Thanks from the heart ... We couldn't do it without you!

Thank you Lonnie Johnson in Vienna for guiding our Fulbright TA Recipients each year; Dave Lyndgaard, Provost Rita Knuesel, and Dean Joe Desjardins for supporting our new German Studies curriculum and paving the way for Fulbright TA positions at CSB/SJU.  Thank you John Taylor for your work with foundations on our behalf; Mike Connolly and Tory Oelfke for finding excellent living quarters for our visiting Fulbright TA/Scholars;  Tom Kroll for superb management of our Salzburg Program; Ernie Dietrich, Greg Schroeder and Joe Rogers for helping us create a vision for European and German Studies Abroad; Stuart Goldschen for your superb photography and moral support; and Mary Niedenfuer for your countless daily contributions as coordinator of our department.  We couldn't do it without you!! 
     

Andreas Kiryakakis' Translation of Der letzte Mönch von Tibhirine to be Published in November 2013

Andreas Kiryakakis has completed a translation of Der letzte Mönch von Tibhirine by Freddy Derwahl. This book recounts the same events as the award-winning film, Of Men and Gods.  Here is a description of the book from amazon.de: 

In der algerischen Wüste harrt eine kleine Schar von christlichen Mönchen im Kloster Tibhirine aus. Im durch Revolutionen aufgewühlten Nordafrika werden sie, im Spannungsfeld von Christentum und Islam, mehrfach von Rebellen bedroht. Nach intensiver Beratung beschließen die Mönche dennoch zu bleiben. Sie haben sich entschieden, für die Menschen da zu sein. Sie wollen ihre Krankenstation weiterhin öffnen, für Versöhnung eintreten und mit ihrem Leben dem christlichen Glauben Gestalt geben. Am 26. März 1996 kehren die Rebellen zurück. Sieben Mönche werden nachts entführt und später enthauptet. Die Umstände und Hintergründe der Morde sind bis heute ungeklärt. Dieses Buch erzählt das Leben von Frère Jean-Pierre Schumacher, den die Terroristen damals nicht entdecken. In seinen Erzählungen spiegelt sich, was damals wirklich geschah

Congratulations Andreas!

May 5th Sustaina-POLKA-bility Event Draws 130 Students, Faculty and Staff

  "SustainaPOLKAbility! is a community celebration of Collegeville's rich cultural and environmental heritage with live polka music and dancing, traditional German food and Catholic devotions, a beer garden, solar farm and greenhouse tours, as well as a beer brewing demonstration, local pottery sales, a lecture on Collegeville history by the SJU Archivist, Peggy Roske, and resources on sustainable living for students. The event serves as both a model and promoter of how to put on an event while using minimal resources and re-appreciating our own local identity. Long live the Polka-Revolution!

   The planners of this event are the students of the SJU Eco-Houses, in cooperation with our counterparts at CSB and the CSB/SJU German Club. See you next year!"

Austrian Novelist and Poet Ludwig Laher Enthralls Students and Faculty

Ludwig Laher read from his book Herzfleischentartung (Heart Flesh Degeneration) on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, at 7 PM in the Gorecki Center. the following day he also met with a student-lead book discussion group and Mark Thamert's upper-division German Poetry class. Here is a description of his book from Amazon.com:

In 1940 the Nazi Storm Troopers set up a Work Education Camp in St. Pantaleon near Salzburg and then, after its overhasty closure in 1941, a Gypsy Detention Center. Hundreds of arbitrarily incarcerated prisoners are tortured there, some murdered. The Camp Doctor is the parish doctor who has been called in specially. For a long time he records some harmless cause of death or other. (The 'heart-flesh degeneration' of a gypsy woman is, however , not his invention). But one day he calls in the State Attorney's Office. The files relating to the ensuing investigation are extant and form the basis for Ludwig Laher's literary work. It makes use -- in a sometimes chilling way -- of the language and logic of the murderers, but at the same time introduces a collective narrator and lets him follow the horrific events once again from the 1940s point of view, and then again from today's viewpoint. Laher also pursues the perpetrators into the resurrected Austria, and unfolds the later court proceedings: the judges are mild; in 1955 the principal perpetrator profits from the amnesty to mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Second Republic. The reader, who is drawn into the midst of events, may well feel his heart miss a beat when he witnesses how quickly the incursion of bestial conditions into the every-day life of the Austrian provinces becomes normality, and how quickly everything can be forgotten.

  Special thanks to our colleague, Dr. Greg Schroeder from the History Department, who arranged Laher's visit and packed schedule!  

Wendy Sterba to Present Paper in Marburg, Germany, on June 7

German Professor Wendy Sterba will present a paper at a conference in Marburg, Germany, titled "The Corporate and the Corporeal: Min(d)ing the Body - Conscience and Consumption in Early 21st Century Hollywood Dystopia.  The theme of the conference is Imaging the End of the World.  This conference is sponsored by Philipps University, Marburg, und Central Connecticut State University.

Wendy's paper looks at films such as Batman Begins, Land of the Dead, Surrogates and Joss Whedon's films and television shows to examine the effects of new technology on the gendered body in terms of conscience and how mind as neural circuit becomes an element driving revolutionary actions to corporate co-option of the body.

Congratulations, Wendy!

Mark Thamert's Translation of Anselm Grün's Die Zeit der Erfüllung to Be Published in September 2013

Mark's first major translation project will have the title, The Time of Fulfillment: A Guide for the Advent and Christmas Seasons. The author of the original German book is Anselm Grün, a Benedictine monk of Münsterschwarzach Abbey in Germany.  Anselm Grün is one of Europe's most-read spiritual writers.  Amazon.de gives the following summary of his book:    

Adventszeit und Weihnachtsfest rühren an eine tiefe Sehnsucht nach Frieden und Versöhnung, die hinter all dem Weihnachtstrubel spürbar wird. Anselm Grün möchte uns mit diesem Buch durch die Adventswochen bis zum Weihnachtsfest begleiten. Seine einfühlsamen Texte helfen der eigenen Sehnsucht auf die Spur zu kommen. Persönliche Impulse laden zu meditativer Stille und zum Bei-Sich-Sein ein. Das Buch öffnet so unsere Augen für den tieferen Grund dieser besonderen Zeit und lässt das Wunder von Weihnachten, die Menschwerdung Gottes, in neuem Licht erstrahlen.

Mark is currently working on an English translation of Abbot Georg Holzherr's Die Benediktsregel: Eine Anleitung zu christlichem Leben, an acclaimed commentary of the Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries. Mark's translation will be published by Cistercian Publications in spring 2014. Georg Holzherr served as abbot of Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland for 32 years.  Here is Amazon's description of his book:

Seit seinem Erscheinen vor mehr als zwanzig Jahren ist der Kommentar von Abt Georg Holzherr zur Benediktsregel über den deutschsprachigen Raum hinaus maßgebend geworden. Einerseits zeichnet er sich durch die gut lesbare Übersetzung und die wissenschaftliche Genauigkeit der Erklärungen aus, andererseits wendet er sich durch seine Verständlichkeit nicht nur an Fachleute. Vielmehr wird die Lehre des heiligen Benedikt für unsere heutige Zeit zugänglich und fruchtbar gemacht. Daher befasst sich die Auslegung vorwiegend mit der Spiritualität der Regel, die über die Ordensleute hinaus wegleitend für alle Christen sein will. Für die nun vorliegende 6. Auflage wurden Einführung, lateinischer Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar gründlich überarbeitet und gegebenenfalls korrigiert. Zudem wurden neue Publikationen gesichtet und verwertet. Den Text bereichern zusätzliche Zeugnisse, nicht zuletzt über das monastische Leben von Frauen.

Lisa Ohm Receives Prestigous Grant for Travel in Germany

 Anna Lisa Ohm, Department of Modern & Classical Languages/German Studies Program, has been invited to be one of fourteen guests of the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst (Pedagogy Exchange Service) of the German government to participate in a summer study trip to Bonn and Berlin. The travel group is made up of faculty members from across the nation who are members of the AATG (American Association of Teachers of German) and who serve as coordinators in their respective states for the national AATG high school testing program. Travel will take place in early July.

In December 2012 and January 2013, 540 Minnesota students taking German from seventeen different high schools across the State demonstrated their learning at three different levels in the national written exam. Students are thereby comparing their skills with others on a national level. Minnesota students are doing well, and we hope they continue their study of German in their college years.

Dr. Ohm organized the interviews at CSB for Minnesota high school students who scored 90% or above on the national exam on three different levels. Following the interviews, top-scoring students were invited to a recognition banquet at SJU along with their family members and teachers. The top student, Zoe Novak from St. John’s Prep, received one of the coveted four-week study trips to Germany as a guest of PAD and AATG. While in Germany, Ohm will have an opportunity for the first time to visit with study trip students at their sites in Nürnberg or Berlin.  Gute Reise, Dr. Ohm!

35 Top Students of German from 9 Minnesota High Schools Honored at CSB/SJU Awards Banquet

On Saturday, April 27, 2013, one hundred students, faculty members, parents and friends gathered in the Saint John's University Great Hall to celebrate the achievements of some 35 students who placed in the 90th percentile on the national AATG German test. Before and after a hearty lunch of Wienerschnitzel, Spätzele, Rotkohl und Apfelstrudel, event MC Mark Thamert lead the crowd in singing zwei Kanon-Lieder, Für Speis und Trank and Wann und wo?   

    

Wienerschnizel, Rotkohl, Spätzele, Salat, Apfelstrudel!

Click herer for the complete set of 80 photos from the awards ceremony:  AATG banquet 4-27-13

Dear Minnesota German teachers, Congratulations on your superb work
on behalf of Minnesota's students of German!

This year's honored High Schools:
Academy of the Holy Angels

Apple Valley High School

Hermantown High School

Irondale High School

Northfield High School

Rosemont High School

Saint John's Preparatory School

Saint Paul Academy and Summit School

Wayzata High School

And here are some of Minnesota's finest students of German:

Andreas Kiryakakis, Jae Cody (MNAATG president) and Lisa Ohm

Jae Cody and Mark Thamert, event MC.

Jae Cody congratulates Matt Mitchell on
his being named Minnesota German Teacher of the Year



Jutta Crowder receives the prestigious Concordia Language Villages
4-week summer scholarship on behalf of Saint Paul Academy 



Thank you, Lisa Ohm, for organizing such a wonderful event! 


Here is the complete set of 80 photos from the ceremony: AATG banquet 4-27-13

Special thanks to Jutta Crowder, Jim Nagel, Verena Luthy-Clay, Emmy Sack, Susan Sullivan, Rebecca Waterhouse and Jae Cody for being present to support and congratulate some of Minnesota's finest students of German!

Mark Thamert Receives 2013 CSB/SJU Faculty Award for Effective Use of Information Technology in Teaching and Learning

The Tom Creed Memorial Award for Effective Electronic Pedagogy was established in 2000 to recognize the efforts of those faculty members who strive to effectively incorporate information technology and web applications into their pedagogy. For several years prior to his death in 1999, Tom had worked to develop effective pedagogies using computer and web applications. His efforts were recognized nationally, within the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching & Learning (formerly the Bush Collaboration), and The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD Network). He published extensively on this topic and presented many regional workshops to other faculty on the value and use of "Virtual Communal Spaces."

A description of Mark's use of informational technology can be found here:  http://www.employees.csbsju.edu/mthamert/Technology%20--%20Mark/index.html 

John Hasselberg from Our Global Business Leadership Department Visits Germany to Scout Out Internships for CSB/SJU Students

In June 2013, at the invitation of Klaus Jonas, Commercial Specialist for the American Consulate General in Düsseldorf, Germany, John will be part of a Minnesota delegation of five colleges to discuss the following questions: 

·         Do you have already partner universities in Germany, especially in North-Rhine Westphalia / Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW)? Shall we invite those partners? Do you have names for us of potential invitees?

·         Would you like to meet with scientists/teachers of a similar faculty, equal from which university in NRW?

·         Would you like to meet with potential recruiters of students for your university/college? Persons who are able to research for potential German college students and master students on your behalf? Contractors?

·         Would you like to meet with representatives of private or public universities, or both?

·         Would each one of you prefer to give a 5 minute presentation of your college/university before we open the meeting schedule?

·         Can the American Consulate General provide a list of companies in Germany who are especially open to having American students or recent graduates as summer or year-long interns? 

Thanks a million, John, for your important international work on behalf of our students!