CSB/SJU is among the very top German Studies Departments nationwide to send so many students abroad for entire semester. Some students stay on to complete an entire year in Salzburg. Many go on to become Teaching Assistants in Austria and Germany for a year or two after graduation as part of two different Fulbright programs. Thank you Professor Lisa Ohm and Stuart Golschen for your guidance of this remarkable group.
Hallo from Salzburg! Students on the Salzburg Program are absorbing German and culture at a fast pace. We just returned from a field trip to Vienna, where we absorbed the art, architecture, music, and cosmopolitan air of the nation’s capital. The impressive imperial buildings of Vienna remind visitors of the vibrant history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s capital situated in today’s (rather small) Austria. It’s great to have friends in Vienna: Robert Mewissen gave us a delightful tour, and Andreas Raab attended the concert with us. We visited the imperial rooms (20 of the 180!) in Schoenbrunn Palace and attended a concert in the Kursalon. Nearly everyone adventured up the lift + stairs to the top of the cupola in Karlskirche. The restoration of the paintings on the ceiling gives visitors (without a fear of heights) this opportunity to feel like Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel—or a bird! In Salzburg we attended a Mozart opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, which had not been produced often until recently because it deals with a harem in the Islamic world. It was presented by students from the Mozarteum, the name of the University of Salzburg’s world-famous music and theater department. At Kehlsteinkopf (Eagle’s Nest) in Bavaria we had the Baroque sensation of being pulled between the thrilling beauty of the surrounding Alps and the morbid underground bunkers in the Hitler complex. At Salzburg’s Open-Air Museum we saw typical rural homes from two of the five “counties” in Salzburg Land: Flachgau, & Tennengau, the oldest home dating from 1640. Houses from Pinzgau, Pongau, and Lungau were also represented. During a longer break at the end of the month students will be testing their new socio-cultural skills in trips further afield in Europe. Gute Reisen!
