View from Ira Allen Chapel

The Department of German and Russian at UVM offers a small but excellent graduate program in German leading to the M.A. degree. It is one of the few German M.A. programs available in the Northeastern United States, and generally draws students from Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York, but attracts students from other areas as well.

All major areas of German literature and philology from the Middle Ages to the present are covered, and we are particularly strong in the Age of Goethe and Romanticism, the 19th and 20th centuries, German Folklore, Proverbs, Exile Literature, and Austrian Literature. A thesis is required for completion of the M.A. degree in German.

  • Minimum Degree Requirements

    The German M.A. degree requires thirty hours of graduate level courses including GERM 281, GERM 282; additional courses in German, which may include two advanced courses in a related field (six hours), and thesis research (six to twelve hours). GERM 281 and GERM 282 are the Senior/Graduate Seminars. Some recent topics include: "Heinrich von Kleist" (Fall 2010), "Goethe and World Literature" (Spring 2010), "Friedrich Schiller" (Fall 2009), "German Short Story" (Spring 2009), "German Folklore" (Fall 2008), "Rings and Precious Things" (Spring 2008), "German War Literature" (Fall 2007), and "Proverbs" (Spring 2007).

    For further information in the UVM Catalogue, please see Requirements for the M.A. in German.

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Past German M.A. Thesis Topics

A thesis, written in German or in English, is required for completion of the M.A. degree in German. This short selection of past theses illustrate the wide range of scholarship in the department:
  • "Mit Haut und Haar." Sprichwoertliches in der Lyrik Gisela Steineckerts, by Annegret Schmitt-Johnson (2008).
  • From Pumpkin to Hazelnut: A Comparative Study of the "Cinderella" Fairy Tale, by Lucie Srostlik (2007).
  • "Andre Laender, andre Sprachen". Die Exilerfarhrung Jimmy Bergs im Spiegel seiner sprichwoertlichen Kabarett-Dichtung," by Gabriele Wurmitzer (2004).
  • "Mir ist zuweilen so als ob das Herz in mir zerbracht": Leben und Werk Mascha Kalekos im Spiegel ihrer sprichwoertlichen Dichtung, by Andreas Nolte (2003).
  • "Auch von Sprichwoertern lebt der Mensch": Der Gebrauch von biblischen Sprichwoertern in der modernen deutschsprachigen Lyrik," by Alena D'Aran (2001).
  • "Des volkes Stimme ist auch eine Stimme": Zur Sprichwoertlichkeit in Carl Zuckmayers Dramen "Der Froehliche Weinberg," "Der Hauptmann von Koepenick", und "Des Teufels General", by Ilka Maria Pritchard (2001).