Reading list for German Checklist of Actions for Oxbridge preparation – General ▪ Conduct research into Course and College Recommendations, using the Course and College Recommendation Booklet to help you. ▪ Respond and maintain email contact with your OMS Mentor and do not hesitate to ask questions which may help your Oxbridge preparation. ▪ Research entry requirements (e.g. admissions tests during interviews) concerning the course options for reading joint honours at Oxbridge. ▪ Establish email contact with your Advisor and do not hesitate to ask questions which may help your Oxbridge preparation. ▪ Read British broadsheets such as The Daily Telegraph, The Independent or The Guardian preferably every day (if not feasible, then at weekends) and think about the issues that are raised. What assumptions are being made? What information is being relied on to draw which conclusions? How would you frame a counter-argument? ▪ Make note of subject-related terminology to look up definitions with the aim of working them into future academic discussions concerning your chosen Oxbridge course. ▪ Keep a “Learning Log” where you can note down book titles and make notes on texts you read, including your thoughts and feelings on characters, prominent literary techniques used, narrative style, and anything on context (what was happening at the time the text was written that may have had an influence on it?) Also try to note what it is that you like/dislike about a text. ▪ As part of your Learning Log, also record your thoughts and observations from visiting historic or cultural heritage sites that relate to German culture/literature. ▪ Try to read some books in the foreign language or in English translation, and go and see films or plays by foreign authors. ▪ Think about what you have read or seen. Ask yourself, for example, what you liked or disliked about a book or film, and what you learned from them; why you prefer one book or author to another; whether the books you enjoy reading have anything in common Subject specific preparation (some of the books below are Oxbridge set texts) Keeping up to date with Germany today ▪ Deutschlandfunk – this is a national German radio station which produces many podcasts on history, culture, politics, literature and general news. See here. These are all also available on Spotify and other podcast apps! ▪ Deutsche Welle – German news available in English and German. ▪ Consider also reading news by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bild and Süddeutsche Zeitung to gain multiple perspectives on modern Germany. ▪ Fluter – this is a youth magazine produced by the Bundesamt für politische Bildung. History ▪ Look at the website of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin – it’s also a great resource to use to practice reading German! ▪ James Harold, A German Identity: 1770 to the Present Day ▪ C. Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1945 ▪ Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation ▪ M. Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany ▪ W. W. Hagen, German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation ▪ Consider looking at an event in German history in detail, read both literary and historical works and think about the historical context to literature, e.g. The Thirty Years’ War. o F. Schiller, The History of the Thirty Years’ War, (1790) o C. V. Wedgwood, The Thirty Years’ War, (1938) o P. Wilson, Europe’s Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years’ War (2009) o Link this with the literary works of Andreas Gryphius. 1 German Prose, Drama and Poetry from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern ▪ Hartmann von Aue, Iwein ▪ Andreas Gryphius, Gedichte or Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, Geistliche Sonnette, Lieder und Gedichte – both available here. Prose from the 18th Century to the Present Day ▪ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers ▪ Annette Droste-Hülshoff, Die Judenbuche ▪ Heinrich von Kleist, Die Marquise von O… ▪ Franz Kafka, Die Verwandlung ▪ Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest ▪ Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg ▪ Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks ▪ Irmgard Keun, Nach Mitternach ▪ Erich M. Remarque, Im Westen nichts Neues ▪ Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser Drama from the 18th Century to the Present Day ▪ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust ▪ Heinrich von Kleist, Die Hermannschlacht ▪ Bertolt Brecht, Die Maßnahme ▪ Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Der Besuch der alten Dame ▪ Max Frisch, Andorra ▪ Georg Kaiser, Von morgen bis mitternachts ▪ Arthur Schnitzler, Lieberlei Thought and Philosophy ▪ The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy is a fantastic resource which explains the theories and ideas of philosophers clearly and succinctly – check it out! ▪ H. J. Hahn, German Thought and Culture: From the Holy Roman Empire to the Present Day ▪ Henk de Berg and Duncan Large (eds.), Modern German Thought from Kant to Habermas ▪ Andrew Bowie, German Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction ▪ Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse ▪ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Das kommunistische Manifest ▪ Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Power of Judgement ▪ Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition ▪ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Language and Linguistics ▪ Sarah Fagan, German: A Linguistic Introduction ▪ Chris Young and Thomas Gloning (eds.), A History of the German Language through Texts Film ▪ Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Das Leben der Anderen ▪ Daniel Gansel, Die Welle ▪ Oliver Hirschbiegel, Downfall/Der Untergang ▪ Wolfgang Becker, Goodbye Lenin! ▪ Valeska Grisebach, Western ▪ Christian Petzold, Barbara ▪ Sebastian Schipper, Victoria ▪ Volker Schlöndorff, The Tin Drum/Die Blechtrommel 2 .