For almost 30 years, the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the division of the city of Berlin, of Germany and of Europe during the era of the Cold War between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Consequently, the fall of the Wall in 1989 was a hugely symbolic turning point in world history.

But how can we explain the building of such a dividing monument? How can we account for its fall in 1989? And how does the Wall influence our lives today?

The course will provide answers to such questions via readings of texts from political science, sociology and history, in order to further investigate the ground on which the events between 1961 and 1989 took place.

Undergraduate students of all subjects with a strong interest in contemporary history, social sciences, politics, European studies. A motivational letter of about one page is required.

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

The minimum age requirement is 18 years.

This course aims to examine convergences, divergences, and parallel tracks, interrogating tensions evident between Jewish narrative within the culture of memory in Germany (Erinnerungskultur) and endeavours to represent migration today.

The focus will be on museum- and exhibit-oriented institutions, as well as working out an overview of a theoretical framework on the issues of the construction of "Self" and "Other".

It can stand alone as a course, be combined with another subject course but particularly, it can be combined with the course offered in Summer Session 1: Jewish Narratives in Germany - Exploring Memory Past and Present.

Undergraduate students of all subjects with an interest in interreligious and intercultural issues. A motivational letter of about one page is required.

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

The minimum age requirement is 18 years.

Multinational companies like Google or Apple self-evidently act on a global stage. But even small businesses participate in international trade today. The integration of national economies and the elimination of barriers of trade no longer allow a solely national view on this development. With the growing importance of international commerce, the need for an „International Economic Law“ arises. Numerous regulations and agreements concern international trade and investment, but the legal framework of international economy remains indefinite.

In this course common principles of International Economic Law will be examined by analysing leading decisions by international courts. Therefore a substantial part of the course will be dedicated to the discussion of cases and reading materials.

Advanced undergraduate law students and students with an academic background that qualifies them to participate in the course. A motivational letter (about one page in English) is required.

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

Participating students need to be at least 18 years old.

Deutsch:

Berlin ist am Puls der Zeit - und das nicht erst seit heute. Die Stadt und ihre Umgebung haben Künstler*innen schon immer angezogen und beeinflusst. Legendär sind die „goldenen“ zwanziger und dreißiger Jahre des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, in denen nicht nur die Stadt selbst viel Stoff für Romane, Musik, Theater und die Bildende Kunst lieferte, sondern auch all die Zufluchtsorte, die aus der hektischen Spannung hinaus in die innere Einkehr führten.

Im Seminar befassen wir uns mit einigen Schriftsteller*innen, deren Leben und Werk besonders mit Berlin, aber auch mit dem Abtauchen in die beschaulichen Kleinstadtidyllen verbunden sind. Wie wirkt sich dieser Kontrast auf ihr Schreiben aus? Und welche Schlüsse lassen sich eventuell  auf eigene kreative Prozesse und Tätigkeiten ziehen?

Im Seminar wird gelesen und geschrieben, diskutiert und geschaut, um Ihnen die Verbindung von Text/Stil und Atmosphäre näherzubringen.

English:

Berlin is a vibrant city – and has always been. The City and its surroundings have always attracted and influenced artists. The “Golden Twenties and Thirties” of the 20^th Century are legendary – not only the city provided inspiration and material for novels, music, theatre and fine arts, but also all the places of retreat that led from the external hectic pace to inner reflection.

The course is concerned with several writers, whose lives and work are closely connected to Berlin and the escape to the idylls of small towns. How did this contrast impact their writing process? What can we learn by that for our own creative processes?

In this course we will be reading and writing, as well as discussing and examining the relation between texts, style and atmosphere.

Students of all subjects (Undergraduate, Graduate and PhD-Candidates) with an interest in creative writing (German language), culture and literature.

The course is designed for everybody who is interested in literature, creative writing (German language)and exploring Berlin as well as its surroundings.

Participants in this course should share an interest in literature and life in Berlin, as well as a willingness to explore the own writing and joy in playing with the German language.

For participants who are learning German and for whom German is not the first language, a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required for the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class. A language level of C1 or C2 is recommended.

Mistakes in own texts are corrected but not discussed in class. They do not have any effect on the overall assessment of the participant’s performance. Of course, native speakers are also welcome.

The minimum age requirement is 18 years.

The ‘thousand year Reich’ that Hitler promised when he became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 lasted but 12 years. During this time, however, Hitler and his Nazi Party came to dominate European and even world affairs, terrorizing vast numbers of Germans, launching a devastating war, and orchestrating the murder of more than five million Jews. Yet Hitler and the Nazi Party gained the active support and involvement of most Germans. How was this possible?

This class focuses on Hitler’s Germany and it begins with the essential 19^th century background. How did political anti-Semitism grow there? What shaped the social and political life? Central to this session will be a discussion of the broad political currents and the popular literature that Hitler and many of his supporters read and absorbed.

Crucial to understanding the lure of Hitler and the Nazi Party was Germany’s experience in the First World War, a conflict that decimated a generation and destroyed Europe as it was known. Germany became a democratic state, but was torn by political divisions and dissatisfaction. In this climate of uncertainty and despair, Hitler and the Nazi Party grew from a small group on the radical fringe in Munich to a national force. How did this happen? Those traits of Hitler crucial to his success, particularly his charisma, will be defined and analyzed within the broader political context of Weimar political life.

In late January 1933 Hitler gained the long desired but elusive goal: he became chancellor of Germany, the leader of a coalition government. Much attention will be paid to how Hitler, the two other Nazis in his cabinet, and supporters on the streets were able to consolidate the control over the state and society within a matter of months. This came at the cost of political liberties, through the growing use of terror, oppression, and intimidation. Yet, Hitler gained supporters as he seemingly offered economic stability and a new unity to the German people. How the regime solidified its control over society and political life will be examined and discussed at length in this session.

A key element of Hitler’s rule was the concentration camp system, what came to be a vast chain of prisons and centers of oppression and death. How this developed will be examined and analyzed.

Hitler’s ambitions, the conquest of ‘living space’ in Eastern Europe and the annihilation of the Jews, motivated his foreign ambitions and led directly to World War II, the most destructive conflict in human history. A central element of the war was the Holocaust, the all-out program to destroy the Jews of Europe. The session will examine closely these developments, the nature of the war, how the Holocaust was implemented, and the role that terror played in sustaining Nazi rule. We will also discuss the measures taken against the handicapped, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma.

In Germany and later in occupied Europe opposition and resistance emerged and challenged Nazi rule. Opponents were motivated by a variety of reasons, some personal, some political, and these too will be discussed.

Lastly, the class will examine the end of the war, the so-called ‘zero hour’ in Germany, the destruction and collapse of Germany, and then how this nation has dealt with the legacy of Hitler and Nazi rule.

We will be visiting local museums, historical sites and locations that reveal the operations of Nazi rule. These visits are a key element of the class and the experience of studying in Berlin.

We welcome students from all disciplines who are interested in gaining an insight into the operations and dynamics of Nazi rule in Germany and its attempt to annihilate the Jews and to dominate the continent.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

Over the course of the Cold War, the city of Berlin was frequently at the centre of global tensions and a potential front line should the superpower rivalry descend into actual war. This course utilizes the city of Berlin as a laboratory in which to examine the origins, nature, and conclusion of the Cold War that defined international relations between 1945 and 1991. We analyze the Allied occupation of the city following the Nazi defeat, the Berlin blockade and airlift that helped solidify the divisions between East and West. Next, we will examine the workers’ uprising of 1953 that provoked a Soviet military response. The following sessions will deal with the emigration crisis of the late 1950s that led the Soviets to first threaten a military takeover of the city and eventually to construct the Berlin Wall. Finally, we will look at the fall of the wall and the subsequent reunification of Berlin and Germany.

Field trips to important Cold War sites will permit students to gain a deeper appreciation of how the Cold War changed Berlin, and how events in Berlin influenced the wider international struggle. In order to place the interests and goals of the superpowers in context, we will also discuss the ways in which the Cold War rivalry affected Europe as a whole, as well as Asia and Latin America. Attention will be given to the role of international organizations such as the United Nations in world affairs, and the changes brought about by the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In this way, we will examine the roots of contemporary crises. Students will gain an understanding of the recent past, which will help equip them to evaluate the current and emerging international order.

Everyone is welcome to this course. It is ideal for students who have background in modern international relations history and supplements courses on the world wars or global politics/history. However, the course is designed for those without such training who have an interest in international relations. Students planning careers in diplomacy, journalism, or academia will find this course especially beneficial.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

The course will introduce the basics of the European Union and describe and explain the processes of widening and deepening of this unique political entity. This will cover an overview of European Union history, its evolution in economic and political terms as well as of its institutional structure up to today.

Internal politics and policies, for example the decision-making process, the balance of power, identity and democratic questions in this new system of governance will be discussed. Likewise in the realm of external affairs, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, relations with neighbors and with developing countries will be our concern. Particularly important aspects include the discussion on future expansion as well as the consequences of the financial crisis and the Lisbon Treaty. If students express specific interests in other topics or case studies sessions can be adjusted.

The morning sessions consist of lectures, literature based discussions and oral presentations from working groups. After lunch the course will visit various institutions in Germany`s political center. Students will have the chance to discuss the topics from the morning sessions with international experts from political institutions, embassies and think tanks.

Students from different countries, academic levels and backgrounds, who are generally interested in European integration will benefit from each other in an intercultural and interdisciplinary learning process.

Former classes consisted of regular students and practitioners such as civil servants, communication experts, young politicians and even members of parliaments.

The course does not require special knowledge about European politics, law, history or culture, but participants should be interested in more than just their field of specialization.

In class participation, especially in the discussions with experts, is essential for the course success and plays an important role in grading.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

This seminar will examine the changes Germany has undergone from the foundation of the German Empire in 1871 up to the present day: Empire, World War I, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the division of Germany after World War II, reunification in 1989. The course will focus primarily on the perceptions of political, cultural, and social processes, as formulated by the writers, filmmakers, and artists of the respective periods. This will be illustrated using, among others, the example of Berlin, which is without a doubt the focal point of historical events in Germany.

Through selected texts, films, and works of art, we will examine, for example, the following questions: what possibilities of self-assertion did the individual have in a world characterized by the patriotic frenzy of empire? How did technological progress and urbanization influence culture in the 1920s? How did literature and film react to the Nazi’s rise to power and subsequent dictatorship? How did Germany’s situation in the Cold War impact its artistic production? How was literature and art affected by the reunification?

In addition, excursions to museums and historical locations will give students the opportunity to discover the current and historical development of the country firsthand, in order to strengthen and deepen their understanding and knowledge thereof. 

The seminar is aimed at students from different disciplines who are interested in literature, film, art, and the history of Germany. Apart from the language requirements below, participants are not required to have any special knowledge.

Language ability: at least intermediate German (level B2); Short description of B2-level language ability: Can understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics; in your own field also including more technical topics; should be able to spontaneously interact with native speakers fluently and without stress; can produce a clear, detailed text on a wide range of topics, and explain a position in a topical discussion, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

Philosophy has constituted a central element in the emergence of modern German culture. In the late 18^th century, German philosophy participated in the broader European Enlightenment culture, which was in turn connected to the development of modern empirical science. Under the impression of the historical changes brought about by the French Revolution and by the ‘Industrial Revolution’ in Great Britain, a special constellation of German philosophy emerged at the end of the 18^th century, which has deeply left its mark on subsequent philosophical thinking far beyond Germany.

This philosophy course addresses the historical reality of this ‘German moment of philosophy’ in two subsequent phases: In the first part, we follow the emergence and full deployment of German philosophy from its Kantian beginnings to Hegel’s grand but fragile synthesis, trying to understand its richness as well as its fragility. In a second part, we discuss the later renewal of German philosophy in the late 19^th century and its historical tragedy in the 20^th century. This will include a discussion of the new beginnings of philosophy since the mid-19^th century, from Marx, and Nietzsche, via Frege to Husserl and Wittgenstein, who have been reacting to the scientific and political revolutions of the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Martin Heidegger as an established pro-Nazi philosopher and Max Horkheimer as the leading philosopher of the “Frankfurt School” driven into exile are studied as philosophers immersed into the Night of the 20^th century.

Finally, post-World War II developments in philosophy (as exemplified by Jürgen Habermas) will be looked at as pathways out of the self-destructive turn the ‘German moment of philosophy’ in Germany had taken in the first decades of the 20^th century, and as passages into an emerging world philosophy.

The course will be based upon contemporary attempts at rethinking a global philosophical perspective. The focus is on the tension between the Enlightenment heritage of a universalizing human philosophy and a national culture project, as well as on the tension between classicist rationalism and romantic emotionalism in its construction as a series of philosophical projects. From the perspective of a German version of the dialectics of the Enlightenment, the German philosophers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries will be studied in context - combining the reading of key texts with a reconstruction of their historical contexts and their interaction.

This course is of interest for students from all disciplines and levels of study with an interest in Philosophy.

Students should be able to speak and read English at the upper intermediate level (B2) or higher. Some experience with reading philosophical texts will be helpful.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

This course explores European art and architecture from the 15^th to the 20^th century with a particular focus on urban centers like Florence, Rome, Venice, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Berlin. The aim is to analyze how the visual arts contributed through the centuries to shape local identities as well as European cultural traditions common to different countries.

The course will present iconic moments of the history of the arts in Europe by drawing a special attention to episodes of cultural exchanges and hybridization that arose from travelling artworks as well as from artists’ travels. From the role of artists like Raphael and Michelangelo in 16^th-century papal Rome to the rise of genre painting in the Flanders and the Dutch Republic of the Golden Age, from the ‘painters of modern life’ in 19^th-century Paris to the German Avant-garde of the 1920s, we will analyze the artworks and their authors in relation to the different historical contexts and the places of their creation. Recurrent will be the focus on the complex interplay between artists and patrons, between local traditions, individual creativity and the broader social, political and cultural contexts in which artworks and buildings were produced.

Students will gain understanding of the main art movements and relevant artists from the Renaissance to the postwar period as well as the basic concepts and terminology of art history. Visits to the outstanding collections of Berlin museums will allow the participants to study original artifacts and to learn how to look closely at works of art.

The course addresses students of any subject.An elementary knowledge of European history is welcome but not necessary.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

The course is part of a Multi-City Program in cooperation with Utrecht Summer School and the Dutch Art Institute in Florence.

The course will introduce Berlin’s outstanding art collections, with their wide range of masterpieces from late medieval times to the present day. We shall focus throughout on the particular circumstances that shaped the production and reception of German art, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During this long period, the formation of a German nation state and the problematic notion of a German national identity became intimately connected to the question of a German style and artistic ‘expression’. A special focus will be given to the "Art of the two Germanys" between 1945 and 1989. We shall explore Germany’s vibrant art history by focusing on works by artists like Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer, Caspar David Friedrich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Adolph Menzel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer.

Virtual field trips include the following museums and galleries in Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, the Gemäldegalerie, the Museum of Photography, the Brücke Museum, the Nationalgalleries, and the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum.

In principle, the course is open to all students regardless of their field of study, but primarily it addresses art history students. An elementary knowledge of art and art history is advantageous, but not obligatory.

Together with Utrecht Summer School, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the Dutch Art Institute in Florence, FUBiS offers two multi-city courses:

History of Art: European Highlights

In collaboration with the Dutch Art Institute in Florence and Utrecht Summer School, FUBiS organizes a multi-city course track on the history of art in Europe. Students may choose to attend the full “History of Art” track (Florence – Utrecht – Berlin), the combination track “A Thousand Years of Art in Northern Europe” (Utrecht – Berlin) or the stand-alone course “Art in Germany from the Middle Ages to the 20^th Century” in Berlin.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

The course is part of a Multi-City Program in cooperation with Utrecht Summer School and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome.

This course provides an overview of the political, socio-economic, and cultural developments that shaped Europe in the long 20th century. Many deeply impacting developments occurred over the course of the 20th century: Two World Wars were fought, the birth of the European Union and the fall of Communism, just to name a few. Being such a crucial city in Europe’s history in the 20th century, Berlin is the most logical location for this course. Special emphasis will also be given to Germany's role in the middle of the continent and to the historical origins of the European Union and its present state. The city of Berlin, with all its tangible historical remains, will be dealt with as a city of former crisis with great promises for a better future.

Towards the end of this survey course on twentieth century Europe, we will try to identify the democratic values that have shaped the rebirth of Europe and discuss the challenges with which present-day Europe is faced. We will end the course with a reflection on Europe's place in the global, multi-polar world of the 21st century.

Several virtual excursions will be organised in which you will get to know some key historic sites in the city or get the chance to interact with expert guest speakers.

The course is open to undergraduate students from different fields of study with an interest in culture, society and politics.

The course requires a minimum language proficiency of B2 in English. A general background in the social sciences may help, but no specific expertise is required.

Together with Utrecht Summer School, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the Dutch Art Institute in Florence, FUBiS offers two multi-city courses:

The Making of Europe

In collaboration with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome and Utrecht Summer School, FUBiS organizes a multi-city course track on the history of Europe from antiquity to the present. Students may choose to attend the full “The Making of Europe” track (Rome – Utrecht – Berlin), the combination track “The Rise of Modern Europe” (Utrecht – Berlin) or the stand-alone course “The Long 20th Century” in Berlin.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

This course will try to understand the hierarchies of power in the world regions and how they translate into regional orders of different degrees of stability. As an introductory course in comparative area studies, it will look at the geography of power, its ideas and concepts, issue areas and institutions, as well as the instruments and resources that define the character of a system of regional governance – all from the perspective of a European Germany.

We will look at the different forms hegemony can take. The world regions differ widely in how they conceive, design and enforce regional governance. Regional powers play an important role in this structure, as they dispose of outsized power resources and enjoy some degree of influence, both within regional organizations and outside of it: They choose to be the good or the bad guys of regional governance. The way they deal with secondary powers in their neighborhood is the most important predictor of regional stability.

As regional powers are also interesting (but difficult) partners for international cooperation, this begs the question how powers such as Germany can influence the regional behavior of what it calls “Gestaltungsmächte“ („shaping powers”) from outside their world regions.

Applying the German concept of “partnership”, the course will identify and analyze the various forms of issue area alliances used with regional powers (e.g. Brazil or Russia) and regional organizations (e.g. the African Union), what kind of challenges they face – and, ultimately, what the world has to gain from it.

Undergraduate students of all relevant subjects with a strong interest in the course topic. A letter of motivation is required (about one page in English).

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

Participants must be at least 18 years old.

Defined by both the post-World War II Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and global conflict since 9/11, the transatlantic relationship now stands under new and unique strains. This course aims to explore the contemporary relationship between the US and its European partners—in and outside the EU and NATO. This relationship has frayed in the almost 20 years of the new century and seems especially challenged under the US leadership and foreign policy goals of the Trump Administration. European domestic policy also contributes to the complexity of the relationship, and especially policies of America’s vital ally Germany.

This course aims to clarify continuities and changes in the transatlantic relationship. First, what is the history of US involvement in Europe?  What theories and practical necessities background the relationship? How are these concerns increasingly challenged by factors such as globalism, populism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism? Perhaps most importantly, how do political and cultural changes in the US and Europe contribute to our understanding of the relationship going forward.

Undergraduate students of all relevant subjects with a strong interest in the course topic. A motivational letter of about one page is required.

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

The minimum age requirement is 18 years.

Museums are keepers of our culture memory. Collecting, preserving and exhibiting are the main tasks museums stand for. Museums focus different subjects and face historical and cultural differences in various ways. What is worth collecting, or how are objects labeled, in what way are they displayed? These are essential questions museums pose today.

The course wants to look at how different museums in Berlin answer these questions. Viewing historical and cultural heritage within the context of a collection brings up the issue of how objects are (re-)animated to tell a story within an exhibition. How are exhibitions made? What are significant tools curators use to amplify their thesis? What does hands on mean? How are objects animated, what stories do they tell and how do they respond to questions of gender or race?

Undergraduate students of all subjects with a strong interest in cultural studies, history, memory culture, and museums. A motivational letter of about one page is required.

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

Participating students need to be at least 18 years old.

This course examines the protection regime pertaining to refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and stateless persons. It gives special attention to the evolving set of legal norms, institutions, and procedures that have emerged from the international community’s resolve to protect refugees and other forced migrants.

The course adopts two complementary methodologies: seminars and case studies combined with presentations by the students. The seminars begin with an introduction to the international human rights and the asylum regimes, and with a review of the relevant concepts and definitions. It then continues with a historical perspective of the pre-United Nations initiatives to protect refugees and introduces the normative ethics and politics of refugee protection. That is followed by an analysis of both the legal and institutional pillars of the refugee regime, i.e. of the refugee definitions captured in various international instruments and of the protection granted by the UNHCR, respectively. The last subjects to be covered by the seminars are the normative and institutional arrangements put in place for the protection of IDPs and stateless persons.

The seminars are complemented by a ‘hands-on’ methodology, namely a major case study and presentations by the students both on the state of refugee protection in their countries of origin/residence and on current significant situations (i.a. Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela, European asylum crisis, Mediterranean situation).

Advanced undergraduate law students and students with an academic background that qualifies them to participate in the course. A motivational letter (about one page in English) is required.

This course is taught in English, including readings in English. For the understanding of the texts and the discussions in class a language level B2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is required.

The minimum age requirement is 18 years and you need to be enrolled at an university.

In the Startup Crash Course, you will learn how to develop a start-up idea into a successful business model and how to a win a startup pitch. As for today, 99% of new businesses fail. We, the creators of this course, think that the main reasons are some myths around the startup scene, which lead to wrong expectations and crippled instruments. The main goal of this course is to increase the success rate of startups. The course offers knowledge on how to start a company and push it to success.

It will have three main parts: the structured approach, hands-on experimentation and feedback. The structured approach is given through lectures and case studies, which serve as a compass. The hands-on experiment consists of individual and group work that makes you try all the new concepts and implement them to your business idea. Feedback comes from interaction with successful entrepreneurs and startup scene players.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer & Winter University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use their

real name as Zoom account name)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: July 19th - July 23rd, 2021. Flexible, 10 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: July 26th - August 13th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1-3 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

This course will focus on using Python for Data Science. You will learn to use the tools needed to analyze, understand and gain new insights from data in Python. We will begin with the very basics of Python and end with utilizing powerful libraries such as Numpy, Pandas and Matplotlib. The course will also give compact insights to Machine Learning by realizing simple algorithms with Python.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer & Winter University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Basic programming knowledge is also required for this course. Students should be able to write and run small programs in the language of their choice. Students should also have basic knowledge in linear algebra and statistics/probability theory and know what loops, conditionals, methods/functions, libraries, vectors, matrices, gradient and probability distributions are.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: July 19th - July 23rd, 2021. Flexible, 10 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: July 26th - August 13th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1-3 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

Participants of this course will design a space mission in an interdisciplinary group. They group will choose their own mission idea to conduct a feasibility study. Each participant is responsible for one aspect of the mission but must work intensely with all other participants for to be successful. The goal is to prepare and present a full scenario and spacecraft configuration of the space mission. The supervising space engineers guide the participants through the process. They introduce the fundamentals of space technologies in live lectures and train the participants in tools to make the necessary calculations, simulations and trade-offs.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: July 19th - July 23rd, 2021. Flexible, 10 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: July 26th - August 13th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1-3 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

In this course, participants will learn the basic elements of the Python programming language as well as the application of useful libraries for scientific tasks. It is aimed at (future) engineers and scientists that want to use Python for the processing and visualization of data as well as physical modelling.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Participants should have basic mathematical and scientific understanding (linear algebra, basic physics). Some programming experience (no matter what language) is of advantage, but not a necessity.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: July 19th - July 23rd, 2021. Flexible, 10 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: July 26th - August 13th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1-3 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

This course is an introductory course for all interested in learning about extended, augmented, and mixed reality. Besides the theoretical overview, participants will learn how to do the first basic setup for extended reality (XR) applications and address user experience and user testing in XR applications. In the end, participants will be able to evaluate their developed XR application and know about possible future improvements. 

The course addresses the following topics:

· What is extended, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality?

· What tools are used to develop MR applications, and how can they be set up?

· Deployment of the app on the participants' phones/tablets (depending on device capabilities).

· Introduction to programming for extended reality with Unity (scene setup, interactions). 

· What is User Experience (UX), what is UX design?

· UX Design and important influencing factors (human/context/system).

· What is user testing, why is it needed, and what method can be used for testing?

· Perform a usability test and use the gathered result during the development

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Beneficial additional skills: Basic programming knowledge is beneficial for this course. The ability to write and run small programs in the language of their choice (e.g., C#). Basic understanding of mobile builds (Xcode / ADB).

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device :

Laptop, PC which can meet Unity installation requirements

Mobile Phone capable of AR applications (iOS 11.0 or later and an iOS device with an A9 or later processor, Android 7.0 or later and access to the Google Play Store)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on a desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use their real name as the zoom account name)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

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Extended Reality: Design and Development

Summer University Online: July 26th - August 13th, 2021

5 ECTS credit points, max. 20 participants

Registration Deadline: June 27th, 2021

© Shutterstock

Overview

This course is an introductory course for all interested in learning about extended, augmented, and mixed reality. Besides the theoretical overview, participants will learn how to do the first basic setup for extended reality (XR) applications and address user experience and user testing in XR applications. In the end, participants will be able to evaluate their developed XR application and know about possible future improvements. 

The course addresses the following topics:

· What is extended, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality?

· What tools are used to develop MR applications, and how can they be set up?

· Deployment of the app on the participants' phones/tablets (depending on device capabilities).

· Introduction to programming for extended reality with Unity (scene setup, interactions). 

· What is User Experience (UX), what is UX design?

· UX Design and important influencing factors (human/context/system).

· What is user testing, why is it needed, and what method can be used for testing?

· Perform a usability test and use the gathered result during the development

Learning Goals & Syllabus

Learning Goals:

The course aims to

• Explain what extended reality is, the history of how and why it was developed, and the potential future use of it 
• Define user experience, and show benefits of the connection with extended reality
• Teach how to develop a first extended reality game with Unity
• Deployment of the app on the phones/tablets of the participants (depending on device capabilities).
• From creating use case design, scenarios, prototyping to developing to learning to create a good user experience of XR apps
• Learn about the user test and how to analyze/ incorporate the results into a next app version

Course Structure:

Week 0: Theory (Reading week) The preparation week is focused on building foundations. Students will learn about extended reality in general, the difference between AR, MR, VR, and where these technologies are and can be used.  

Week 1: Set-up and Coding
In the first week students will develop their own first extended reality app in Unity. This step will include scene setup, tracking, interaction, etc. At the end of the first week, students will create a simple app in the needed development environment. 

Week 2: User Experience Design

In the second week students will learn about User Experience and influence factors such as context, human, and system factors. After the week, students will be able to utilize the knowledge in their developed apps and future projects.

Week 3: User Testing

In the third week students will learn about theories of user testing and why this is needed. The collected feedback from the users will be analyzed and presented in a final presentation.

Reading week: July 19th - July 23rd, 2021. Flexible, 10 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: July 26th - August 13th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1-3 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

In this course you learn first the basic knowledge of computer programming and then how to write computer programs using the programming language Java. There will be some assignments which will give you more understanding of the programming concepts.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: July 19th - July 23rd, 2021. Flexible, 10 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: July 26th - August 13th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1-3 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

Design thinking is a powerful holistic process that focuses on people and their needs and experiences. The process is iterative and flexible, emphasizing the collaboration between innovators and users. The design thinking aims to shift the paradigm from the innovation centered on technology and economy towards the one on human needs and experiences.

In the course, the students will learn and develop the essential skills behind design thinking. The course will enable the students to empathize with people, identify their needs, and systematically ideate, prototype, and test ideas. Through a series of practical and accumulative exercises, the students will create a design-thinking project.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

This program is a beginners’ Python course where participants will gain a full understanding of Python programming and some useful Python modules mainly for data processing.

The course covers two parts: Python programming and  advanced Python modules. In the first part, you will learn about Python programming including data types, control structures (if-else, for-loop, while) and basic algorithms, file operations, code-reuse (function, class, module), and program debugging. In the second part, you will learn to use  some most common and popular Python modules for data processing: NumPy, Pandas for data analysis; Matplotlib, Seaborn for data visualization; Requests, Beautiful Soup for crawling.

This course will also include Python for scientific calculation (using module SciPy), and some basic machine learning methods achieved when learning basic algorithms, e.g. k-means clustering, random forest.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer & Winter University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Participants in this course do not require any previous knowledge of python, however it is helpful if they have some basic programming knowledge.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

Sustainable Development Goals were set by UN to prevent environmental and social meltdowns. This course is aimed at enabling financially sustainable impact entrepreneurs.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

Cities around the world face rapid changes in their transportation systems with the advances in ICTs. Recent trends include on-demand and shared mobility-modes and automation in public and private transportation systems; these new solutions impact transport industry, infrastructures management as well as political agenda. Focusing on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), new “Smart Mobility” system and real-time network management have been developed as potential solutions to mitigate congestion issues and improve network efficiency.

This course will bring a general overview about sustainable and smart transportation in the future smart cities in terms of i) industry trends, business models, technical and urban design aspects. Based on different European case studies especially in Germany, this program participants will get to know innovative methods to deal with Smart cities current and future solutions.

The course combines theoretical and practical learning materials for transportation modelling and simulation techniques, with a focus on Smart Mobility and ITS solutions and real-world applications.

Participants will review the most well-known traffic simulation models, learn about demand forecasting methods, business, social and political issues and related analytical techniques.

Moreover, students will gain insight into the concept of the smart mobilities and how their business models could grow by analyzing case studies and companies.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer & Winter University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Basic knowledge of the fundamentals of mathematics and statistics are essential.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use their

real name as Zoom account name)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

Biomechanics, as a growing field of engineering, has many applications in the health and sport sectors. This broad field of study includes the design of artificial implants, the development of human tissues in the lab, the measurement of human movement and the detection and treatment of pathological conditions, the understanding of the performance of our muscles and how to employ it in sport, the diagnosis of injuries, the imaging of biological tissues and the detection of their pathological state, etc.

In this course, the fundamental principles of biomechanics and their application to real life situations will be covered including: basic understanding of the application of mechanical principles in biology, understanding of anatomical and biomechanical terminology, application of biomechanical principles to human movement, basic understanding of the mechanical properties of biological tissues and the techniques used to determine them, and more recent advanced topics such as mechanics of cells, tissue imaging and tissue engineering.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer & Winter University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Also, participants should have completed courses in engineering mechanics and materials science and know the Matlab software.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

This is a discussion-based course dealing with the effects of technology on individuals, society and nature. It focuses on what could be done to create a more responsible technology process that addresses the needs of all stakeholders and at the same time minimizes the risks and harms of its implementation.  The course promotes a deep understanding of social and ecological responsibility by using a variety of alternative teaching methods. Participants will challenge the conundrum of sustainability, as a discipline, being either ignored or solely focused on technological solutions.  The course promotes interactive learning through group discussions and decision-making in order to establish a co-responsibility of the direction and learning outcomes. Students will be able to deal with complex social, political and economic interdependencies by considering different values and interests within a global perspective and their own culture.  Through several communication techniques, the class exercises encourage students to identify and map key aspects of the problems rather than just trying to solve them. This method responds to specific user needs in order to cooperatively discuss the role of technologies which are socially useful, locally adapted, durable and reparable.  This course acknowledges current Green Economy trends, and the UN Rio+20 debate, which show how there is a strong demand for technological innovations as a remedy for ecological destruction and as a pathway to poverty eradication.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

This course introduces to the emerging topic of Circular Economy and allows students to design their own ‘circular prototypes’. With the effects of climate change starting to surface more rigorously, moving away from a linear economy becomes ever more important. Therefore, the focus will be on urban resource flows such as water, energy, materials, food, and waste because the way in which we manage the resources consumed and produced in cities is critical for the future development path. This online course will give participants an opportunity to rediscover their own city by making material flows visible and understanding relevant infrastructures as well as socio-economic processes. The central question is: how can we live more sustainably by introducing circular urban systems?

We first offer an introduction to Circular Economy out of the perspective of different fields such as built environment, food & biomass, textile & fashion, and materials & products. In the second phase, students will apply the gained knowledge to prototype solutions with their own city as a case study. The goal is to get a profound understanding of the Circular Economy concept and to create ideas for circular solutions at either the household, product or system scale.

You will learn the most relevant theory behind Circular Economy, you will get an overview of a wide range of examples, you will get insights into current practices and learn how to transform them and finally, the students will be introduced to the lecturer’s research. The course is taught online only and will use a range of techniques such as webinars and online workshops including group work, live lectures, case studies, guided design as well as live chats and discussions. The course is open to students with different backgrounds ranging from design and engineering to social science.

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

• Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

• Stable internet connection

• Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use

their real name as Zoom account name)

• Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Course Structure:

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.

The Berlin Summer University of the Arts offers designers and artists, musicians and performers, creative and cultural professionals a great selection of inspiring workshops covering all artistic disciplines and their intersections. The Berlin University of the Arts – one of the largest and most diverse art universities of Europe – would be happy to welcome you for a summer of inspiration.

From June to October, an international team of lecturers and teachers will introduce you to methods and discourses of contemporary art in a diverse and experimental way – both in online and in face-to-face events. You will have a great opportunity to bring your ideas to life, develop an artistic concept, and advance your skills and artistic language within the following categories:
 

Transition focuses on finding the experimental break with well-known art and design cultures.

Perception focuses on sensory perception and its documentation which together make up a large part of artistic practice.

Communication focuses on artistic exchange such as performative interactions, forms of visual communication, and spatial design.

Exploration stands for the exploration of unknown artistic territories, the daring experiment without disciplinary boundaries.

Participation artistically questions the forms of collectivity and seeks for artistic exploration of social and political issues.

The admission requirements vary from course to course. Please check the course page you are interested in for further details.

FUBiS offers semi-intensive German language courses on up to five different levels of proficiency - ranging from absolute beginner courses for students with no previous knowledge of German to courses for advanced language learners who have successfully completed the intermediate level of German.

Semi-intensive German language courses meet on three days a week. On four class days during the term you will go on a short course-related study trip and thus making use of the vast historic, cultural, and political institutions and resources Berlin has to offer.

It is possible to combine a semi-intensive German language course with a subject course.

For a detailed description of the different course levels and the various course combination possibilities, please click here.

None

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

This course is about Berlin, and the story of its tumultuous and epoch defining twentieth century. We examine this history through various lenses: the biographies of individuals, the words of writers who bore witness to the vertiginous social, political and physical changes the city underwent, and buildings and monuments whose physical construction, destruction and reconstruction reflected the ideological turmoil and conflict of twentieth century Berlin.

Famous Berliners we will meet include the murdered Communist leader Rosa Luxemburg, the artist Käthe Kollwitz, the actress Marlene Dietrich, the Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, the adopted Berliner David Bowie and the famous East German dissident musician Wolf Biermann. The contextualized stories of these individuals will offer us unique perspectives politically, artistically and socially into the tumult and struggle that marked their times in the city. These figures occupy a range of different position(s) as Berliners, as radicals, as artists of resistance to or collaboration with Nazism, and Communism, as drifters and exiles whose stories reflect Berlin’s unique position in the twentieth century as ‘no man’s land, frontier, a city adrift in the sands of Central Europe.’

In a similar way, we will examine the words of writers who bore witness to the extremism and societal upheaval that marked twentieth century Berlin. From the witnessing of Roth and Isherwood to life in Weimar and Nazi Berlin, to the social and political commentary by Christa Wolf on the moral struggles of life lived on different sides of the Berlin Wall, we will assess their writings in their historical contexts. We will assess their words as evocations of Berlin, but also as potential or overt acts of resistance to the extremism they lived under, that attempted to maintain a solidarity with the idea of Berlin as a place of artistic and social freedom and permissiveness.

Finally, we will discover the story of places in Berlin whose physical building, destruction and rebuilding can be situated in the wider systems of ideology, power and social relations that so cataclysmically defined the physical landscape of Berlin after 1933. In this, we will focus on the story of Potsdamer Platz, the Palace of the People and as an opposite postscript to Berlin’s twentieth century, the Holocaust Memorial in Mitte.

This course does not seek to provide a ‘grand narrative’ of Berlin’s twentieth century history. Instead, it follows a thread that weaves through the history: the thread left behind by those who bore witness to their times. By tracing the stories of contemporary witnesses, left for us in books, films and songs, and in the physical construction of the city, we open up a human dimension that enriches and challenges our understanding of Berlin’s traumatic recent history.

Structured largely chronologically, the course will work with films and novels whilst building on a clear historiographical base provided in class seminars. The teaching will be augmented by virtual excursions into Berlin to trace the stories we encounter and class discussions will form the basis for a seminar paper that students will be required to submit at the end of the course. This history course approaches the story of Berlin through the reflections and refractions of individual humans’ lives who struggled upon the immense stage of a city at the very symbolic and literal heart of the catastrophes of the twentieth century.

This course is for university level students with open minds and incurable curiosity about the world around them.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

Everyone knows how to connect, how to learn, exchange, work and have fun online. But in a professional context we need to develop communication skills which allow to generate the quality of communication and collaboration needed for high quality results in remote teams. In this course, we will examine how cross-cultural competency fuels teamwork in international set-ups, specifically on the East-West intersection of cultural dimensions. The class will be a temporary learning system in which participants experience to be part of a dispersed team, analyze their own learning and experience of collaboration with fellow international students to create and present a collaborative work to their peers and the instructor. The class replicates the process of a dispersed professional team: building up trust, generating common knowledge, enhancing cross-cultural competency, creating inclusiveness and delivering shared results.

Students will be provided with theoretical knowledge and with experimental learning opportunities.

The impact of the pandemic on online interpersonal communication will also be taken into consideration. Over the course of the term, students will learn to name and apply relevant communication theories, develop an awareness of the impact of online communication, extract learnings from cross-cultural communication and inclusion contents, practice collaboration in an international team, and reflect on situations from their daily lives where this knowledge can be applied in the future.
Guest speakers are two executives with profound international exposure who will share their key learnings on inclusion, cross-culturality and remote leadership.

Students from different countries, academic levels and backgrounds who are interested in combining theoretical and experimental learning will benefit from the learning process within the group. Students should be interested in human interaction and teamwork.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

Modern capitalist market economy is an extremely powerful instrument to create wealth and to satisfy human demands – and to exploit, alienate and destroy the very societies it is supposed to serve. How can it be made moral?

Actually, there are quite a number of ways: for example through deliberate lawmaking, responsible research & development (e.g. technology assessment), through enlightened consumer choices and sustainable use of human and natural capital assets. But they often come at a high cost and involve more fundamental questions:

-        How can politicians and lawmakers regulate the market for the common good without suffocating it?

-        How can big corporations and tech companies continue to deliver innovative services without monopolizing the market and dominating their customers?

-        What does a fair distribution of income look like?

-        How do we assign value to natural and social goods (like clean air or low crime rates) and how do we measure sustainable welfare beyond traditional economic growth?

-        How can consumers harness their own power to make informed choices and act in accordance with their values?

-        Are digital business models based on artificial intelligence and machine learning threatening the autonomy of consumer choice?

-        What does corporate social responsibility look like in times of crisis?

These and other questions are not only of interest to economists and business people but are relevant to all economic agents (individuals, companies, state institutions, etc.).

To answer these questions, the course equips participants with key ethical approaches to economic behavior (virtue ethics, religious teachings, deontology, utilitarianism, master morality, neo-liberalism), approaches which have been or still are dominating ethical discourses on economic behavior.

These ethical approaches and ideas range from Ancient Greek philosophy to modern economic theory (Friedman, Ostrom, and Game Theory). Since religions, philosophies and social theories are major sources of ethical conduct, the course covers a wide array of these, including teachings of the Catholic Church fathers, ideas from European modern period philosophy (Kant, Mill, Nietzsche) and from modern critical sociology (Veblen, Weber, Adorno, Marcuse).

As a major learning outcome, participants develop ethical frames of reference which allow them to identify and tackle ethical dilemmas posed by today’s economy. Particularly, they will learn do adopt strategies that avoid moral hazards and self-harming or self-defeating behavior. Thus, they will be able to act ethically conscious in real life situations, be it…

-        as decision-makers in firms and investment companies allocating capital, workforce and bonuses,

-        as scientific researchers launching technologies that impact human life and the environment,

-        as customers rewarding sustainable or punishing unsustainable business models, production methods or supply chains or

-        as lawmakers or leaders of NGOs setting legal and ethical standards and fighting collusion, corruption, fraud, exploitation, overproduction & -consumption, wastefulness, obsolescence, extinction, free-riding or other forms of cost externalizing.

Participants’ learning outcomes will be put to test in a hands-on way:

- when we do case studies on contemporary topics in business ethics,

- when we conduct online expert interviews on corporate compliance, digital business models and the ethics of artificial intelligence and

- when we play (and have fun with) a CSR (corporate social responsibility) online simulation game.

Below the line, participants will learn to analyze, interpret and transform economic behavior – first and foremost their own!

First year of bachelor’s degree or higher (preferably but not necessarily in a humanities or social sciences discipline or in law or economic studies).

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

Europe encompasses the world’s largest and most complicated market. Recent events, particularly those following the ongoing economic crisis on the continent, raise profound questions about the future of Europe. This course will focus on present and future business issues facing the entire continent. Under this focus, we will examine the following questions: Should a “European” management style be developed instead of the national practices that frequently characterize companies originating in different European nations? How and under what circumstances should the European Union expand to Turkey, Ukraine and other countries in the East? What has been the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon, in effect since 2009, on European economic, political and social issues? In order to provide essential background and context for these issues, we will also review key events in modern European History.

In class, we will utilize a variety of approaches, including small-group study, lectures, and case-study analysis, to develop a comprehensive understanding of European business.On virtual excursions to different districts of Berlin, we will study how European and German history have influenced the economic development of this magnificent international capital and we will investigate the impact Berlin has in turn had on European business management. The course will also feature guest speakers on different topics in business and society in the European context.

Students interested in how companies manage their businesses as the dynamic European economy continues its transformation from national- to European-level markets and spheres of interaction. The course also examines macro-level social, historical, and economic factors and their contribution to the contemporary European business environment.

Registration deadline: June 19, 2021

Experience Berlin in the summer digitally and learn German at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. This course is specifically designed for those who are seeking instruction in the German language and who would love to get a glimpse of Germany's capital.

The course focuses on the development of communicative competence in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, grammar and writing.
According to self-assessment and “Sprachpass”, the participants are placed in groups of different language levels. For the best outcome to support the students' progress, different methods are used according to the level and topics covered in class. According to the level of the participants, there might be a focus on certain exercises, in-class discussions and activities.

The respective schedule and content strongly depend on different aspects such as the course book and reading materials, the background of the students and personal interests in terms of topics.

This course is specifically designed for those who are primarily seeking instruction in the German language. It is for undergraduate, graduate students as well as Ph.D. candidates who are interested in a semi-intensive language course which can be combined with a subject course.

Students without previous knowledge of German can participate in the course as well as students of German from elementary level (A1/ A2), intermediate level (B1/ B2) and advanced level (C1/C2).

Participants must be at least 18 years old.

Placement in language courses:

Preliminary allocation to a certain language level is based on information provided during registration (language self-assessment, questionnaire) and a placement test, which is done online before the course starts or on the first day of the course in written or oral form.

The online project Urban Spaces explores the identity of place through drawing. The course focuses on experiencing and analysing urban open spaces through analogue hand drawing. This project will run as a collaboration between Linescapes and the Open Space Collective, TU Berlin.

The participants will develop their creative, practical and professional skills through visual analysis and the process of drawing:

• Comprehensive spatial understanding of the urban fabric
• Basic and advanced hand drawing techniques
• Visual communication tools such as perspective, isometry, diagram, and others
• Knowledge of visual analytical methods
• Understanding the identity of place

Participants of the TU Berlin Summer & Winter University must meet the following requirements: (i) B2 level English, or equivalent and (ii) at least one year of university experience. Working professionals are also welcome to take part in the program.

The willingness to work in an international team is a precondition. Students are required to exchange their experiences and results with others in the group.

No pre-existing knowledge of hand-drawing is required to take part in the course. Enthusiasm for hand-drawing and learning a new skill is welcome.

Technical Requirements

We will ask participants to fulfill the following technical requirements:

Fully functional device (laptop, tablet, PC)

Stable internet connection

Software: Zoom (App installed on desktop or over browser. Participants are requested to use their real name as Zoom account name)

Miro Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (App installed on desktop or over browser: miro.com)

Recommended: external headset for better sound quality

Structure:

Week 1: Exploring Berlin/your home town through hand drawing (we explore Berlin whilst participants explore their home town)

Week 2: Site analysis and design through hand drawing

Reading week: August 9th - August 13th, 2021. Flexible, 5 hours preparatory work to be done on-demand.

Online course: August 16th – August 27th, 2021. Estimated session times are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 2 pm CET for live lectures and group sessions, etc.

Please note that exact session times will be confirmed once registrations have closed (sessions will be scheduled according to the time zones of the registered course participants).

Should you have any questions regarding the course timetable, please contact us at summeruniversity@tubs.de

Please note this is a full-time, intensive course. Weeks 1 and 2 will involve approximately 30 hours of workload.