Eligibility The program is open to all students, no German required. The two courses offered, GRMN 3560 and GRMN 3570, satisfy the Franklin College Arts, Philosophy, and Religion requirement. GRMN 3560 also counts towards the General Education Core Area IV requirement. Program Focus Welcome to a unique learning experience in BERLIN! The Film, Art, and Cultural History in Berlin program is a faculty-led three-week, 6 credits summer study abroad program that combines classroom instruction with excursions, place-based learning activities, and media-based project work. The program and its classes are designed to provide students interested in film, visual culture, German history, and German culture overall an opportunity to engage in an enriching and immersive educational experience in one of the world's most vibrant cities. Berlin is a unique site that allows us to map the turbulent changes of the German 20th century and how these transformations were reflected in literature, film, photography, the fine Arts, music, and popular culture, to name only a few domains. The city has seen no less than six incarnations of the German nation state during this period: The Kaiserreich (1871-1918), the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), the Third Reich (1933-1945), the period of the German division with the GDR in the East and the FRG in the West (1949-1990), and reunified Germany (1990 onward). During the short-lived democracy of the Weimar Republic, the city was a center of cultural creativity that brought forth cultural classics in film, literature, and the arts, but also of economic crises and political extremism. As the capital of the Third Reich, Berlin saw the enactment of the Nazi's racist and genocidal policies that brought forth WWII and the Holocaust. The Allied occupation of Berlin (1945-1949) prior to the founding of the two Germanies GDR and FRG, saw the Berlin Airlift and the escalating Cold War. During the German division, the city was the "Cold War capital" of the world, during which two political systems, liberal democracy in the West and state Socialism in the East, each mapped out their own version of German society. Lastly, the events of the German reunification (1989-1990) led once again to a radical transformation of Berlin: its reinstallation as German capital and the political and symbolical center of the "Berlin Republic." The two classes offered during the program, GRMN 3570 Berlin: the Capital in the 20th Century (Dr. Jan Uelzmann) and GRMN 3560 German Film and Visual Culture in Berlin (Dr. Berna Gueneli) each connect the turbulent background of the 20th century as it played out in Berlin to the cultural output of the periods. For example, students will study how Berlin became the center of a flourishing film industry during the "Golden Twenties" that brought forth such masterpieces as Fritz Lang's "Metropolis." They will trace how Hitler's planned architectural transformation of Third Reich Berlin was connected to the deportation of Berlin's Jewish population and genocidal policies that ended in the Holocaust. Students will learn about re-emerging German live in the rubble of destroyed Berlin and the literary aesthetic of Rubble literature and rubble film (Trümmerliteratur, Trümmerfilm). Students will study everyday life in Berlin during the German division, and why international artists such as David Bowie felt attracted to the enclave of West Berlin during the 1980s. During the courses' focus on Berlin during the reunification and beyond, students will explore how Berlin served as a laboratory for a new all-German identity. Monuments such as the Holocaust Memorial evidence an ongoing effort at coming to terms with the Third Reich past, while the ambitious renovation and construction projects in the governmental district and Potsdamer Platz put Berlin on a future-directed trajectory as the capital of the "Berlin Republic." Both classes will take place on the campus of prestigious Humboldt University in the historic heart of Berlin, in the historic building of the Humboldt Graduate School, Luisenstr. 63, just a 5 min walk from the Reichstag building. An integral part of the program, both courses contain a group cultural project during which students will engage with a Berlin cultural landmark in the form of a short video documentary (Berlin: The Capital in the 20th Century) and a photography essay (German Film and Visual Culture in Berlin). The project will ask students to conduct research on site in Berlin, engage and interview Berliners and tourists, and work collaboratively and creatively with different media. Structure Students will attend class sessions for the two courses in the mornings. The afternoons will be devoted to excursions that engage the class topics from the mornings and offer opportunities for active engagement with the material, a real-world exploration of the morning's topics, and project work. Accommodation Students will live in micro-apartments (the brand new Circus Living) in Berlin-Friedrichshain, one of Berlin's most dynamic neighborhoods in the former East, within walking distance to the famous East Side Gallery. https://circusliving.de/ Classes will take place in the classical building of the prestigious Humboldt University Graduate School (Luisenstraße), in the center of Berlin. https://www.hu-berlin.de/en/about/campus/campus-nord/sides/luisenstrasse-56-building-1 List of Excursions* Karl Marx Allee Downtown Berlin Walking Tour: Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden, Alexanderplatz, Holocaust Memorial, Potsdamer Platz German Historic Museum New National Gallery Bauhaus Archive and Museum Potsdam (Cecilienhof and Sans Souci Palaces, Potsdam Film Museum, Babelsberg Studios) Jewish Museum Photography Museum Airlift Museum Reichstag building Hohenschönhausen Stasi Prison Memorial Berlin Wall Memorial Deutsche Kinemathek Graffiti and Street Art Walking Tour Sinema Transtopia *These excursions may be subject to change. Program Dates July 7-July 26, 2025 Application Deadline Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, so apply early! Final application deadline: February 15, 2025. For full consideration for The Halle Foundation Berlin Scholarship, apply by December 20, 2024. Program Fee $2,300 (current estimate, incl. program deposit) Scholarships Through the generous support of The Halle Foundation, we are able to offer 20 The Halle Foundation Berlin Scholarships ($2,500 each) to accepted students who submit and pay the program deposit ($300) by December 20 of 2025. General Information on this scholarship: The Halle Foundation Berlin Scholarship is granted on a rolling basis, with a max. of up to 20 awards. To be eligible for the scholarship there are the following criteria:1. You have to have committed and paid the program deposit of $300. 2. You must submit a one-page essay about why you would like to participate in the Berlin program and what insights you hope to gain while you are in Berlin. The essay will be submitted to Dr. Gueneli and Dr. Uelzmann in an email (Berna.Gueneli@uga.edu and Jan.Uelzmann@uga.edu). 3. In the same email, you have to indicate your willingness to participate in a Berlin Program-related event at the Halle Foundation Estate in Atlanta in the Fall, following the completion of the program. Further scholarship are available at: https://studyawaynews.uga.edu/funding/
