German Studies
Study the German language, linguistics, literature, culture, and thought.
What You'll Study
The Department of German Studies offers a variety of programs in German language and linguistics, literature, culture, and thought. Courses are open to majors and all interested students. Candidates are accepted for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy.
By carefully planning their programs, students may fulfill the B.A. requirements for a double major in German Studies and another subject. A coterminal program is offered for the B.A. and M.A. degrees in German Studies. Doctoral students may elect Ph.D. minors in other disciplines, such as Comparative Literature, Humanities, Linguistics, and Modern Thought and Literature.
Special collections and facilities at Stanford offer possibilities for extensive research in German studies and related fields pertaining to Central Europe. Facilities include the Stanford University Libraries and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. Special collections include the Hildebrand Collection (texts and early editions from the 16th to the 19th century), the Austrian Collection (with emphasis on source material of the time of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, the Napoleonic wars, and the Revolution of 1848), and the Stanford Collection of German, Austrian, and Swiss Culture. New collections emphasize culture and cultural politics in the former German Democratic Republic. The Hoover Institution has a unique collection of historical and political documents pertaining to Germany and Central Europe from 1870 to the present. The department also has its own reference library. Extensive use is made of the language lab in the Undergraduate Library as well as the department’s own audio-visual equipment, films, tapes, and slides.
The department offers students the opportunity to pursue coursework at all levels in the languages, cultures, literature, and societies of German-language traditions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Whether interested in German literature, the influence of German philosophy on other fields in the humanities, or the character of German society and politics, students find a broad range of courses covering language acquisition and refinement, literary history and criticism, cultural history and theory, history of thought, continental philosophy, and linguistics.
Degrees Offered
- BA
- Minor
- Honors
- Coterm
More Information
Learn more about German Studies in the Stanford Bulletin
- German Studies
- Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
- School of Humanities & Sciences
- Explore IntroSems related to this major
Exploratory Courses
GERMAN 97
10 Poems That Will Change Your Life
GERMAN 146N
Happily Ever After? German Fairy Tales and Their Afterlives
GERMAN 160
Making the Middle Ages: Objects and Meaning Then and Now
GERMAN 175
CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People