authoritarianism and Modernism
Bismarck’s Chancellorship
The Reign of Wilhelm II
Antimodernism
Modernism
Linguistics: Language and Lexicography
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsches Wörterbuch
Konrad Duden: Deutsche Rechtschreibung
Thought: Marx and Nietzsche
Marx and Engels: Das Kommunistiche Manifest
Nietzsche: Jenseits von Gut und Böse
Students should familiarise themselves with the materials for all six GE1 modules so that they can make informed choices, as they move through the year, about the four topics on which they would like to be supervised. Before they come to Cambridge, they should concentrate on the texts set for those modules for which lectures are scheduled in the first term (Michaelmas).
Four lectures are devoted to each of the six modules. It is expected that students attend all lectures and that they have supervisions on four of the six modules. In most cases, students will be seen by more than one supervisor over the course of their studies for this paper. Supervisions will be arranged by Directors of Studies and, wherever possible, will be timetabled to follow the relevant lectures.
Assessment is by end of year examination. There are questions on all six modules and candidates can answer any three questions.
Andrew Webber (Michaelmas Term) | |
Sarah Colvin (Lent and Easter Term) |
