Program Dates
Arrive in Berlin: Saturday, June 22, 2024
Depart to the US: Saturday, July 20, 2024
Study Abroad Germany Application
Early Deadline: December 4, 2023
Final Deadline: March 4, 2024
Information Sessions
Coming Soon
About the program
The program begins with three class sessions on the Fullerton campus. This will allow us more time to explore during our four weeks in Berlin. Class meets four days a week and you are free Thursday afternoons to Sunday evenings. Each day will include a site visit or trip, and some days will also include brief classroom periods. Assignments will predominantly draw on the learning experiences during your site visits.
Program Highlights
- Open to all majors
- Scholarships available
- Earn 6 units of upper division GE credit or elective credit if your GE is complete
- All courses taught by CSU Fullerton faculty
- Guided tour of Charlotte Palace
- Kaffee und Kuchen Boat cruise on the Spree, Reederei Winkler
- Visit of the Traenenpalast (Palace of Tears)
- Self-guided visit to the German History Museum
- Visit and audio tour of the Reichstag Building
- A Tour of Humboldt University
- Visit to Jewish Museum Berlin
Program Fee (tentative)
$3945 $2,000
The program fee includes the following items:
- Housing
- All program academic fieldtrips
- All-access ground transportation travel pass
- Group lunches
- International travel insurance
The student fee does not include the following:
- CSUF books and tuition
- Round-trip airfare
- Passport or visa fees if applicable
- Daily personal meals and other expenses
Program Courses
HSS 350: Life and Study Abroad: Berlin (3 units; GE C.3 & Z)
This course introduces you to key aspects of German culture, politics, and society. We will explore what it means to be “German” and take as our premise that “Germanness” is a contested and constructed concept. We will examine the importance of local and regional cultures, architecture, religion, theater, and history. The course will also analyze the ways in which Germans have defined “the other” throughout history along religious, ethnic, and racial lines. We will pay particular attention to the place of migrant communities in German life, from Turkish immigrants after World War II, Russian emigres after the fall of the Soviet Union, African climate and political refugees, and Ukrainian war refugees.
HIST 320: Modern European History (3 units; GE D.3)
This course offers an experiential learning experience in the city of Berlin to help students explore the connections and relationships between modern Germany and the world since 1871. A unified nation, Berlin was one of Europe’s most vibrant metropoles during the 1920s, attracting many American talents of the Lost Generation. The city served as the capital of Hitler’s Nazi Empire, became ground zero of the Cold War, and stands now as a bustling, multi-cultural metropolis filled with immigrants and expatriates from all over the world.
Faculty
Dr. Volker Janssen
History, CSUF
Volker Janssen grew up near Frankfurt in West Germany during the Cold War and dabbled in stand-up comedy and accounting after graduation. Following his national civil service, he first joined Europe’s Southeast -Asia-backpacking trend of the early nineties, then spent three years in London, Central America, and New York City before returning to Hamburg to attend college and work for public radio. A Fulbright scholarship brought him to UC San Diego, where he earned his PhD in History in 2005. Since then he has taught American history at CSUF with a decidedly transnational bend. This trip will be his second study abroad tour of Berlin, which he first toured in the year of German reunification on a motorcycle and with long hair, earrings, and an unspeakable leather jacket.