The next activity: Research cultures and centuries

Update on Monday, noon: I am off the hook since all cases settled in court. No need for jury members! We will have class Wednesday, and I expect work on WWI, the film, and group results will keep us busy.

The next activity, as described below, is next after we have concluded WWI.

I have no news on my jury duty yet. The courthouse asked to call again on Monday at noon. I have a low call in number, so I am likely to be called - they tell me. So I am preparing the next topic for our class: a research activity. Read on...

 Wed. Oct 3
Since our discussion of the World War, book and movie, will happen when we'll meet again, here is the next activity to keep your involved in case we do not meet on Wednesday. I am posting this now so that you can select a topic and start researching.

Select one topic, one century, write in your name and start researching with the two other students who picked the same topic and time.

Create a presentation on your blog. Have at least ten slides or screens of information. Do not copy text. Write text. Citations are allowed. Name your sources at the end of the post. Have a handout for 50 people where you show the main points on a single sheet of paper.

Sign up sheet
The class research project on eight topics relating to German culture. 1. Each student picks a topic and a century. Fill in your name. Do not erase names already present, please. One topic, one century for now. 2. Research the topic in your group. Create a blog post with a 6-7 minute class presentation on your topic. Each student shows the same presentation in their blogs. 3. Present in class, have a handout for 50 participants, show no less than ten slides in your presentation. topics
  
 18th century 19th century 20th century
Industry and business group of three students group of three students group of three students
1 Jacob Mackedanz Jessica Hall jon wegeleben
2 Robert Backes Will Wacholz  Industry and business
3 tom louiselle Scott Reid David Colbert
Fine Arts, Music, Theater, Dance group of three students group of three students group of three students
1 Mackenzie Branch John Beuning Cody Kvamme
2 Amanda Goedeke Joe Albers Tess Hamre Fine Arts, Music, Theater, Dance
3 Brittany Hofstater Marissa Navarro Haitam Aldaij
Literature group of three students group of three students group of three students Tom Louiselle - find a diff. group.
1  Matt Mosolf Jake Mueller
2  Kelly Jones  Literature
3  A.J. Ray mustafa al abbad
Media (from books, newspapers to electronic) group of three students group of three students group of three students
1  Mike Neslund Maythem Alabbad
2  Dillon Anderson Ry Hammond Media (from books, newspapers to electronic)
3  Sapphire A Ashley Ogaja
Role of women group of three students group of three students group of three students
1 "
Ryan Anderley" 
2 Jason Janzen   Role of women
3 Kari Anderson 
Politics in the center of Europe (German lands and bordering states) group of three students group of three students group of three students
1  
2    Politics in the center of Europe (German lands and bordering states)
3  
Health  (from medicines to pharmaceutical developments) group of three students group of three students group of three students
1 Nicole Nelson John De-Souza James Kreiman
2 Cara Lamers Matt Kinzer Kayla Rardin
3 Matt Bliss   Patrick  Biernat Brendan Pucel Health  (from medicines to pharmaceutical developments)
 Kindra Pfaff 
Sports and Health movements group of three students group of three students group of three students
1  Xianzhi Yu
2  Kristian Helgeson  Sports and Health movements
3  Jialun Shen

 

 

Groups for All quiet...fill in your name behind the chapter

Be sure to work from the book. Not from online notes. For comparison, the following chapters link to a commercial review service (Sparkle Notes). Do not copy their text, please. Just review it. Only your own text is acceptable for this task. No imports from anywhere allowed.
Task1 for next week, Oct. 3 : With the help of group members, distill the essence of the chapter you are signed up for. Put that text on your blog. 350-500 words.
Task 2 for Oct. 3: Pick one of the five main characters and describe his role throughout the novel. 350-500 words in a second blog entry.

Chapter One
---Joseph Albers
---John Beuning
---Mari Navarro

Chapter Two
---Xianzhi Yu
---Jialun Shen
---Ashley Ogaja
---Ry Hammond
Chapter Three
--- Sapphire A
--- Mike Neslund
---Hannah Olson

Chapter Four
---Jon Wegeleben
--- Brittany Hofstater
--maythem alabbad-

Chapter Five
-Robert b--
--Jake m-
---Jessica Hall
...Haitam Aldaij

Chapter Six
--- Kelly Jones
--- Matt Mosolf
---tom louiselle

Chapter Seven
---Will Wacholz
---Tess Hamre
---Cody Kvamme
....mustafa al abbad
Chapter Eight
---Patrick Biernat
---John De
---Matthew K
---David Colbert

Chapter Nine
---Matthew Bliss
---Nicole nelson
--- Cara Lamers
--Brendan Pucel

Chapter Ten
---Dillon Anderson
---A.J. Ray
---Kristian Helgeson

Chapter Eleven
---kari anderson
---ryan anderley
---Scott Reid
---Jason Janzen
---Jacob Anderson

Chapter Twelve
---Amanda Goedeke
---James Kreiman
---Mackenzie Branch
---Jake Mueller

Day 5 All quiet in the Western Front, Story line and Homework

Summary of the book's plot:
"The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, a soldier who—urged on by his school teacher—joins the German army shortly after the start of World War I. Bäumer arrives at the Western Front with his friends and schoolmates (Tjaden, Müller, Kropp and a number of other characters). There they meet Stanislaus Katczinsky, an older soldier, nicknamed Kat, who becomes Paul's mentor. While fighting at the front, Bäumer and his comrades have to engage in frequent battles and endure the dangerous and often dirty conditions of warfare.
At the very beginning of the book Erich Maria Remarque says "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war." The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery, but rather gives a view of the conditions in which the soldiers find themselves. The monotony between battles, the constant threat of artillery fire and bombardments, the struggle to find food, the lack of training of young recruits (meaning lower chances of survival), and the overarching role of random chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers are described in detail.
The battles fought here have no names and seem to have little overall significance, except for the impending possibility of injury or death for Bäumer and his comrades. Only pitifully small pieces of land are gained, about the size of a football field, which are often lost again later. Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally drained and shaken. "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."
Paul's visit on leave to his home highlights the cost of the war on his psyche. The town has not changed since he went off to war; however, he finds that he does "not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world." He feels disconnected from most of the townspeople. His father asks him "stupid and distressing" questions about his war experiences, not understanding "that a man cannot talk of such things." An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and advancing to Paris, while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture.
Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender, yet restrained relationship. The night before he is to return from leave, he stays up with her, exchanging small expressions of love and concern for each other. He thinks to himself, "Ah! Mother, Mother! How can it be that I must part from you? Here I sit and there you are lying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it." In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave."
Paul feels glad to be reunited with his comrades. Soon after, he volunteers to go on a patrol and kills a man for the first time in hand-to-hand combat. He watches the man die, in pain for hours. He feels remorse and asks forgiveness from the man's corpse. He is devastated and later confesses to Kat and Albert, who try to comfort him and reassure him that it is only part of the war. They are then sent on what Paul calls a "good job." They must guard a village that is being shelled too heavily. The men enjoy themselves but while evacuating the villagers, Paul and Albert are wounded.
They recuperate in a Catholic hospital and Paul returns to active duty.
By now, the war is nearing its end and the German Army is retreating. In despair, Paul watches as his friends fall one by one. It is the death of Kat that eventually makes Paul careless about living. In the final chapter, he comments that peace is coming soon, but he does not see the future as bright and shining with hope. Paul feels that he has no aims left in life and that their generation will be different and misunderstood. When he finally dies at the end of the novel, the situation report from the frontline states, "All is Quiet on the Western Front," symbolizing the cheapness of human life in war.

[edit] Themes

One of the major themes of the novel is the difficulty of soldiers to revert to civilian life after having experienced extreme combat situations. Remarque comments in the preface that "[All Quiet on the Western Front] will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war." This internal destruction can be found as early as the first chapter as Paul comments that, although all the boys are young, their youth has left them.
When on leave from the front, Paul feels strongly isolated from his family and removed from daily life. Another topic concerns how soldiers' lives are put at risk by their commanding officers who seem unaware of the trauma of their charges.

Main characters

Cover of first English language edition. The design is based upon a German war bonds poster by Fritz Erler.

Paul Bäumer [...] 

Albert Kropp  [...]

Haie Westhus  [...]

Fredrich Müller [...]

Stanislaus Katczinsky [...]"

Source: Wkipedia, All quiet on the Western Front.

Homework for next week, Oct. 2: Find two or three students with whom you form a group. The book has twelve chapters. Pick a chapter and write your own review of it. Coordinate your writing with the other two members. See me about groups and chapters. I may assign a different one to cover the book.
Secondly, pick one of the main characters. I copied their names from Wikipedia. Describe the character in a new blog post, tell what the character did, felt, wanted. Does that character display or represent any German cultural traits?
Soooo... two blog entries, group work, ...lots to do.

Interludium Dance and Fine Arts

German culture from the artist's perspective

Wim Wender's tribute to Pina Bausch. How can a dancer represent German culture since WWII?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXpFD7gi8R0 Note: Be sure to skip any advertisements that utube places in front of the video. Just "SKIP"-- the advertisements are not part of the class curriculum.

Soundtrack of the movie in full length.

What role does rhythm play for people and their cultures? 

What are they used for? 

Who uses them? 

For what purpose?

Is there a rhythm of life?

Wim Wenders speaks about the movie, Pina's sudden death.

Leni Riefenstahl, The victory of belief.

And who the hell is Wim Wenders? The official site. The wikipedia view.
Other famous German film directors. Rosa von Praunheim, Leni Riefenstahl, Werner Herzog. Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, to name a few.

How does Pina differ from the

Ride of the Valkyries from DIE WALKÜRE

Richard Wagner wrote four operas. Best known is ... this. And Adolf Hitler loved it. He made Richard Wagner a German art hero. Everything else that didn't make the nazi canon or list of acceptable art was stigmatized "entartete Kunst" deviant art. Wagner is a difficult case. But he died 50 years before Nazis ever took power who turned his musical leitmotifs into emotional terror and propaganda.

http://www.research-in-germany.de/fraunhofer

Music inventions are not limited to musical scores The Fraunhofer Institute made music accessible and widely used: the case of digital formats and concurrent industrial developments along with musical and art creations. (Company website)

The written word

"The most respected German-language novelists of ... [the first half of the 20th] century are Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and Robert Musil. Close to them in terms of status are Hermann Broch, Alfred Döblin, Hermann Hesse, Joseph Roth, Robert Walser and Stefan Zweig.
Other German-language novelists writing in the first half of the 20th century include (in alphabetical order): Lou Andreas-Salomé, Vicki Baum, Elias Canetti, Veza Canetti, Hans Carossa, Hedwig Courths-Mahler, Hans Fallada, Robert Flinker, Anna Gmeyner, Oskar Maria Graf, Georg Hermann, Hans Henny Jahnn, Franz Jung, Ernst Jünger, Erich Kästner, Irmgard Keun, Heinrich Mann, Klaus Mann, Erik Reger, Erich Maria Remarque, Franziska zu Reventlow, Luise Rinser, Arthur Schnitzler, Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Gabriele Tergit, Clara Viebig, Jakob Wassermann, Franz Werfel, Arnold Zweig. Also worth mentioning is the Viennese short prose writer Peter Altenberg." (*source: https://sites.google.com/site/germanliterature/20th-century, viewed Sept. 20, 2012)

5

Homework for Sept. 27

Please read "All quiet on the Western Front" and make sure you have all past assignments on your blog (State presentations, Party presentations, Work report; it is better to post late than not to post at all. There is a cumulative blog grade that also depends on completeness)

(Photo source: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AL-QUIET-WESTERN-FRONT-1929-1ST-ED-STATED-1ST-PRINTING-E-REMARQUE-VG-/370581771399)

clip 1 clip 2 clip 3  BBC

Day 4 Parties

In reviewing the blogs, I found most students had not written and posted the report on the work on German parties. A entered a grade of "F" for this assignment (counts like a test in classes with paper used). All students had to post the group work of their party group. Several are not up. Fix that by this evening, please. Some people have empty blogs. You may want to talk to me asap. If I asked you to add sources to pictures and text importer from the www, and you did not do so, we are faced with plagiarism. Check the student handbook for consequences, please.
I am looking forward to the presentations today. But there is a small twist afterwards... a mini debate of sorts.

Homework for Day 4- Sept. 19

Groups will meet and prepare presentations on German political parties. Each student will also write a blog post of 400-500 words on the topic: "My work on XYZ-party" in which you describe your study of the topic, which resources you used, how the group interacted, and what you are thinking of the party you studied and presented about. Be sure to use resources to validate your own arguments. As always, cite your sources.

Day 3 Länder presentations

We need to talk about the cultural differences in Germany's 16 States briefly, after we will have linked those students whose blogs did not connect properly to the class blog. Then student presentation will continue. In the last part of class, the new groups need to meet briefly to discuss ad manage next week's presentations on German parties.
Please do not forget to obtain a copy of "All quiet on the Western front" and read it by the end of this month. In three weeks, we will discuss characters, movie and novel and try to distill from the topic certain features that are based on German culture and "virtues".

 

(picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CongressVienna.jpg)

These students entered url data that does not connect to their blogs. Please see me next time to fix the url address.

 

http://desouzajohn10blogspot.com/

http://ge110f12goedekerg.blogspot.com/

http://ge110f12kvammeak.blogspot.com/

http://ge110f12tomjl.blogspot.com/

http://ge110f12tomjl.blogspot.com/

http://ge11of12mikedn.blogspot.com/

http://ge110flhannahmo.blogspot.com/

http://ge110ftbrendanmp.blogspot.com/

Homework for week 3: Presentations on Parties

The following groups should be ready to present week after next (Sept 19) to introduce the parties to us in class. Put your presentations on your blogs. All group members paste the same presentation.

		Anderson, Jacob A
		Colbert, David M
		Bliss, Matthew J
	CDU	Falade, Ekundayo B
		Janzen, Jason J
		Kvamme, Cody A
		Helgeson, Kristian R
		Hall, Jessica M
		Yu, Xianzhi
		Al Abbad, Maythem M
		Albright, Sapphire L
		Ray, Andrew J
	FDP	Wegeleben, Jonathan J
		Biernat, Patrick R
		Hammond, Ry J
		Kinzer, Matthew A
		De-Souza, John A
		Al Abbad, Mustafa M
		Goedeke, Amanda R
		Mueller, Jacob J
	SPD	Hamre, Tess K
		Louiselle, Thomas J
		Wacholz, William L
		Pfaff, Kindra K
		Branch, Mackenzie J
		Beuning, John A
		Backes, Robert L
	Green Party	Al Daaj, Abdullah D
		Albers, Joseph R
		Kreiman, James D
		Mueller, Jacob J
		Hofstater, Brittany M
		Navarro, Marissa J
		Shen, JiaLun
		Jones, Kelly J
		Mackedanz, Jacob J
	Pirates	Mosolf, Matthew J
		Nelson, Nicole L
		Pucel, Brendan M
		Rardin, Kayla A
		Aldaij, Haitam A
		Anderley, Ryan D
		Anderson, Kari M
		Anderson, Dillon R
	General overview of all German parties, present and past	Lamers, Cara R
		Neslund, Michael
		Ogaja, Ashley R
		Olson, Hannah M

German 110 f12 Day 2

All students will bring their blog url and link to the class blog in class.

We will conduct a brief assessment of what you know about German cultures and facts.

After a brief introduction to the Federal structure of Germany, groups will present. Groups need to verify that correct groupings are reflected on the class blog (which is currently not the case due to absences last week).

Students will begin to present the 16 German States. We will finish this task next week. Homework for next week: Review the political parties in Germany. Always peruse the Resources section in the right margin of this blog. 

(picture source: Wikipedia: States of Germany, screen dump from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_Germany)
  
New to class? Just registered? Not in a group? Talk to me, please. We have one State without student presentation: Baden-Württemberg. Create a google ID, create your own blog, post all work for this class on your blog. Buy the book and read it by the end of September (All quiet on the Western Front by E. M. Remarque)