About the Department
Why Germanic Studies?
Germanic Studies embraces the languages, history, society and culture of well over 100 million Europeans in a dozen countries. For ten centuries Germany itself has played a vital role at the crossroads of European history and culture: German is the language of Martin Luther, of Goethe, of Marx, of Freud, of Kafka; in the twentieth century, German society nurtured both Nazism and the largest and most effective ecology movement in Europe. The reunification of Germany in 1990 put it once again at the centre of the economic, political and cultural debate about Europe´s future, and, with the EU´s eastward expansion, the country is also geographically at the heart of the new Europe. Germanic Studies - the study of German and related languages - is, now more than ever, essential to an appreciation of Europe itself. At Sheffield, to an extent unequalled among British German Departments, our courses reflect this cultural breadth, with comprehensive coverage of the many topics which make up the study of German plus a range of programmes or options in other Germanic languages.
Why our Department?
The Department of Germanic Studies at Sheffield is well known as an excellent department, with an established reputation for quality, diversity and innovation in both research and teaching, and at the same time as a sociable and lively place to study. We are large by the standards of British German Departments, with a total of nine permanent academics (lecturers, senior lecturers and professors) working in the many areas of the subject, three full-time lectors, and numerous language and tutorial assistants and research associates. The Department is very favourably located in the middle of the University´s City campus.
The Department's view of German and Germanic Studies as an academic subject is a broad and inclusive one. Our programme aims to bring students to a very high level of expertise in the German language, both written and spoken, to give them a thorough grounding in German culture, society and modern history, and to enable them to pursue in-depth study of major areas of the subject, according to their developing tastes and interests. These areas can include German politics, history, both modern and pre-modern literature, film studies, philosophy, linguistics and the history of the language, among others.
Our Department is also unique in Great Britain in the range of Germanic Languages other than German that can be studied here. We offer courses in Dutch and Luxembourgish, which are available as options within Germanic Studies degrees. We also offer Dutch as a named component in two degree programmes: we are one of only three British universities where you can take a degree in Dutch. Such a mix of languages and cultures gives the Department a diverse and distinctive atmosphere, and produces a particularly stimulating context for modern language studies.
At Sheffield, you can take Germanic Studies as a Single Honours subject, as half of a Dual Honours degree in combination with around twenty other subjects, or you can study our languages as smaller components of degrees in other main-subject programmes. Whichever approach you choose, Sie sind bei uns herzlich willkommen!
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