Das Sommer- und Winterschulprogramm der Berliner Universitäten und Hochschulen: Kultur und Wissenschaft entdecken

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.

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Registration deadline: December 6, 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: December 6, 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: December 6, 2021

The course will introduce the basics of the European Union (EU) and describe and explain the processes of widening and deepening of this unique political entity, drawing on some relevant theorising. It will provide an overview of European Union history, and will familiarise students with the EU’s evolution in economic and political terms as well as of its institutional structure and key policies up until today.

The focus of the course will be internally on the state of EU integration and its challenges - the need for reform and the growing difficulty to actually agree upon and implement reforms in the face of rising populism, authoritarianism and nationalism. Externally, the course explores the international role of the EU with its emphasis on multilateralism, including its self-declared role as a leader in the fight against climate change. Special emphasis will be placed on Europe’s current crises – the Euro crisis, the migration crisis, Brexit and the challenges resulting from the Corona pandemic that asymmetrically hit Europe.

The sessions consist of lectures, literature-based discussions and oral presentations from working groups. The course will include virtual visits and (upon availability) talks with experts from a number of institutions in Germany’s political center. Students will thus have the chance to discuss some of the topics with experts from political institutions and think tanks.

Student profile

The minimum age for participation in the FUBiS program is 18. In addition, participants should have studied at least one year at a university or college. A minimum grade point average of 2.8 (US grading system) or 2.3 (German marking system) is recommended.

The course is designed for students with different academic backgrounds and a general interest in Europe. The language of instruction is English. Language proficiency on an advanced Intermediate level is a prerequisite for participation.

Registration deadline December 6, 2021.

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.

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!

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Registration deadline: December 6, 2021