German 245: Arts in Vienna
January Interim 2009 Abroad
ALS-A, HWC, German FLAC available
Professor Karen R. Achberger
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/krach/ArtsinVienna/index.html

Students encounter firsthand Vienna's rich cultural heritage as revealed in museums, operas, operettas, concerts, and in the city's architectural masterpieces. We focus on turn-of-the-century Vienna and the shift from the late 19th century Romanticism of the declining Habsburg Empire to an unprecedented Modernism in all the arts, including architecture (Wagner, Loos) and music (Mahler, Schönberg), as well as psychology (Freud) and philosophy (Wittgenstein), but especially the painting of Klimt, Kokoschka, and Schiele, as well as the cult of death and suicide in fin-de-siècle Vienna as observed in its cemeteries and crypts. Taught in English. No previous knowledge of German is necessary, but German FLAC component is available for students with German 232 or equivalent.

We live in the heart of Vienna, two blocks from St. Charles Square (Karlsplatz), the Secession, the Musikverein and the Vienna State Opera (Staatsoper). Our classes are a 10-minute walk from our hotel in a palace directly across the street from the Opera (see website for photos and details). On-site experts lead tours and lecture on specific aspects of Vienna 's artistic, musical, and architectural heritage.

Daily Schedule: As a rule, we spend mornings in class (9-11, M-F) and have afternoons free for visiting museums and architectural sites in Vienna (both on foot and by bus). We attend musical performances in the evenings and on some weekends. One free weekend for excursions to Salzburg, Prague or Budapest, or for exploring Vienna on your own (e.g. Vienna Boys Choir, St. Stephan's Cathedral, Prater, etc.).

Cost: $4,150 (includes all transportation, hotel, tours, excursions, musical performances, museum pass, Vienna transit pass, breakfast and dinner daily).

Maximum Enrollment: 20

Grading:

1 - PARTICIPATION (50%)
25% oral: Informed class discussion, including leading one class discussion (in pairs)
25% written: Journals and journal group participation*

2 - PROJECT (25%) **

3 - EXAM (25%) ***

*Academic Journal (25%): You will be keeping a daily journal in which you respond briefly (max. one page) to the experiences of the day (readings, class, tours, performances). You will also be responding daily to the journal writings of your journal group members. More than learning to write, you are especially writing to learn. Your journal is valuable not so much as a written product as for the process of helping you to think more clearly about what you are reading and experiencing in the lectures, class discussions, tours, and performances in Vienna. By translating what you are reading and hearing into your own words in the journal and communicating that in writing to your fellow students (and me), you will be able to clarify your understanding of the material and note any areas that you find difficult to understand. The process of writing can help you to sort out what is meaningful to you, to speculate about difficult concepts, and to resolve any confusion. In addition, your interaction with those who read your journal can help you to clarify and extend your thinking.

** Project (25%): Together with another student, you will choose one part of our curriculum to become your special area of expertise as a student scholar. This might be a painting, building, piece of music, a question or issue, or it might be an artist, architect, writer, composer or institution. Together with your partner you will then present your project to your fellow-students in class (20-30 minutes per pair).

*** Exam (25%): For the final exam, you will write 2-3 short essays (@ 250 words) discussing the developments in Vienna around 1900 in one or more of the areas we have studied: the visual arts, architecture, city planning, music, psychology, and/or literature, describing especially the ways that each managed to break with the past.

Texts:

The city of Vienna is our main "text." We will "read" it together as it stands today and bears proud witness to its brilliance a century ago. Beyond this, we will read excerpts from the following written texts (all paperbacks):

Inge Lehne and Lonnie Johnson, Vienna , the Past in the Present, 2nd ed. Ariadne.

Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. Vintage Books.

Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna 1898-1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele, and their Contemporaries.

Excerpts from: The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud), A New Music (Schönberg), Wittgenstein's Vienna (Janik/Toulmin) , and The Austrian Mind (Johnston).

We will also screen The Third Man and documentary films on Vienna 1900, Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimt.

Tentative Overview for January 2009:

2-3 Overnight flight to Vienna.
4-6 A Taste of Vienna : Guided bus tour of city and surroundings, including palaces, the Hundertwasser house and Kahlenberg. Museum of the City of Vienna. Dinner with guest lecturers in (rotating) Danube Tower on the Danube Island. The Third Man tour.
7-12 Habsburg Vienna: Johann Strauss operetta, Coffeehouse culture, Schönbrunn Castle, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Hofburg, Ringstrasse, Musikverein, Central Cemetery, Kapuzinergruft (Imperial Vault), Volksoper, Staatsoper (State Opera).
13-16 The New Art: Art of the Secession: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Leopold Museum , Upper Belvedere.
17-18 FREE WEEKEND
19-21 The New Architecture: Architecture of the Secession: Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. Tour of the Linke Wienzeile, Postsparkasse, and Museum of the Applied Arts (MAK)
22 Freud's Vienna: Tour of the Freud Museum
23-24 The New Music: Gustav Mahler, and Arnold Schönberg, Tour of the Schönberg Center
26-27 Student Presentations. Final journals due
27 Final Exam. Farewell to Vienna: Dinner with lecturers in (rotating) Danube Tower
28 Return flight to MSP

Final journals consist of your best journal entry with a 50-word introduction explaining your reasons for choosing that particular entry, i.e. why it is meaningful to you and represents some of your best thinking (and possibly also your best interaction with others in your journal group) about some aspect of the course.