The quality of its language teaching and the breadth of its literature curriculum distinguishes Grinnell's Department of German. The faculty members are outstanding language teachers and experts in their literary fields. The literature courses, taught in German, span from the Middle Ages to contemporary writing and cover all literary genres.
Students develop analytical skills in small seminar-like discussion classes.
The senior seminar, the capstone course for majors, offers a combination of literary theory and practice. This course focuses on the current literary scene in Germany and offers students varying perspectives of writers from all areas of Unified Germany. In addition, the department possesses an extensive German film collectionincluding films by Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, and Vali Exportwhich complements literature and culture courses. When teaching the German language, Grinnell professors use the latest language teaching methodologies. In fact, Grinnell had the first Sony language lab in the nation.