- Teacher: Christoph Schmidt
Daniel Schreiber was born in 1977 and is the author of the highly acclaimed and widely read essays »Sober« (Nüchtern, 2014) and »Home« (Zuhause, 2017) and »Alone« (Allein,2021). The writer and journalist lives in Berlin.
Eight years ago the book »Nüchtern« was published, which is about drinking alcohol and finding happiness. In this book the author tells his personal story and deals with the German attitude towards addiction and intoxication. For a long time, drinking was as natural a part of life as work. Sometimes the author wondered if he was about to cross a threshold, but most of the time the justification was as close at hand as the next glass of wine. Until at some point he realized that he was about to destroy his life and that he was looking for help.
His second book, »Zuhause«, is about the search for a place where (German) people want to live. The text also tells of his childhood in the GDR. The latest book »Alone« appeared in the Covid19 pandemic. Where do we belong What is our home at a time when fewer and fewer people feel meaningfully connected to the place where they were born? In his personal essay, Daniel Schreiber describes the turnaround in a collective feeling: Home is no longer a given, but a place that we long for and that we search for.
The third book, »Allein«, was published a year ago. In it, the author addresses the fact that at no time have so many people lived alone as now, and you can hardly feel how brutally a self-determined life can turn into loneliness. Can you even be happy alone? The author explores the tension between the desire for retreat and freedom and the tension between closeness, love and community. He also sheds light on the role friendships play in this life model.
Eight years ago the book »Nüchtern« was published, which is about drinking alcohol and finding happiness. In this book the author tells his personal story and deals with the German attitude towards addiction and intoxication. For a long time, drinking was as natural a part of life as work. Sometimes the author wondered if he was about to cross a threshold, but most of the time the justification was as close at hand as the next glass of wine. Until at some point he realized that he was about to destroy his life and that he was looking for help.
His second book, »Zuhause«, is about the search for a place where (German) people want to live. The text also tells of his childhood in the GDR. The latest book »Alone« appeared in the Covid19 pandemic. Where do we belong What is our home at a time when fewer and fewer people feel meaningfully connected to the place where they were born? In his personal essay, Daniel Schreiber describes the turnaround in a collective feeling: Home is no longer a given, but a place that we long for and that we search for.
The third book, »Allein«, was published a year ago. In it, the author addresses the fact that at no time have so many people lived alone as now, and you can hardly feel how brutally a self-determined life can turn into loneliness. Can you even be happy alone? The author explores the tension between the desire for retreat and freedom and the tension between closeness, love and community. He also sheds light on the role friendships play in this life model.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch
- Teacher: Tamar Abramov
- Teacher: Christoph Schmidt
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729-1781) is the most important poet of the German Enlightenment. With his dramas and his theoretical writings, which are primarily committed to the idea of tolerance, this enlightener has shown the development of theater an important path and has had a lasting impact on the public impact of literature. Lessing is the first German playwright whose work is still performed in theaters today without interruption.
In this seminar the three theater texts »Miss Sara Sampson« (1755), »Minna von Barnhelm« (1767) and »Emilia Galotti« (1772) are read and discussed. The M.A. course is expressly a reading course, which means that from week to week the texts in the German original language are read together and discussed in German. In addition, the participants receive information on the creation and reception in order to be able to prepare academic seminar papers.
In this seminar the three theater texts »Miss Sara Sampson« (1755), »Minna von Barnhelm« (1767) and »Emilia Galotti« (1772) are read and discussed. The M.A. course is expressly a reading course, which means that from week to week the texts in the German original language are read together and discussed in German. In addition, the participants receive information on the creation and reception in order to be able to prepare academic seminar papers.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch
The »«Passagen-Werk« is an unfinished, philosophical-literary project on which Walter Benjamin worked from 1927 to 1940. In this project he drafted a philosophy of history of the 19th century, expressly from the perspective of the 20th century, in which he combined historical materialism with theological moments. In doing so, he brought together various threads from his earlier works. The extensive collection in Walter Benjamin’s estate consists of two exposés (»Paris, the capital of the 19th century«) and several thousand thematically arranged notes, quotations and excerpts. This collection was first published in 1982 under the title »Passagen-Werk« as a part of the »Gesammelte Schriften« with well over a thousand pages. The »Passagen-Werk« is one of the most important fragments of German literature.
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was less a philosopher than a cultural reviewer and translator. His texts on an aesthetic that sees itself as social are received in the various disciplines, and their impact extends into the areas of literature and art, theory and journalism. Born in Berlin, after completing his studies and a failed habilitation, he lived again as a freelance writer in Berlin until he had to go into exile in Paris in 1933. After the occupation of France by the German National Socialists, he committed suicide on a failed escape in the Spanish border town of Portbou. This course commemorates both the 130th birthday of the author and the posthumous first publication of the »Passagen-Werk« over four decades.
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was less a philosopher than a cultural reviewer and translator. His texts on an aesthetic that sees itself as social are received in the various disciplines, and their impact extends into the areas of literature and art, theory and journalism. Born in Berlin, after completing his studies and a failed habilitation, he lived again as a freelance writer in Berlin until he had to go into exile in Paris in 1933. After the occupation of France by the German National Socialists, he committed suicide on a failed escape in the Spanish border town of Portbou. This course commemorates both the 130th birthday of the author and the posthumous first publication of the »Passagen-Werk« over four decades.
- Teacher: Michael Fisch