Wegweiser 2013 - Wellesley College

WellesleyegweiserIm Rückblick Issue Twenty, Spring 2013First of all, heartfelt congratulationson the many achievements of ourgraduating majors and minors, amongthem two honors students: Emily Bellwrote her thesis on the representation ofthe Stasi in books by authors from theGerman Democratic Republic, and YanAn Tan wrote her thesis on the constructionof identity in the works of writerswho are part of ethnic minorities inGermany.This year, we hosted a largegroup of writers from Germany whowere presenting their works under thetitle “Mein Deutsch” as part of a seriesorganized by the Literarisches ColloquiumBerlin and the Goethe Institute.They introduced us to new notions ofwriting in Germany, among them voicesof authors whose first language was notGerman. Another cultural event familiarizedour students with the work ofRichard Wagner, whose FliegenderHolländer students enjoyed at the BostonLyric Opera. Our Mellon Postdoc GesaFrömming made sure that our studentswould not arrive at this event unprepared.Next semester, Prof. Frömming will beoffering a course on the role music hasplayed in German culture, thus adding amost important dimension to our curriculum.We also welcomed a colleaguefrom the University of Vienna on campus:Magister Elisabeth Grabenweger spent aweek with us in the fall to research thetenure of Marianne Thalmann, a scholarwho taught in our department from1933 through 1953. After completingher research in the College’s archives,Magister Grabenweger delivered a talkon Thalmann’s career that traced heracademic path from the University ofVienna to Wellesley. Among the manyfindings of Magister Grabenwegerwas a letter written by Thomas Mannto former Wellesley College presidentHildred McAfee in 1938, expressinghis strong “sympathy with highereducation for women.”Between the end of exam periodand graduation, the department invitedour majors on a trip to New York City to .enjoy, among other cultural highlights, aproduction of Bert Brecht's famous play"Der kaukasische Kreidekreis" and toscout the city for some decent WürstchenWill they ever introduce Currywurst tothe States now that the New York Timeshas even written about them in itsfood section?Please let me note that ourcolleague Jens Kruse this yearcelebrated his 30th anniversary ofteaching at Wellesley! Prof. Krusefiled for the early retirement programat the beginning of this year whichmeans that he will be teaching areduced load over the course of thenext few years and which beginsanother transition for our department.Another change, this time on thepositive side, is the arrival of ourfirst exchange student from theFreie Universität Berlin, scheduledfor next academic year. We arelooking forward to welcomingAnna Winters who has1undergone a rigorous selection processat her university before being chosen tobe the first student from the FU as partof our Middlebury/Wellesley exchangeprogram. The participants of my German202 Wintersession course met with Annalast January in Berlin, where they enjoyedan intensive program not only of languageinstruction but also of visits to Berlin ’smany exciting museums, monuments, andtheaters.Again, “Auf Wiedersehen” und“Alles Gute” to all our accomplishedmajors and minors – best of luck for yourfuture endeavors! We hope you will jointhe many dedicated alumnae who havebeen following our newsletter and provid -ing us with news about their lives, post-Wellesley.Thomas NoldenChair of the DepartmentClass of 2013, German Majors & Minors: From Leftto Right: Back: Maia Fitzstevens, Lauren Woelfel,Carolyn Douglas, Jennifer Marble, Denisse Ruiz;Front: Alphina Kain, Jessica Park, Yan An Tan,Emily BellMissing: Alice Choe, Ran Wei, and Fanni Torok

Focus on FacultyGesa Frömming has completeda draft of her manuscript on music andmelancholy in the works of ChristophMartin Wieland and is currently waitingto hear back from publishers. She hasstarted to work on a new project, whichexamines how new prose forms developedby writers such as Botho Strauß,Alexander Kluge, and Peter Weiss in the1970s and 1980s reflect their engagementwith Critical Theory. In October, shepresented a paper at the annualconference of the German StudiesAssociation on the political implicationsof the German Enlightenment’s ideal ofa polite conversational “tone.” She willexplore this topic further in a paper onRahel Levin Varnhagen, and will presentat the Brechthaus in Berlin this June.She has also published an Englishtranslation of her earlier essay on imagesof African Americans in artworksproduced by leftist political activistsof the Weimar Republic and hascompleted an article on “Ennui” forthe Routledge Encylopedia of Modernism.In the fall, she enjoyed working withstudents who applied for Fulbright andDAAD programs in German andwas delighted to take a group of studentson a field trip to see Wagner’s“The Flying Dutchman” at the BostonLyric Opera at the end of the springsemester.Since her early leave in 2013,Anjeana Hans has been in Berlin withher family since December and willremain there until August. With revisionson her book project complete and themanuscript under consideration, she’sbeen doing research on her new projects.The first of these focuses on images ofAlumnae Aktuell*Colleen Corcoran ‘09 has been acceptedto the German and European Studiesprogram at Georgetown University.*Lucy Bergin ‘12 has spent the lastyear living in Boston and working forWellesley's Library and TechnologyDepartment as the Enterprise SolutionsIntern. She will be spending the summerworking at the Tanglewood MusicFestival as a representative for the BostonRoma in German films of the 1910s and1920s, examining the ways they constructthe ‘other’ and thereby contribute to thestaging of German national and culturalidentity. The second project examinesmore broadly works produced inGermany during the conversion fromsilent to sound film, attempting to tracethe ways in which this transition shapedgenres and narratives, as well as affectedthe sociocultural status of film. Workingin the film archives, she will spend thenext months examining industry journalsfrom the era and screening films that arenot available more widely. She is happyto be back in Germany, and they arealso enjoying the cultural offerings ofBerlin.Thomas Hansen, who has beenon leave this semester, has spent his timefinishing a project on Thomas Mann'snovella, Death in Venice. In 2012, he andhis wife Abby published the CentennialTranslation of this classic of Germanliterature, which first appeared in 1912.That book, which is a limited bibliophileedition of 140 copies, is available fromthis source: http://deathinvenice100.com/.However, the next step of theproject has involved producing adownloadable eBook. The translation hasbeen expanded with several new features:a chronology of Mann's life and works;bibliography; a new interpretive essay;plus countless annotations and imagesthat gloss particular passages. To see thetext, please visit:http://www.amazon.com/The-eNotated-Death-Venice-ebook/dp/B00BO0E7PO.In the fall semester of 2012,Jens Kruse was on sabbatical leave; inthe spring semester 2013, he taughtSymphony Orchestra. *Melissa Evans‘12 has spent this past year interning withthe League of Women Voters. Thissummer she’ll be working as a German-Teacher at the Concordia LanguageVillages before starting her masters at theDiplomatic Academy of Vienna next fall.*Jennifer Lee ‘12 is finishing her firstyear at the Harvard Graduate School ofDesign. After graduating, she participated2three courses: two sections of GER102: Beginning German II and thedepartmental seminar GER 389: Kafka’s1914. During his sabbatical, he workedon a book project related to the seminar:Kafka’s 1914 and published two moreeditions of Kafka stories designed forelectronic readers with eNotatedClassics(http://www.enotatedclassics.com/). Afterthe previously published editions of TheMetamorphosis and In the Penal Colony,the new stories are A Country Doctor andA Hunger Artist. These are availablethrough Amazon, B&N, and iBooks.Margaret Ward, EmeritaProfessor of German, spent eleven weeksin Europe last fall, five of them in Berlin,where she regularly saw Margie Nubbemeyer,one of her first students at Welles -ley. During the five days she was inVienna, she reconnected with CarolineGeiersbach, Sarah Teetor, and formerexchange student, Ana Znidar. Ward’slast book continues to have an “afterlife”including a Kindle version that came outin June. She has been speaking about it ina variety of venues this past year, fromthe University of North Carolina and theUniversity of Chicago, to a book club inColorado via Skype. If you are in thevicinity, she’ll be at the RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH on May 24. Formore info go to www.missingmila.comand its accompanying Facebook fan page.From Left to Right: Caroline Geiersbach‘03, Professor Ward, and Sarah Teetor ’04in a program in Germany called Internexchange, which is designed for studentsinterested in journalism, and she alsointerned at Deutsche Welle. *Jennifer“Faa” MacDonald ‘12 is currently ateaching assistant at two schools inBurgenland, Austria. She will complete her2013-14 Fulbright assignment in Vienna,Austria while also working on her master’sdegree.

Alumnae Aktuell (continued)*Jane Helchem ‘61 writes, “Ten yearsago a group of Wellesley alumnae living inGermany decided to organize aget-together for all of the known alumsliving in Germany. Our first meeting tookplace in Berlin in 2002 and attracted 25alums. Since then we have met for anannual weekend in various cities and townssomewhere in Germany (and once inAustria!). There are about 70 alums on ourmailing list; we are between the classes of1950 and 2010 and are thus between theages of 25 and 85! Many of the youngeralums are spending only a few years herein Germany for study and/or professionalreasons; most of the older alums aremarried to Germans and thus live herepermanently. We travel to the weekendlocation on Friday, meet for dinner thatevening, and usually all stay in the samehotel. On Saturday, we generally have awalking tour of the city where we areImpressions from AbroadChristine Chen ‘14 Living inLichterfelde on the southernmost edge ofBerlin has its benefits: this is one of theonly parts of Berlin that retains itspre-war character. The houses here have ahistorical charm that the Stadtzentrum ismissing.She reports, “Ignore the carsspeeding by and it is very easy to loseyourself in imaginings of this place inanother age. And yet that is the beauty andBesonderheit of Berlin: it is a city thatis constantly building and rebuilding. IfI've changed at one eighthof Berlin's rateover the past seven months, I'llconsider myself pretty fast-moving.”Elizabeth Silvers ‘14 Hallo fromGerman ClubGerman Club Members: From Left to Right:Back: Teresa Wisner, Katja Bego, EmilyBell, Sarah Pangburn; Front: Denisse Ruiz,Jeanne Galleemeeting, followed by lunch and then by avisit to a museum. On Saturday eveningthere is a festive dinner, and on Sundaymorning we usually have a tour of a morespecialized area related to the town.Around noon, people begin to leave. Thereis no requirement that we must followthis kind of program, of course, and wehave enjoyed some very interestingactivities, including direct contributions byalumnae, concerts, castle tours, and mealsin private homes. About 25 alumnaeusually attend, along with an increasingnumber of husbands and partners. Theweekend is organized by an alum livinglocally; she finds the hotel and restaurantsand plans the meals and the program.We have welcomed alumnae living inSwitzerland, France, Austria, and Belgium.Thus the best part of this experience isgetting to know a group of fascinatingtalented, and open-minded women of allFrom Left to Right: Elizabeth Silvers,Elisa Prebble, Sam BurkeBerlin! It's hard to believe I recentlyarrived here because it feels like time justflies by. If there's anything I've learned sofar, it is that it takes an open mind and asense of humor to make it through eachday in a foreign city.Despite this whirlwind, I am3-ages. Now we are looking forward toour next weekend, planned for Berlin inOctober, 2013.” (For more information,please refer to “Wellesley”, winter 2013issue at http://issuu.com/wellesley/docs/finalpdf_no_notes_winter13)*Suzanne Epstein ‘62 attended theOpen House during the 2012 ReunionWeekend. She exercises her German skillsregularly and introduced a group of her arthistory students to the illustrations in theCodex Manesse.Alumnae and their families with ProfessorHansen and Professor Ward at the OpenHouse during Runion Weekend, 2012.beginning to find my way around, andget a grasp on this exciting metropolis.So I may have lost myluggage, slipped on ice, taken theU Bahn in the wrong direction, andforgotten to bring my own bag to thesupermarket, but where else doespublic transportation arrive (read: ontime!) every 5 minutes? Where else isit possible to visit over 70 museums inone night? Where else is it possible tosee within an hour of travel castlesfrom hundreds of years ago, and thenin the other direction a wall of greathistorical importance? All of theseand so many more can be done onlyin Berlin.This year’s German Club has welcomedseveral new members. We started off theyear with our annual Oktoberfest at SlaterInternational House, where several peoplefeasted on traditional German food. Welater sponsored a trip to New York andvisited the German Consulate. GermanClub also sponsored a few academicevents during the year. Professor Hansengave two lectures, one on the history ofthe swastika and another on his eBook onThomas Mann’s Death in Venice. ProfessorKruse spoke on Martin Walser’sGoethe. And Professor Frömmingwas kind enough to invite GermanClub members to a brunch followedby a trip to the Boston Lyric Opera tosee The Flying Dutchman. Lookingback, this was a great year for GermanClub, and we thank all our membersand faculty for their support.Denisse Ruiz ‘13 & Emily Bell ’13German Club Co-Presidents

Department of GermanWellesley College106 Central StreetWellesley, MA 02481The Wellesley Wegweiser is a yearlypublication produced each spring by:The Department of GermanWellesley College106 Central StreetWellesley, MA 02481Phone: 781-283-2584Fax: 781-283-3652www.wellesley.edu/germanInquiries may bedirected to:Katie Sango-JacksonAdministrative Assistantksangoja@wellesley.eduJanuary-in-Berlin Students at Schloss Sanssouci in PotsdamCongratulations!The 2013 Natalie Wipplinger Prize:Emily Bell ‘13 and Yan An Tan ‘13The 2013 Vogel Falk Prize:Carolyn Douglas ‘13 and Milena Radoman ‘15The 2013 Ethel Folger Williams Sophomore Prize:Nicole Chui ‘15 and Madeline Thayer ‘15DAAD Young Ambassador Denisse Ruiz ‘134