ZEIT GERMANY (2022/2023) - Study & Reserach by ZEIT Magazine

G ERMANY

STUDY & RESEARCH

THE STUDENT GUIDE

2022 2023

Flying Start WALK THE TALK

HEAR THE BEAT

STAND IN THE SUN

Students embark on bold paths amid the pandemic

Aspiring young performers communicate via music

Solar-power researchers finally come into their own

choose the future.

BadenWürttemberg.

choose

Are you looking for excellent research and study opportunities that will prepare you for the future? Then, choose Baden-Württemberg. Here, you find Germany‘s largest number of renowned universities with a clear future-oriented focus. Experience why the state is at the forefront of academic excellence and instruction, and decide between more than 2500 academic degree programs offered by the institutes of higher education.

WWW.CAREER-START-BW. DE

Z GERMANY

EDITORIAL

Photos: Nora Hollstein (cover), Sebi Berens (this page)

Clockwise from center: Deborah Steinborn (Editor-in-Chief), Julia Steinbrecher (Art and Photo Director), Anna-Lena Scholz (Publisher), Madeleine Pollard (Assistant Editor), Andrea Capita (Editorial Assistant)

Google “Study in Germany” and you’ll likely land on the usual clichés: beer, football, cars, castles – and free education. But Germany offers so much more. Did you know that the best students of classical music flock to the land of Beethoven and Bach to earn their degrees? That the world’s largest artificial sun, near Cologne, has helped fuel cutting-edge solar research for five years? That German academia reacted with lightning speed to the war in Ukraine, stepping up to host refugee students and set scientific sanctions on Russia? These are just a few of the stories you’ll find in this issue. Enjoy the read! The ZEIT Germany Team ZEIT, Germany’s leading weekly newspaper, covers politics, education, and much more ZEIT Germany is available worldwide at locations of the Federal Foreign Office and the German Chambers of Commerce Abroad, to name just two. The entire issue is available digitally at www.zeit.de/germany

IN THIS ISSUE 1 FLYING START

34 SOLAR CHARGERS

We shot our cover at Berlin’s decommissioned Tempelhof Airport, today a public park

The researchers behind Germany’s revived emphasis on energy independence

4 FOR A SONG

40 “TALKING ABOUT A NEW WORLD ORDER“

Foreigners flock to Germany for music higher education 16 SUBJECT MATTERS

A curriculum of fun facts for new arrivals 18 SPEND IT!

The cut-rate cost of studying in Germany 20 MASTER OF DISASTER

Are hyper-specialized, quirky degrees a joke? A ZEIT columnist weighs in 26 PLEASE BE LATE!

The academic quarter withstands the test of time 28 EXPEDITIONS

Yabroud to Hamburg, Manila to Berlin: two daring foreigners in uncharted territory 32 DEFINING VOCABULARY

Key terms to help you cut through university jargon

A prominent researcher explains the hot field of science diplomacy 46 A HELPING HAND

Financial support and much more for scholars from abroad 52 HEARD ON THE STREET

Berlin students chat about changing life goals during the pandemic 58 SMALL TALK BIG WORDS

Life of the (German) party: winged words from literature 60 MOVING RIGHT ALONG

A to-do list for settling in 65 MASTHEAD

The staff. Plus distribution partners and further details 66 WORD PLAY

A crossword puzzle for the bilingual student brain 3

Z GERMANY

FOR

More and more young people from abroad are seeking music degrees in the land of Beethoven and Bach. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it

SONG

BY DEBOR AH STEINBORN PHOTOS DANIEL FARÒ

Luis Benjamin Rodriguez Castillo (l.) and Kateryna Kravchenko (r.) at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden Carl Maria von Weber

GERMANY

As a youngster in Pretoria, South Africa, Seonggeun Kim picked up the flute, fell in love with it, and imagined one day studying classical music. Now 26, the South Korean national is a first-semester master’s student in orchestral conducting at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (HfM Weimar). It’s no wonder that he was drawn to Germany. “It’s always been a dream to go to Europe, to the very heart of the classical music scene,” says Kim. And that heart is indeed Germany. The birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Johannes Brahms – not to mention countless other renowned composers – cherishes its reputation for musical genius. Today, with 129 publicly funded professional orchestras, more than 80 permanent opera houses, and billions of euros in music subsidies, Germany (like its neighbor Austria) is dedicated to fostering its outstanding musical heritage. That vibrant music landscape has in turn created a global hub for classical music education. Kim is just one of about nine thousand foreign-born students currently enrolled at the country’s 24 world-renowned Musikhochschulen, or public music universities. Dotted across the land, these conservatories train students from as close as Poland and as far as Peru and the Philippines. Tuition is practically free to international and German students alike, which naturally adds to the appeal.

A statue of Duke Carl August in front of HfM Weimar

If all students enjoy the same low or free tuition, they also face the same rigorous admission process and, once in, undergo vigorous training. But international students face special obstacles too. These range from learning German to juggling the logistics of student visas to confronting a variety of cultural differences. Their experiences offer a case study in the challenges and opportunities that many foreign students face living and learning in Germany today, no matter their field of study. “Germany is viewed by many in the world as the cradle of classical music. It has the highest density of orchestras, theaters, opera houses, and classical music institutions,” says Amadeus Templeton, founding director of Tonali, a Hamburg-based organization that promotes classical music in the country. “That’s why international students want to study here, because they expect the highest understanding of Brahms and Beethoven in Germany.” The bar to get in is high indeed. For example, only 15 of 400 piano applicants to HfM Weimar make the cut each year. Currently all music universities require in-person auditions, a motivational essay, and an entrance exam before they make their decisions. And then there are the language requirements. Many schools stipulate a B2 level of proficiency, because classes, rehearsals, and readings are usually in German. “Of course, the language and the culture are very different,” says Kim, who completed a bachelor’s degree at HfM before starting his master’s. “But in this interconnected world, it’s just as important to understand the society in which you are performing as it is to forge connections with fellow musicians from other cultures.” And what better place to do so than Weimar. Considered the birthplace of classical German culture, the city was a major station in Bach’s career. Later it was home to the literary giants Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. In 1919, it hosted the assembly that hammered out Germany’s first constitutional democracy, the same year an innovative new design school, the Bauhaus, opened its doors downtown. A hundred years later, it hosts a vibrant music scene, from street musicians performing in its quaint city center, to jazz concerts at the Bauhaus Weimarhalle, to the HfM orchestra’s recent performance of “Così fan tutte” at the city’s historic Fürstenhaus (today part of HfM Weimar). Kim admits he was lucky: he began learning German in high school. In 2018, four years after graduating from the Pretoria Boys High School, he completed a pre-study orientation year at the Technische Universität Berlin. It was actually a science and sustainability program called MINTgrün, but he ended up opting to pursue music. Having grown up partly in South Korea and partly in South Africa, he had already been exposed to different cultures from a young age and was ready to try life on a new continent.

“It’s just as important to understand the society in which you are performing” – SEONGGEUN KIM 6

Maestro in the making: Seonggeun Kim

GERMANY

Nicolás Pasquet giving a conducting lesson at HfM Weimar

GERMANY

“That may have made me more outgoing,” Kim says. “Asian students tend to be technically very strong, very good at playing their instruments, but they may struggle with the language or the culture, which is so different from what they know.” His advice for foreign students in Germany is to get involved in extracurricular activities, get together to play music with students from different backgrounds, and generally venture out of their comfort zones. “Coming to Germany to study music is not just about learning to play an instrument,” says conductor Nicolás Pasquet. “It’s also about learning the culture.” Pasquet, 64, speaks from experience. He moved to Germany at 19 in the late 1970s, after studying violin privately and starting to study conducting at the Montevideo High School for Music in Uruguay. At first Pasquet failed the auditions for conducting studies in Stuttgart. But he persisted, launching parallel studies in violin in Stuttgart and orchestral conducting in Nuremberg. Later, he won multiple awards from the German government to continue his studies. Pasquet has since gone on to serve as chief conductor of the Pécs Symphony Orchestra in Hungary and the Neubranden-

burg Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has conducted orchestras across Europe and further afield. Today, the professor of orchestral conducting at HfM Weimar is also maestro to the university’s symphony orchestra and chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the State of Hessen. Over the past 30 years, Pasquet has helped build up HfM Weimar’s reputation as a leading trainer of conductors in Europe. And he has watched the German conservatory scene evolve and internationalize over the decades. The cultural immersion he experienced as a teenager convinced him: “We must expect our students to speak the language as well as the culture. Integration in a university and integration in the society go hand in hand.” Musikhochschulen are just one small subset of Germany’s vast higher education landscape. These conservatories hold university status, confer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, and are financed by the federal states in which they are based. Courses cover all musical disciplines including composition, music theory, conducting, vocal and instrumental, musicology, and music education. Many of these specialized

Park on the River Ilm, outside Weimar‘s historic old town

Musikhochschulen are just one subset of Germany’s vast higher-education landscape 9

GERMANY

An entrance to HfM Carl Maria von Weber Dresden

universities have orchestras as well, which gives students the chance to develop performance skills in large ensembles. While the number of foreign students in German higher education has been on the rise for two decades, Musikhochschulen enjoy truly unparalleled diversity. In the fields of music and musicology alone, non-German enrollees comprised 33 percent of all enrollees in the 2020–21 winter semester at these schools (the latest data available from the German Federal Statistics Office). At certain universities of music, the percentages are often much higher. Either way, it’s a large jump from 22 percent in the winter semester of 2000–01. Even more impressive, 2020–21 was at the height of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a time of major setbacks to student mobility around the globe. At HfM Weimar, founded in 1872, the student body spans 61 countries including Germany. Of the 810 students currently enrolled, 45 percent hail from abroad. And all students, regardless of nationality, pay the same fee to cover administration, public transport, and student union services: just 200 euros per semester. HfM Weimar’s diverse student body is not an anomaly. At the Cologne University of Music and Dance – the country’s largest music university – about 40 percent of the roughly

2,000-strong student body comes from outside Germany. Applications pour in from more than 60 countries each year. “This is a positive aspect, a variety of cultures coming together and literally meeting in music,” says Tilmann Claus, rector of the university. “It creates a great wealth. Other universities, in the sciences or humanities, say that they have too little diversity and that we have too much.” Too much? Claus, who became rector in October 2021, also admits that diversity brings challenges. Under his leadership, the school is addressing these head-on. It has introduced an intensive, targeted language crash course to prepare incoming students not only for the sophisticated terminology of music study but also for everyday life in Germany. A preparatory course is now in the works to help foreign students clear logistical hurdles too. And a mentoring program takes it all a step further, pairing upperclassmen with newcomers in the first two semesters to help them gain a solid social footing too. The cultural program includes not only the obligatory visit to Cologne’s stupendous cathedral but also opportunities to socialize casually in the evenings. “These offerings help to form a cohesive community of students,” Claus says. “Everyone benefits.” Regardless of their course of study, most international students in Germany share the task of jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Visas for prospective students are only valid for three months, and some student visas also need to be renewed every three months. This is particularly problematic for performing arts candidates, who must audition in person many months before the semester begins. This keeps many talented students from even applying. “It’s not realistic, because applicants and incoming students need more time,” Claus says of the visa restrictions on prospective students. To address this problem, the Cologne University of Music and Dance has introduced a two-stage application procedure. In the first round, students from abroad can submit a video audition clip. This option has been particularly helpful to applicants from China, where Covid-19 related travel restrictions have complicated matters even more. (The second step requires an in-person audition). International flair can be found at smaller music conservatories too. At the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, 67 music students play for peace. The academy is among the most culturally diverse institutes of higher learning in Germany. In fact, just one of its current students is a German citizen (though several are dual citizens). Founded in 2015, the academy is the brainchild of conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and the late PalestinianAmerican literary scholar Edward Said. It builds on the idea of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a professional ensemble that the duo launched in 1999 to give Israeli and

“Offerings help to form a cohesive community of students. Everyone benefits” – TILMANN CLAUS 10

GERMANY

Rodriguez Castillo on his way to cello practice at HfM Dresden

GERMANY

Palestinian musicians an opportunity to play together. Both men felt strongly that music is a way of fostering other forms of listening as well. The academy offers a preparatory program specifically for students from the Middle East and North Africa, a bachelor’s degree in music, and a postgraduate artist diploma. It fulfills the role of a traditional conservatory while also pursuing a unique kind of cultural diplomacy, grounded in the belief that music can pave the way to a peaceful and fair resolution of political conflicts. Undergraduates receive a monthly stipend of 861 euros and free housing. One of the academy’s educational cornerstones is its rigorous curriculum in the humanities. For the bachelor of music degree, students pursue performance studies while also studying literature, philosophy, history, and global studies, among other subjects. The jewel-like Pierre Boulez Saal, a public concert hall designed by architect Frank Gehry and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, is at the academy’s heart. The academy’s relatively small size belies its world-class programming, but it also ensures that students come into close contact with some outstanding performers in Germany, some of whom are also faculty regulars.

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Despite the hurdles, international music students keep coming to Germany. Some music students have endured a lot for the chance to earn a degree from a German university. But motivation goes a long way not only in learning but in living. Luis Benjamin Rodriguez Castillo, a 30-year-old cellist studying musical education at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber (HfM Dresden), spent six years in Germany working odd jobs before he obtained a spot at a music university. Back in Lima, Peru, he had heard that opportunities were good in Germany and that studies were affordable. He struggled at first to get his feet on the ground in Germany, Rodriguez Castillo recalls. But once he had settled in and assembled some savings, he could buckle down to prepare for auditions. He started a program in Cottbus in 2018, transferring to Dresden in 2020. He’s now nearing the end of his bachelor’s degree. “It took a while, yes,” he says. “Sometimes I think maybe it took a little bit too long. But I really wanted to study music, I was determined to do so. And that’s why I kept telling myself, ‘This has to work out!’ And it did. I am very happy I could realize my dream.”

The arts can go a long way toward promoting cross-cultural understanding Along the way, Rodriguez Castillo married a German architect and became a parent. He feels well integrated into the local society, although he admits that his two toddlers sometimes keep him from networking on campus. For Kateryna Kravchenko, 22, the past few months have shown just how sustaining a diverse student body can be. The Ukrainian national arrived at HfM Dresden four years ago to pursue a bachelor’s degree in jazz vocals with renowned professor Céline Rudolph. And like Rodgriguez Castillo, she also struggled at first with the German culture and language. “Even though I come from a European country, there are many differences in the cultures,” Kravchenko says. “It was difficult.” Probably the biggest challenge, at least at first, was plain and simple communication. She had taken a one-year introductory German course back in Ukraine, before arriving in Dresden, and she had a B1 level when she began her studies. But the Saxon dialect common in Dresden was entirely new to her and took some getting used to.

“So at first, I just tried to absorb all the lessons,” she recalls. “I and some other new students would rely on dictaphone programs so that we could listen to lectures afterward and review the parts that were unclear to us.” Making music, by contrast, went well from the get-go, she says. “Music really is an international language and a language through which people can connect. Somehow that’s what I find really amazing. You can communicate so much better than with words.” Now in her eighth semester, Kravchenko has founded two bands from her base in Dresden. The Kateryna Kravchenko Quartet is comprised of musicians from Poland, Brazil and Germany. And InSpace, a more recently founded band, won the New Generation #JazzLab Award 2022. That was all before the war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022. “Of course, everything here seems a bit surreal now,” Kravchenko says. “On campus, it’s so picturesque. Music is in the air, life goes on as usual. But in my home country there is just war.” That dichotomy has pushed her to activate her international network. Alongside her studies,

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GERMANY

Another entrance to HfM Dresden‘s campus

1. Berlin: Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler; Universität der Künste 2. Leipzig: Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy 3. Weimar: Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt

6. Nuremberg: Hochschule für Musik 7. Munich: Hochschule für Musik und Theater 8. Freiburg: Hochschule für Musik 9. Trossingen: Hochschule für Musik

4. Dresden: Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber

10. Stuttgart: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst

5. Würzburg: Hochschule für Musik

11. Karlsruhe: Hochschule für Musik

The Schools: If you’re interested in studying music in Germany ...

21 20

19 18 17 16 15

3 14

18. Detmold: Hochschule für Musik

13. Mannheim: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst

19. Hannover: Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien

14. Frankfurt: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst

12. Saarbrücken: Hochschule für Musik Saar

15. Cologne: Hochschule für Musik und Tanz

20. Bremen: Hochschule für Künste 21. Hamburg: Hochschule für Musik und Theater

16. Düsseldorf: Robert Schumann Hochschule

22. Lübeck: Musikhochschule

17. Essen: Folkwang Universität der Künste

23. Rostock: Hochschule für Musik und Theater

10 7

Source: Rektorenkonferenz der deutschen Musikhochschulen in der HRK (RKM)

she’s now also helping Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Dresden. This includes offering music lessons to Ukrainian children, aiding adults with the German language, and housing her own mother, who fled their small hometown of Balta, in the Odessa region, right after war broke out. (Her father and brother are still in Ukraine.) In spring 2022, Kravchenko helped organize several benefit concerts in town, both on and off campus. She and other students are also helping Ukrainian refugees who are starting at the conservatory, of which there are a growing number. Kravchenko continues to sing her own compositions that combine the influences of Ukrainian music and modern jazz in both of the bands she has founded. She feels strongly that music and the arts can go a long way toward promoting cross-cultural understanding. And she has found others who share that conviction. Her bandmate Timur Valitov, a saxophonist and fellow classmate at HfM Dresden, hails from the Ufa region of Russia. Valitov “has faced the same challenges as a foreign student here in Germany that I have,” Kravchenko says. “He’s traveled the same route as a musician. And now, he is not proud of this whole situation [Russia’s invasion of Ukraine] either. So we try to support each other and help refugees together.” And they’re continuing to communicate via music.

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SUBJ ECT GERMANY

New to the country? Tour your local university departments ... Mathematics

Political Science

42.2 million women + 41.1 million men = 83.3

SYSTEM: parliamentary and

federal democracy

million inhabitants

BUNDESTAG: parliament,

elected every four years

440,212 foreign students = 15% of 2,947,500 students

BUNDESREGIERUNG:

currently enrolled

currently a coalition of SPD, FDP, and the Greens

423 higher education institutions, including 108 universities and 211 technical colleges

BUNDESKANZLER:

Olaf Scholz (SPD)

Economics WORLD’S FOURTH LARGEST ECONOMY

Geography Highest mountain:

ZUGSPITZE (2,962 M)

Longest river:

RHINE (865 KM)

Largest and deepest lake: LAKE CONSTANCE

(536 km² and 254 m deep) 114,191 km² of FOREST

NEIGHBORS:

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland

Germany is a popular destination for students. Low tuition costs and a relatively low cost of living are an obvious draw, but it’s the wide range of universities and diverse fields of study that really attract attention. In fact, almost 15 percent of students in the current semester are foreigners. If you’re a new arrival, try kick-starting your studies with an allround degree in facts about Germany. First, do the math and learn that there are more women in Germany than men. If you

have a keen entrepreneurial spirit, you’re in the right place: did you know that the printing press, the MP3 and the automobile were all invented here? Green-thumbed geographers will feel right at home among 114,191 km² of forest. And if you’re drawn to gender studies, head to Berlin. Whatever your major, pick up some extra credit in linguistics – and some street cred – by tackling one of Germany’s 16-plus dialects. Jump right in to this triviafilled curriculum.

BY MIRIAM K AROUT ILLUSTR ATION L AN TRUONG

2.7 %

GDP growth in 2021 5.7%

Unemployment rate Most important exports: MOTOR VEHICLES AND PARTS

210.1 billion euros (15.3% of total German exports) MACHINES

195.5 billion euros (14.2%) CHEMICAL PRODUCTS

137 billion euros (10%)

MAT TE RS Period: 2020‒22; Sources: Destatis; Deutsches Studentenwerk; Facts about Germany; Bundesrat.de; WWF; Deutsches Historisches Museum (Lebendiges Museum Online); Deutschland.de; Babbel Magazine; Goethe-Institut; Deutsche Welle; Bundesagentur für Arbeit; EduRank; Leverage Edu; ZEIT Germany

... and pick up some fun facts about Germany along the way Natural Sciences

Linguistics

48,000 animal species

THIRD MOST POPULAR LANGUAGE

9,500 plant species

15.4 MILLION

people outside of Germany learn the language

14,400 fungus species

Famous German Scientists...

16+ REGIONAL DIALECTS

ALBERT EINSTEIN ROBERT KOCH

A doughnut is called

LISE MEITNER

“BERLINER” in Cologne, “KRAPFEN” in Bavaria, “KREPPL” in Mainz, “PFANNKUCHEN” in Berlin

EMMY NOETHER MAX PLANCK WILHELM RÖNTGEN ÖZLEM TÜRECI

Semantics

German Inventions

Gender Studies

Women’s History

enjoyment obtained from the misery of others

PRINTING PRESS

7.4% of Germans

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN,

BUNSEN BURNER

TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR GENDER STUDIES

AUTOMOBILE COFFEE FILTER MP3 GUMMY BEARS ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

identify as queer

Freie Universität Berlin 2.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 3.

Goethe University of Frankfurt

the polymath (1098–1179) HANNAH HÖCH,

the artist (1889–1978) ELISABETH SELBERT,

the lawyer (1896–1986) HANNAH ARENDT,

the philosopher (1906–1975) ANGELA MERKEL,

the Chancellor (b. 1954)

SCHADENFREUDE

WELTSCHMERZ

(literally “world pain”): deep pain and sadness that results from one’s own suffering and that of the entire world FERNWEH

(also known as Wanderlust): the opposite of homesickness KUMMERSPECK

(literally “grief bacon”): when someone gains weight from overeating due to Angst or Weltschmerz

Z GERMANY

Cost of Living and Studying (in euros)

Annual Tuition

Monthly Rent (on campus)

Monthly Transportation

Furtwangen University

260

275

Technical University of Munich

285

350

Harvard University

51,251

1,128

140

London School of Economics

27,354

1,055

128

Dive into the German speaking world!

Sources: Furtwangen University; Technical University of Munich; Harvard University; London School of Economics; Numbeo; XE Currency Converter; ZEIT calculations

SPEND IT!

Discover the German-language magazine of ZEIT SPRACHEN! Deuu tsch perfekt magazine makkes learning German fun and informative. It’s the perff ect combination of proffessional journalism and s u cce s sf u l l a n g u age t ra i n i n g .

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ZEIT-SPRACHEN.DE/GERMANY

BY MADELEINE POLL ARD ILLUSTR ATION L AN TRUONG

Living and studying in Germany is cheaper than in other Western countries. The numbers speak for themselves

Monthly Health Insurance

Loaf of Bread

Cup of Cappuccino

Glass of Beer

Number of Students

Percentage of Foreign Students

1.60

2.84

3.50

5,046

110

1.62

3.23

4.00

48,296

503

3.46

4.22

6.10

35,276

1.38

3.79

7.00

12,181

MASTER

GERMANY

MASTER OF FARMS

2 04

Uni Hohenheim

MASTER OF HORSES

Uni Göttingen

PHOTOS LEA FR ANKE

Some German universities offer hyper-specialized degrees in quirky subjects. Are they kidding? DIE ZEIT columnist Thomas Fischermann demurs

OF DISASTER

MASTER OF TRAFFIC

MASTER OF RECORDER

Uni Kassel

HDMK Stuttgart

I am always happy to welcome the editor of this magazine to my office, but I am often unsure of her assignments. “Can you, as a German, explain what’s up with all these specialized programs at German universities?” she recently asked with an amused look on her face. “I mean, look at the Master’s in Lawn-keeping they’re offering in Osnabrück. This can’t be for real, right?” Well, let me clear up some misunderstandings. German universities are no laughing matter. There is nothing funny about an academic culture where you can earn a master’s in everything about crystals in Freiburg, a master’s in bike traffic in the small town of Wildau just outside of Berlin, or a bachelor’s in playing with puppets in Stuttgart. This is Germany preparing you for the future. Highly developed industrial and service economies 22

require an up-to-date skillset, and thankfully, the people who brought you Ritter Sport chocolate, the automobile, and the cuckoo clock are now busy training Fachpersonal (skilled personnel) for all future growth areas. Take, for one, death. Regensburg University’s website makes its point very clear. “Around one million people die in Germany every year,” it notes, “and the trend is up. Dying is a growth area in an aging society.” This, of course, is exemplary; the university has spotted a gaping hole in the labor force and is ready

to fill it. Regensburg’s Masterstudiengang Perimortale Wissenschaften (PeWi) – let’s call it a master’s in death – draws bits and pieces from medicine, legal studies, communication science, pedagogy and, yes, philosophy and theology. The admission requirements for the degree include a “willingness to work with fundamental themes of human existence” and “an interest in practical work related to death.” And the course always starts in the winter semester, which means that the skies are gray and the nights will get longer and longer each week. And that’s just one program. German universities offer more than 20,000 different specialized degrees, up significantly from 11,000 ten years ago. So if you are too cool for a mainstream degree in economics, linguistics, law, or engineering, here are some exciting niche offerings.

MASTER OF RISK

MASTER OF FOOD

Bauhaus-Uni Weimar

Uni Bayreuth

MASTER OF TRASH

Germans are world champions at sorting their litter into blue, yellow, brown, and green bins, but the true professional needs more than that. The Technische Universität Dresden welcomes students to its master’s in Abfallwirtschaft und Altlasten (waste management and contaminated sites). It will teach you everything about waste and recycling and provide you with skills all the way to building your own plants for burning, bio-composting, or radiological treatment. Your master of trash does not just promise to open up career opportunities; you also will find it a great conversation opener in any German neighborhood. MASTER OF IÁÁL

Foreign students may think learning German is hard enough. They don’t know about the Frisian

dialects, of which there are at least six. These were once widely spoken by the descendants of North Sea Germans, and each dialect sounds completely distinct from the other. There are still a few speakers today, and in order to understand what they are saying, the University of Kiel offers a specialized master’s in Friesische Philologie – Frisistik for short. Word has it that this philological sub-specialty is taught mostly from the office of its sole remaining professor. Oh, and I need to explain that Iáál means fire—a helpful

word if you’re vacationing on one of the beautiful Frisian islands and need to alert your neighbors in an emergency. Unless your neighbors are from a different part of Friesland, in which case you want to alternatively shout Fjuur!, or Jöl! or Iilj! This is where your master’s in Frististik comes in. MASTER OF THE CRAFT

Yes, this is Germany. At least five universities offer a bachelor’s or master’s in Brauwesen und Getränketechnologie (beer brewing and beverage technology), or BrGe for short. As the Technische Universität München (TUM) puts it: “Modern processes, larger brewery plants, and new products require a well-founded interdisciplinary education. Our program provides you with a scientific foundation for understanding the bio23

MASTER OF TRANSFORMATION

MASTER OF LEISURE

Uni Flensburg

Hochschule Bremen

chemistry, biotransformation, physical and chemical properties of drinks, and equips you with the engineering skills for planning and running modern production facilities.” You can’t miss the hint at solid job prospects, either. According to TUM, Germany is home to 1,400 breweries, 400 fruit-juice makers, and 320 producers of soft drinks – essential pillars of German economy and society that will never go out of business. MASTER OF DISASTER

The University of Bonn prepares students for a particularly rare contingency in Germany: something going wrong. Its master’s degree in Katastrophenvorsorge und Katastrophenmanagement (KaVoMa for short) translates roughly to “preparing for and managing catastrophes.” Without pointing any 24

fingers, the university simply informs soberly: “The appropriate preparation for and management of catastrophes are gaining in importance.” Entry requirements are steep; you need at least three years’ job experience in a related field. Degree in hand, you may find a job in anything from government institutions to NGOs to private companies securing critical infrastructure – such as beer breweries. BACHELOR OF CREAMS AND GLITTER

The uncanny physical attractive ness of many Germans – from

Heidi Klum’s glitz to Olaf Scholz’s polish – isn’t just a freak of nature. One of our national beauty secrets is Technische Universität Darmstadt. Its bachelor’s program in Körperpflege (personal hygiene and makeup) is a thorough nine-semester (4.5-year) plan of study and offers courses in everything from “Introduction to the Chemistry of Cosmetics” to “Theory of Fashion.” Oh, and it qualifies you as a schoolteacher as well. MASTER OF SEX

Hochschule Merseburg, in a far-off region of eastern Germany, offers a master’s in Angewandte Sexualwissenschaften, which translates quite nicely as “applied sexual sciences.” This is probably not very interesting. As you can see, German universities and teaching staff are giving their all. But there are still a few

MASTER OF DISASTER

MASTER OF CRYSTALS

Uni Bonn

Uni Freiburg

old-schoolers lurking in the background. Germany’s Wissenschaftsrat (Science and Humanities Council), for example – the board advising on the optimal direction for German higher education – keeps on nagging about an alleged problem of “über-specialization.” This is mostly because Wissenschaftsrat members are big fans of a seventeenth-century person named Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), a famous scholar who used to live in Hanover, where he walked around town in a gigantic dark brown wig (think “inverse afro”). Leibniz, in other words, is the Mr. Big of German academia. You will find his name and his bust everywhere, because he is widely regarded as the last great Universalgelehrte, or polymath. He knew everything about just about any scientific field of his time, with

the possible exception of chocolate cookie recipes. In the spirit of their know-itall patron saint, Wissenschaftsrat types argue that German universities no longer shape academics with such a broad view of the world. Instead, the criticism goes, they turn out Fachidioten – “expert idiots” who know one thing very well but nothing else. But that’s just the Wissenschaftsrat’s opinion. The real question is: what do future employers make of these degrees? Will they understand what you are about

when you present them with your Master of Change Management in the Water Industry (Leipzig), Master of Leisure and Tourism (Bremen), or Master of Transformation (Flensburg)? Piece of advice: Pick a degree that makes the answer to this question abundantly clear. My personal recommendation would be to get a master’s in Eurythmiepädagogik, which is offered at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart. Eurythmy is an expressive dance form developed circa 1910, and it is all about dancing your name, waving colorful pieces of cloth around, and teaching others to do the same. It’s a short course, taking just one year to complete, and any future employer will know precisely what skillset you bring to the job. Welcome to Germany! 25

In a culture that otherwise stresses punctuality, it’s an ironic eccentricity of German academia that university classes often begin exactly 15 minutes late. The akademisches Viertel (academic quarter hour) is an honored custom at institutions of higher learning in German-speaking countries. This simply means that many professors start their lectures at 15 minutes after the hour specified on the course schedule. In the zippy era of e-scooters and e-learning, some students may wonder whether this practice is still timely. But the centuriesold tradition is unlikely to vanish from Germany anytime soon, so it pays to get used to it. Foreign students who haven’t encountered the concept before may want to brush up on their Latin. Since the nineteenth century, German course schedules have included the abbreviation c.t. (cum tempore, Latin for “with time”) to flag classes that start 15 minutes past the hour, while s.t. (sine tempore) denotes a class that starts promptly on the hour. In other words, whether you can take that extra 15 minutes comes down to knowing the difference between cum and sine – with or without. At institutions like LudwigMaximilians-Universität München (LMU) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, university handbooks still use these quaint abbreviations to clarify when a lecture or seminar begins. In Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) simply notes in its practical tips that the academic quarter hour is “in accordance with German academic custom.” So why do so many German universities still uphold this centuries-old tradition? Because that’s how things have always been done. On larger campuses, moreover, it really helps to give students time to move from one location to the

PLEASE BE LATE! The academic quarter is taken for granted on many German university campuses. But what exactly is it?

next. The University of Freiburg, for example, is a large campus, and some of its departments are situated quite far apart. According to Rudolf Werner Dreier, former chairman of the university’s alumni association, it makes sense to apply the academic quarter hour across the entire institution. Some foreign students find the practice puzzling. Austin Davis falls into that category. The 29-year-old Michigan native is a master’s student at Berlin’s Hertie School of Governance. He recalls learning about the “academic quarter” in 2013 during a crash course on German university life to prepare for his bachelor’s studies in Freiburg. Despite the sprawling campus, Davis says he rarely needed the extra time.

No one knows when exactly the quarter hour entered academia. According to Dreier, who researched a book on the history of the University of Freiburg, its origins may lie in the colleges and universities that shaped academic life in the Catholic regions of Germany 400 years ago, when Latin was used for time schedules in dormitories, along with everything else. Back then, students would have needed more time to move from class to class. Centralized teaching spaces were few and far between. As German higher education developed, one of its main tenets became academic freedom. Because scholars had a strong desire to function outside of areas of political and economic control, lectures

BY BARBAR A WOOLSEY ILLUSTR ATION CÉLINE DUCROT

often took place throughout entire university towns, sometimes even in a professor’s own home. But why start at exactly 15 minutes past the hour? In university towns, like everywhere else, church bells used to be the primary method of timekeeping. The first pocket watch was invented in 1510 by a German clockmaker in Nuremberg, but students wouldn’t have been able to afford such luxuries until the nineteenth century at the earliest. The tradition of the academic quarter persisted in Germany as large public campuses grew and spread out over whole towns, cities, and sometimes regions. Professors welcomed the interval as a chance to recap previous sessions. Students who didn’t feel the need to review the material could simply show up 15 minutes later. At many German universities, the custom has continued. It is generally practiced for lectures assigned a two-hour time slot. And when a class begins at a quarter past, it usually also ends at quarter to. In practical terms, that means a lecture blocked for two hours typically lasts only 90 minutes. The Latin terms have meanwhile receded and are no longer widely used – or even known – by students. Professors tend to make a personal decision whether or not to apply the academic quarter hour. Rather than specifying c.t. or s.t. in the course catalogue, they will simply clarify their preference on the first day of class. Today at the HU, it’s still up to professors to decide whether or not they want to start at quarter past the hour. Anabel Pfützenreuter, a 24-year-old master’s student in Asian and African Studies there, finds that it can be useful to have the extra 15 minutes for in-person classes but that it is less needed in a remote learning context. “Everybody plans for two hours anyway,” she says. 27

ANAS HADDAD, 22, UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG 28

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E XPE D ITI O N S From Yabroud to Hamburg A physics student from Syria expands his network through a science scholarship BY DEBOR AH STEINBORN PHOTO FLORIAN THOSS

Ask Anas Haddad about his biggest challenge since arriving in Germany and his answer may surprise you. The most difficult moments, the bachelor’s student at the University of Hamburg says after some thought, didn’t come right after his family found refuge from Syria’s brutal civil war. They came much more recently, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. In March 2020, campus life, libraries, shops, organized sports, and nearly everything else shut down across Germany practically overnight. Haddad, his parents, and two younger siblings found themselves “locked in” together in their Hamburg apartment. The sense of déjà-vu was distressing. “It reminded me of our time in Damascus,” the 22-year-old recalls. Back in early 2014, as war escalated in the Syrian capital, the family was, in a sense, “also locked in at home,” he says. “In Hamburg, it was the fear of the virus. In Syria, it was the fear of war. But in both places, you didn’t know exactly what was coming the next day.” More than a decade has passed since civil war broke out in Haddad’s homeland back in March 2011. Germany has taken in more refugees from the ongoing conflict than any other European country. This is largely due to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in the summer of 2015 to welcome hundreds of thousands fleeing the war. Anas Haddad entered his teens amid that war. By the end of 2013, his family of five had fled their hometown of Yabroud, an ancient city in the mountains north of the capital. Life there had become untenable. “There were power failures, broken windows, not to mention all the fighting that was

happening around us,” Haddad recalls. After first seeking safety in Damascus, they moved to Hamburg via Lebanon. An uncle had lived in the German port city for decades. He helped them get their visas and apply for asylum. Though coming to Europe involved culture shock, young Haddad settled in. He completed an integration class at the Europaschule Hamburg and picked up German quickly. Raised Catholic, he got involved in church activities and started to play in a local volleyball league. He transferred to a high school that was a better fit, finding a circle of good friends and teachers who encouraged his interest in math and science. After graduating with strong grades, he applied to university physics programs and secured a spot. He’s now hard at work on his bache lor’s thesis in particle physics. His topic: “the search for di-Higgs production in boosted b-b-tautau final states.” Syrians comprise the thirdlargest group of international students in Germany today, after students from China and India. According to the German Aca-

demic Exchange Service (DAAD), students with a Syrian passport and a high-school degree from Syria accounted for 16,931 students at German universities in the winter semester of 2020–21. Haddad admits that, even with his strong academic motivation, it wasn’t easy to enter the university system as an immigrant. He faced hidden obstacles, things he couldn’t quite put a finger on. “Sometimes, it was the language. I would get stuck trying to recall a word, trying to describe something,” he says. “But also, I kept hearing that as an immigrant, you have fewer opportunities. I became a bit scared that I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I wanted.” Then, in spring 2020, he heard about a promising scholarship. A university-wide email announced a call for applications to Schotstek, a Hamburg-based organization that mentors ambitious students with backgrounds like his. He felt like the email was speaking directly to him. “It even mentioned invisible hurdles facing students with migration backgrounds,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘That is a scholarship that I really want to have.’” Haddad applied and was awarded one of the prestigious spots. He says he has benefited tremendously from the program, which connects students with practitioners in science and business. As he nears completion of his bachelor’s degree, he’s now motivated to think big about what’s next. He says he can imagine continuing his studies toward a doctoral program, perhaps in medical physics. Meanwhile, he applied for and obtained German citizenship last year. He’s now a dual citizen of Germany and Syria, and proud of it. 29

ROSA CORDILLERA A. CASTILLO, 40, HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN 30

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From Manila to Berlin How a Filipina anthropologist seeks to decolonize knowledge and supports foreign students, too BY BARBAR A WOOLSEY PHOTO K ASIA ZACHARKO

Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo has always been her mother’s daughter. The anthropologist, now a post-doc at the Seminar for Southeast Asian History and Society at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), was raised in metropolitan Manila. Her mother, Fatima AlvarezCastillo, is a social scientist, former dean, and retired professor at the University of the Philippines Manila. Castillo’s childhood included sitting in on her mother’s university lectures, leafing through issues of National Geographic lying around the house, and accompanying Fatima Alvarez-Castillo on trips across the country to train nurses, midwives, and doctors on ethical and gender-fair health care. “When I was a teenager, my sister and I would travel for hours with her from one town to the next,” Castillo recalls. “I learned about ethical principles and practices as well as critical, feminist, and intersectional perspectives. After I entered academia, we became collaborators, doing research projects together and co-writing. She has been my mentor.” This intellectually stimulating upbringing was instrumental in Castillo’s decision to pursue anthropology. Since joining the HU’s Institute for Asian and African Studies in 2017, she has been a strong advocate of broadening representation in German academia – and decolonizing knowledge more generally. “We are just at the beginning of a long-needed process that would hopefully undo structures of inequality and exclusion within and outside the classroom,” she explains. In addition to urgent structural changes, there is also “a need to critically examine the curricula and incorporate more works by thinkers who are female, LGBTQ+, Global South, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color while confronting Eurocentrism.” Castillo’s teaching activity includes advanced seminars on decolonizing research and methodolo-

gy. She encourages her students to think critically about citation practices and research ethics and to draw on sources that extend beyond European scholarship. She also advises and helps to lead initiatives that encourage diversity in a university setting. Castillo was herself an outsider to German academia when she moved to the country in 2011. She earned her doctorate in anthropology from the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies at the Freie Universität Berlin. She had the support of an Excellence Initiative scholarship from the German Research Foundation. For her dissertation, which ultimately earned her a summa cum laude distinction, she spent more than a year on the island of Mindanao doing ethnographic fieldwork among members and supporters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Her research, conducted amid insurgency and uncertain peace talks, explored the role of imagination and memory in the formation of subjectivities and in acts of exclusion, violence, and resistance. Returning from her fieldwork to Germany involved big readjustments, Castillo says. One challenge involved nightmares from the harrowing stories that had been entrusted to her. In-

tegrating back into academic routines was another. Last but not least, there was the logistical pressure of navigating bureaucracy as a relative newcomer who did not yet speak German. Even in that difficult re-entry experience, Castillo found opportunity. It led her to start a workshop for doctoral students called “Post-Field Conversations.” Its sessions aspire to provide a safe and supportive atmosphere for participants “to share their research experiences and dilemmas, including ethical issues, and to decompress and unload in an academic system that otherwise rarely addresses the personal and emotional challenges of fieldwork,” she says. Listening to fellow students’ accounts, Castillo came to understand how tight bureaucracy sometimes adversely excludes non-Germans from academic opportunities. Even simple procedures such as obtaining a visa and applying for housing can pose time-consuming stumbling blocks. And while many universities make information available in both German and English, immigration authorities and rental agencies are a different story, typically demanding an immense amount of documentation, often in German only. She was fortunate, she says; she had a scholarship and, later on, an academic position, albeit temporary, that enabled her to focus on academic work. Today, from her position on the faculty, she continues to push for more resources and initiatives that encourage multicultural, gender-plural representation at the HU. She has founded two projects advancing Philippine studies at the university with Filipino/Tagalog language classes and Philippine studies seminars and cultural events. And she has another goal in sight: tenure. This would help her not only to deepen her own scholarship in peace and conflict studies, but also to advocate even more powerfully on behalf of students coming to Germany from abroad. 31

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AKADEMISCHES VIERTEL

n. (academic quarter hour) a 15-minute discrepancy between the announced start time for a lecture or lesson and the actual start time, practiced at many German universities.

DEFINING VOCABULARY German universities have a language all their own. Key terms to help cut through the jargon

BAFÖG n. (German Federal Training Assistance Act) a federal act regulating state-funded financial aid for students in higher education. Half of this financial support usually takes the form of a grant; the other half is an interest-free state loan of up to 10,000 euros. The loan must be repaid in installments after completion of studies. BOLOGNA-PROZESS m. (higher education reform) 1. a series of agreements between 49 European countries to ensure common standards of higher education (named after the university where education ministers from 29 countries signed a declaration in 1999). 2. introduction of a two-tiered structure of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as easy transfer of credits between institutions within this bloc of countries, which is known as the European Higher Education Area, or EHEA. DEUTSCHER AKADEMIS C H E R A U S TA U S C H DIENST (DAAD) m. (German

Academic Exchange Service) 1. a large federally and statefunded, self-governing support organization for international aca d emic cooper a tion. 2. a popular sourceof scholarship funding and research grants for foreigners studying in Germany. www.daad.de/en DEUTSCHE FORSCHUNGSGEMEINSCHAFT (DFG) f.

(German Research Foundation) an organization that funds re32

BY DEBOR AH STEINBORN ILLUSTR ATION CÈLINE DUCROT

search at universities and other institutions through a variety of grants and prizes. It’s the largest funding organization in Europe. www.dfg.de/en

qualification, requiring defense of a major work of independent scholarship.

DUALES STUDIUM n. (dual study) 1. a sys-

n. (university ranking) a ranking of institutions of higher learning based on diverse factors. The CHE University Ranking, for example, ranks institutions according to student and faculty assessments. https://ranking.zeit.de/che/en/

ERASMUS-PROGRAMM n. (Erasmus Pro-

gram) 1. a student-exchange program financed by the European Union, combining all current EU schemes for education, training, youth, and sports. 2. acronym for European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. EXZELLENZSTRATEGIE f. (excellence strategy) 1. a long-term effort by the German Ministry of Education and Research to promote cutting-edge research conditions for scholars, better cooperation between academic disciplines as well as institutions, and the global reputation of German universities and research institutions. 2. an initiative awarding special status to 11 German public universities. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021, five of these so-called elite universities are among Europe’s top 25: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Technical University of Munich, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Heidelberg University, and University of Tübingen. HOCHSCHULE FÜR ANGEWANDTE WISSENSCHAFTEN (HAW) f. (university of

applied sciences) an institution of higher vocational education, often focussing on specific areas such as engineering or business. On average, an institution of this kind hosts 5,000 students. FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT n. (research in-

stitute) a research body typically outside of the university system. The top four – FraunhoferGesellschaft, Helmholtz Association, Max Planck Society, and Leibniz Association – employ about 87,000 researchers and research assistants. HABILITATION f. (post-doctoral qualification) 1. a post-doctoral degree necessary for a full professorship at German universities. 2. Germany’s highest academic

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) is one of the largest research universities in Germany. Our values of innovation, diversity and passion are the key to our consistently high national and international rankings. Come and join the FAU family.

MENSA f. (dining hall) a campus location that provides meals to university students and staff. Subsidized meals usually cost less than four euros. PRÜ FU N G SAMT n. (ex amination office) a university division that handles all matters related to student exams and also issues educational certificates. Students need to register to take exams in Germany.

38000+ students

TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE f. (technical university)

a university that specializes in engineering, technology, and related fields. Some confer doctorates, while others do not.

275+ years of history

UNIVERSITÄT (UNI) f. (university) 1. an institution of high er learning with facilities for teaching and research that also awards bachelor’s and master’s degrees. It hosts on average 16,000 students. 2. an education al body with the right to confer doctorates. WOHNGEMEINSCHAFT (WG) f. (shared apartment) a

private living arrangement that accommodates several biologically unrelated people. Tenants in this arrangement share common areas such as bathroom, kitchen, and living room but occupy their own bedrooms.

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SOLAR

BY MADELEINE POLL ARD PHOTOS FR ANZ GRÜNEWALD

After decades of ups and downs, solar researchers are leading Germany toward more self-reliance in energy

CHARGERS

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In late February 2022, the United Nations’ Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) voiced a dire warning. Climate change is now irreversible, it said, and there’s little time left to avert its worst consequences. Amid headlines announcing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, the news was largely lost, in Germany as everywhere else. Yet the two crises are far from distinct. War in U kraine has now highlighted Germany’s precarious dependence on Russian fossil fuels and confirmed that transitioning to renewables is a matter of security as much as climate. “The war has made politicians much more sensitive to our [energy] dependency,” says Andreas Bett, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, the largest solar research institute in Europe. “Three years ago, no one wanted to hear it.” It’s high time, say solar researchers throughout Germany. Solar power as an industry has experienced booms and busts over the past two decades. But scientists at large and small research institutes alike in the country have continued to forge ahead with trailblazing research and development in the field. Indeed, much cutting-edge solar research originated in Germany. In 2017, the German Aerospace Center even de veloped the world’s largest artificial sun. Located at a site not far from Cologne, it continues to serve in experiments producing CO₂-neutral fuels using solar energy. Now, as Europeans wake up to the manifold benefits of solar energy, industry has a chance to put years of research into practice. Bett is not only concerned with Germany’s dependence on fossil fuel imports. He believes that Germany also relies too heavily on imports for the materials necessary to install solar energy. “We are pushing for technological sovereignty here in Europe and Germany,” he says, explaining that Germany shouldn’t be fully dependent on external sourcing. Moves to re-establish a domestic solar industry are top ping the agenda as Germany’s solar-power sector undergoes a second wave of expansion. Historically, solar power expanded at breakneck speed in the wake of Germany’s Renewable Energy Act in 2000, when a feed-in tariff was introduced to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. German solar cell manufacturers proliferated as the market for photovoltaic (PV) systems boomed. But the country fell behind after 2012 when competitors in China, aided by more favorable industrial policies such as credit guarantees, began offering solar panels for a lot less. Investors swapped German for foreign supplies, prices plummeted, and German companies went bankrupt. Between 2013 and 2015, solar expansion in Germany fell by 80 percent despite doubling globally during the same period, according to Clean Energy Wire, a news platform focused on the global energy transition. Today, however, solar power has become the cheapest way to generate power in Germany. According to Fraunhofer ISE, solar panels can generate one kilowatt-hour of energy 22

at 3.7 eurocents, compared to 3.99 eurocents generated through onshore wind power, or 11.03 eurocents or more through gas power plants. That is largely due to technologi cal innovations, which have continued to thrive in Germany despite the market turbulence. Bianca Lim witnessed the waxing, then waning interest in solar power firsthand. She is a physicist on the strategic planning team at the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin (ISFH), which punches above its weight in terms of size. Compared to Fraunhofer ISE’s roughly 1,400 em ployees, ISFH is home to just 155 employees; around 90 of them work in the PV department. Lim, who grew up in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, joined the institute as a doctoral student in 2007. She recalls noticing the shift from boom to bust most starkly at the annual European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition.

“People were convinced that they were doing good work ... but the global competition was so fierce” “The exhibition was big when I started. There were a lot of European companies, and it grew even larger in the following years,” she recalls. “Then around 2012, everything got smaller. There were fewer exhibitors. A lot of the companies used to throw parties during the exhibition week, and that completely disappeared.” The collapse of Germany’s solar industry meant the loss of industrial partners for its research institutes. “It was really tough when solar cell production ceased,” says Lim, because industry is “at the heart of solar research in Germany. If you don’t have strong industrial partners to invest in your projects and collaborate with, it’s much more difficult.” She recalls the sense of frustration that gripped researchers: “People were convinced that they were doing good work, that they had good ideas, that the industry was making good products. But the global competition was so fierce.” Unlike production, solar research managed to retain its edge in Germany. Government funding stepped in to fill the gap when industrial investors pulled out. “The German government did a good job keeping PV research going even in the face of a disappearing solar industry,” says Eicke Weber, co-chair of the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) and director of Fraunhofer ISE from 2006 through 2016. “Most of the technological breakthroughs of the last years were achieved in Germany as a result.” As proof, Weber ticks off recent solar cell innovations that have emerged from German research institutes. Not surprisingly, these new technologies come with some complicated acronyms. There’s the TOPCon technology developed by

Solar panels in Berlin-Mariendorf: Where sheep may safely graze

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Fraunhofer ISE in 2013, a game-changer in conversion efficiency. Then there are bifacial PERC-cells, developed by Fraunhofer ISE and ISFH for SolarWorld in 2014. And lastly, IBC cells developed by the International Solar Energy Research Center Konstanz are a cost-effective technology now available on the PV market, according to the institute. (PERC stands for Passivated Emitter Rear Contact, while IBC stands for Interdigitated Back Contact.) Another outcome of that perseverance? Today, the German solar research landscape attracts new talent from home as well as abroad. Large research institutes like ISFH and Fraunhofer ISE are one feature of the landscape; universities like the University of Konstanz, with its highly regarded photovoltaics department, also have a strong global reputation in their fields. Katharina Genowski, from Lindlar in North RhineWestphalia, is one beneficiary of that landscape. One of 93 doctoral students currently based at Fraunhofer ISE, she’s conducting research on dispensing – a process that applies metal contacts to solar cells, which conduct the current. She came to the institute for a master’s degree, intending to stay six months; she’s been there for five years.“The field is vast,” Genowski says. “I would never say I understand solar

cells from A to Z. It’s just that I’m the expert on solar cell metallization, and even that is a big topic. You can find at least one expert for each subtopic.” Elsewhere, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research (PIK), doctoral student Kelsey Barton-Henry is using AI methodologies to understand individual decision-making around issues related to climate change. These include a household’s decision to put up a solar panel. She found that, compared to other socio-economic and demographic variables, the most important factor influencing this decision was the density of nearby solar panels. Barton-Henry, who hails from Connecticut and is two years into her degree, enjoys the diversity of research projects at PIK as well as Germany’s “forward-looking” approach to climate issues. “It’s easy to see internationally that Germany is moving forward on the climate mitigation front,” BartonHenry says. “It’s definitely a good environment for a Ph.D. related to climate change.” In January, Germany’s new coalition government announced its ambition to quadruple its solar capacity to 200 gigawatts by the year 2030. Among other things, this will make rooftop solar mandatory for all new commercial buildings in the country.

For Bett at Fraunhofer ISE, the focus of this second wave of expansion should be on re-establishing PV production in Germany and Europe – a measure that will lower transport costs and shipping emissions, create more industrial partners for solar research, and greatly improve energy security. “We have to build up capacity very quickly,” Bett says. Weber is pushing for this at ESMC as well. “When people say we are having a second solar boom, they think about accelerating the installation of solar systems, which is exactly right,” he says. “But we should also be talking about manufacturing. Do we want to base the transformation of our energy system on imported modules? Shouldn’t we go for domestic production?” His concerns go well beyond overreliance on Russian energy exports. In addition to Germany’s dependence on Russia – or even the US – for fossil fuels, Weber is also worried about solar manufacturing imports from China. “Especially troubling are imports from authoritarian countries that are not part of our democratic value chain,” he says. “Things can happen in the future that we can’t predict, and if it concerns our energy system, this dependency is painful to see. We need to build up our own manufacturing base. We have the research.”

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Fast Facts about Solar Research CHEAPEST MODE OF POWER

Solar panels (3.7 eurocents per kilowatt hour) LARGEST SOLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN EUROPE

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg WORLD‘S LARGEST ARTIFICIAL SUN

Housed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), near Cologne 200 GIGAWATTS OF PHOTOVOLTAIC CAPACITY

Germany’s goal for 2030, announced in January 2022 GERMANY‘S RENEWABLE ENERGY ACT (EEG)

Introduced in 2000 to accelerate investment in renewable energy technology

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INTERVIEW DEBOR AH STEINBORN PHOTOS MARIAN LENHARD

“ TALKING

ABOUT A NEW WORLD ORDER” When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, cooperative research between the EU and Russia came to a halt, and Science Diplomacy became a buzzword. What exactly is this new field? Maria Rentetzi, a prominent historian of science and technology, explains

Professor Rentetzi, as a leading scholar of science diplomacy, you have come into the limelight this year. This term is suddenly on everyone’s lips – in Germany, Europe, and beyond. What exactly is science diplomacy, and why is it such a hot topic? Well, academics never can agree on strict definitions. But the idea of “science diplomacy” goes back to 2010, when the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society began to explore whether science could be used to resolve diplomatic issues that couldn’t be solved by traditional forms of diplomacy. The idea is that, because science is universal and objective, it provides a language that everyone understands, everyone trusts, and everyone believes. Science is science, plain and simple. But this is problematic. Could you elaborate? The assumption that science is objective is problematic on several levels, actually. From a 40

historical point of view, we realize that “objectivity” and “truth” are always quite dynamic.

“Scientific sanctions were issued the very day that Russia invaded Ukraine”

ZEIT Germany conducted this interview on May 11, 2022

And yet science diplomacy has gained a lot of attention of late. Why? People have been talking about a new world order. And I agree that one of its basic dimensions has been and will be science. After February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, science was nearly the very first tool that Europe and the US used to pressure Russia. The first scientific sanctions were issued the very day that Russia invaded Ukraine. Many nations have spoken out against Russia, but others are hedging their bets. To what extent is this division also evident in the field of science? Germany was one of the very first, if not the first, to impose scientific sanctions. The HRK [German Rectors’ Conference – an association of public and government-recognized highereducation institutions in Germany], asked on

Maria Rentetzi, 53, Chair for Science, Technology and Gender Studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

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Day One that universities and research groups impose sanctions, take action, crack down – not on the individual scientists but on Russia and Russian research institutes. The US followed suit. Then the whole European Union came aboard. And perhaps even more significantly, CERN [the European Organization for Nuclear Research] also took action. This was a sign that we had entered a new world order. Keep in mind that CERN was established in the 1950s as a way to encourage international research collaboration. So this was the response of the Western world, including Japan. But the picture is different in Africa. And it is also different in China and other Asian countries. To give just one example, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of foreign affairs recently tweeted a map of the world showing which countries had put scientific and economic sanctions on Russia. The map is very revealing about the ways the Western world responded

to the war. So the current moment is an opportunity to analyze science diplomacy and examine its impact around the world. And is this type of analysis part of your new role as a chair at FAU? Absolutely. Few historians of science have focused on the impact of international organizations on the sciences. I started this research in order to explore the connection between science and diplomacy – especially nuclear diplomacy – throughout history. A European Research Council consolidator grant that I received made this possible. And a grant from the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art (Bayerisches Staats ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst) in the context of the internationalization of Bavarian universities will help develop an educational program at FAU in this field. So the current discussion on science diplomacy – though it stems from a tragic development, the war in Ukraine – brings our

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historical research to the fore. To me what is surprising today is how forceful research institutes, universities, international science projects, and countries decided to implement science sanctions as a means of exercising hard power, as it were. Thus, to help us understand the current situation, my aim is to conduct research in order to give more historical examples of – and, in turn, more context for – similar situations from the past. How are scientific sanctions impacting ongoing research in Germany and Europe as a whole? Will the German research landscape suffer in the long term? For one thing, science collaboration in outer space has been hard hit. To be frank, the scientific sanctions against Russia are putting all of the research and international collaboration that had been done in space under threat. Many international space projects are frozen or in danger of being shut down. This is also the case with the International Space Station,

from which the Russians are contemplating an exit. In a symbolic YouTube video, you see the Russians covering up all the flags of their international partners on the Soyuz rocket. And the Max Planck Society put a key German satellite telescope into “sleep mode” after war was launched. [Until Germany froze the collaboration, the X-ray telescope eROSITA was working in tandem with a Russian instrument, the ART-XC, to scan distant galaxies in what was a German-Russian project.] What’s more, the EU halted all collaboration with Russian entities involved in Horizon Europe, the EU’s key program for funding research and innovation. In other words, international science is suddenly a lot less international.

tions. To use a classic metaphor, new bridges between countries will be created to which Europe, for one, may no longer have access. We Europeans should ask ourselves what scientific opportunities we are cutting ourselves off from.

“International science is suddenly a lot less international”

What could current scientific sanctions – and the resulting lack of internationalism in the field – mean in the long run? Russia will probably turn to China and India and develop new research collabora-

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With all these new developments, is science diplomacy a growing field of research? Absolutely. In the last ten years, science diplomacy has attracted a lot of attention both as a practice and on a theoretical level. I hope that I will be able to develop a full course of study on science diplomacy in the coming years. Funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art, we plan to develop a science diplomacy certificate within the next two years in collaboration with the Polytechic University of Madrid. I’m very optimistic about the longer-term opportunities for the field. I want diplomatic studies of science to evolve in academia and become a strong research area, not just a fad.

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ERC [European Research Council] consolidator grant and got it. Since it is one of Europe’s most prestigious grants, I started getting offers from various universities around Europe. I accepted an offer from TU Berlin; my family is bilingual so it was easier for us to come to Germany. Then, last year, FAU made an excellent offer, which involved opportunities to develop my ideas on science diplomacy and diplomatic studies of science. Coming here was really the best professional decision I could have made.

Erlangen‘s Himbeerpalast, former seat of Siemens, future site of FAU

I already see it as a sub-discipline of science and technology studies. You joined FAU a little over a year ago. How did you get from researching in Athens, with a population of more than 3 million, to Erlangen, a Bavarian town with a population of just over 110,000? I was a full professor at National Technical Polytechnic in Athens. The Greek Financial Crisis (of 2009) was very tough; the funding crunch meant I could no longer do my work the way I wanted as a scholar. I decided it was time to look elsewhere. So I applied for an 44

“Germany is gaining relevance not only because of the money it invests in research”

What are the main benefits of researching at FAU, with its three campuses in Erlangen, Fürth, and Nürnberg? FAU is a full-spectrum university in Germany with a historical emphasis on research. Although it is a small city, Erlangen, where I am based, is globally connected both because of the university and because of the proximity to Siemens, the industrial giant. Scholars used to dream of going to the US, but not everyone thinks that way anymore. Under the Trump administration, the US lost a lot of its prestige in science and in other areas. And financially it’s not doing very well either. Universities and research organizations suffered during the Trump years. In contrast, Germany is gaining relevance not only because of the money it invests in research, but also because it thinks internationally. I see this at FAU. “Knowledge in motion” is our motto. I like to say Go global. Open the doors to everyone. On our two campuses in Erlangen and Nuremberg, we have students from all over the world – India, Russia, Brazil, Greece, and beyond. My group is highly interdisciplinary and international with respect to research assistants, Ph.D. students, and post-docs. Why should an international student interested in science diplomacy consider moving to Erlangen? FAU is undergoing reorganization. Until now the focus has been on cultivating connections to US universities, especially the Ivy League. Of course, these connections bring a certain prestige and are always valuable to us. But these universities are looking abroad, too. Until recently they were looking to China. Now they are looking to Africa and Latin America – places that aren’t yet established as

real academic or research collaboration hubs. As a German university, we have the ability to expand, too. We should open up to these continents, establish connections to African universities, recruit more African and Latin American students, and make a difference by encompassing diverse perspectives. FAU already has a master’s program called Las Americas that builds on research on North and Ibero America that FAU colleagues have been carrying out for more than 30 years. That’s definitely a good first step. And now we should expand our international scope. Do you collaborate with German research institutes as well? I am a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Over the years, the institute has supplied great support, and it still does. I have also been working with EELISA, a consortium of nine European universities, of which FAU is also a member. Its idea is to educate the next generation of engineers, both male and female, and to help bring more diversity as well as diverse thinking into the field of engineering. How did you come to study both physics and the history of science? It’s an unusual combination ... From an early age I loved solving problems in physics, so I picked it as my major. But from my very first university semester at the Aristo-

Make it happen.

“We should open up to these continents, establish connections to African universities, recruit more African and Latin American students, and make a difference by encompassing diverse perspectives”

telian University of Thessaloniki in Greece, I realized this was not what I had imagined the course of study to be. I was one of very few female students; there was only one female professor in the department. And the way they were teaching us physics seemed strange to me; there was no connection to reality, to how physics impacts our daily lives. We weren’t asking the key questions that have made physics so important through the centuries and still do. I wanted to look at gender in science, but Greece did not offer gender studies at the time. There was a new program called “history and philosophy of science and technology,” which came closer. I was accepted and finished the program. I was very lucky to have an excellent male professor who encouraged me to apply to a doctoral program in the US and supported my career after that. So I entered a program for science and technology studies at the public research university Virginia Tech. At that point it was already very interdisciplinary. Even back then, my professors were very influential; their research in the intersection of gender, science, and technology studies was highly regarded in academia. I came back to Europe by way of Berlin’s Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Then I got my position at the university in Athens. The crisis hit, I came to Germany, and the rest is history.

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Bountiful scholarships and other grants help foreign students and researchers in Germany. And increasingly, they are supporting refugee scholars too BY MADELEINE POLL ARD AND CATHRIN SCHAER ILLUSTR ATION CÈLINE DUCROT

A HELPING HAND

Alina Maiorova was in the second semester of her master’s degree at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv when Russia invaded Ukraine. The 22-year-old sociology student spent the first terrifying day and night of the invasion in late February 2022 sheltering in the basement of her dormitory with her roommate. The pair then fled the country, eventually making it to Germany. While staying with the parents of a friend near Frankfurt am Main, Maiorova heard of an opportunity to continue her studies at the University of Konstanz. It was a fortunate coincidence. As it turned out, the institution has shared a partnership with her home university for 30 years. University administrators in Konstanz encouraged her to apply for a Baden-Württemberg (BW) Stipendium, an exchange scholarship that supports international students studying in the state. Students get a stipend ranging from 600 to 1,400 euros per month for up to 11 months as well as access to a broad student network and other resources. Maiorova enrolled at the end of April and is settling into life on the shores of Lake Constance. “It’s

really calm here,” she says. “After the war broke out, I guess it was the best place for me.” Maiorova is one of up to 100,000 Ukrainian students and academics expected to relocate to German universities due to the war. Many are seeking funding and other forms of aid. They are just the latest foreigners to benefit from Germany’s abundant Stipendien, an umbrella term encompassing scholarships, fellowships, and grants of all kinds. Indeed, students from all over the world have help from programs offered by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research; independent foundations; the Erasmus program; and other scholarships and grants. Yet many university students from

abroad don’t even know that they can qualify for such aid. Every year, the DAAD (a popular source of scholarship funding) supports well over 100,000 students and researchers in the country and worldwide. Among the foundations, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, which is close to the Green political party. awards roughly 1,200 scholarships each year to students of all nationalities pursuing a degree at state-accredited universities; it supports study in all subjects for undergraduate and graduate students alike. Those are just two of many offerings. Regardless of your background or your degree program, Germany has an abundance of financial, academic, and social support available to motivated students. You just need to know where to look ... NARROW YOUR FOCUS

Research diligently. Scholarships, fellowships, and grants vary widely in criteria and amount of funding awarded. In 2019, the latest data available, three of Germany’s largest scholarship bodies alone doled out an estimated 700 million euros to fund tertiary

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studies, research, and professional development. And there are thousands of opportunities avail able for funding and broader academic help. Church groups, private businesses, foundations, think tanks, and personal estates offer support. The DAAD, the German Center for Foundations, the ministry for education and research, and Euraxess all offer extensive funding databases. But

keep a lookout for smaller organi zations too. FIND YOUR NICHE

With so many scholarships and grants available, if you can think of an unusual scholarship category, you may just find it.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic back in 2020, Anas Haddad, a bachelor’s student in physics at the University of Hamburg (see story p. 28), read in an email about a promising niche scholarship. Schots tek, a Hamburg-based organization that mentors ambitious students with migration backgrounds, was accepting applications. Haddad had fled war in Syria with his family years before; he recalls feel-

Lancaster University Leipzig – Britischer Abschluss in Deutschland Im Januar 2020 nahm die Lancaster University (LU) Leipzig ihren Betrieb als Zweigcampus der britischen Lancaster University auf. Die Lancaster University wurde von der Times und dem Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 als »International University of the Year« ausgezeichnet und gehört zu den besten Universitäten des Vereinigten Königreichs. Im Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022 wird sie auf Platz 11 und im Guardian University Guide 2022 auf Platz 13 geführt. Für den Campus in Leipzig arbeitet die Lancaster University mit dem international Bildungsträger Navitas zusammen in einer ›Public-Private Partnership‹. Derzeit können Studierende zwischen vier von der Lancaster University akkreditierten Bachelor of Science-Programmen wählen: BSc (Hons) Business Management, BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance, BSc (Hons) Computer Science und BSc (Hons) Software Engineering. Außerdem bietet die LU Leipzig Foundation-Programme in Zusammenarbeit mit Navitas an. Im Oktober 2022 wird die LU Leipzig ihr erstes MSc-Programm in Logistik und Supply Chain Management starten. Studierende aus derzeit fast 50 Ländern profitieren von der klaren Strategie von akademischer Lehre, Forschung und Wissenstransfer/Engagement der Universität. Laut Campus Direktorin Dr. Elisabeth Grindel-Denby hat sich die Lancaster University für Leipzig entschieden, weil die Stadt alles das habe, was es braucht, um den Studierenden eine tolle Zeit sowie längerfristige Ansiedlungsmöglichkeiten zu bieten: ein diverses Stadtbild, viele Erholungsangebote, eine studierendenfreundliche Infrastruktur, einen guten Wohnungsmarkt, eine wachsende Industrie – und damit gute Job-Perspektiven, gute Anbindungen an den Rest Europas, und – genauso wie Lancaster – einen »Lake District« gleich um die Ecke.

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ing as if the program had been tailored directly to him. Now a Schotstek fellow, he says he’s benefited greatly from the program, in which practitioners in science and business mentor students. So be creative as you research opportunities. Are you studying at university while parenting a small child? Did your own parents never attend university? Are you Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, or Protestant? Are you interested in architecture and interior design? Are you engaged in environmental causes? Are you LGBTQ+? Did you recently flee a country at war? And don’t overlook the big targets either. The Deutschlandstipendium, for example, provides financial and other support to high academic achievers from all over the world. In 2020 alone, more than 28,000 students received monetary assistance through the program. Even BAföG, a state-sponsored student loan system most often awarded to low-income students, is available to students from abroad as well. BAföG stands for “federal training assistance act,” and after graduation students usually only need to pay back roughly half of the payments they received during their studies.

DO SOME SOUL SEARCHING

Support for students from abroad FO R M USICAL C H U RC H G O ERS Cusanuswerk, a Catholic foundation, offers many scholarships to qualified students, including one to church-going students from the European Union who are enrolled in music studies at the university level. Amount: up to 1,148 euros per month for four years

FOR CREATIVES ON THE RUN The Weltoffenes Berlin Fellowship, run by the state government, supports at-risk artists, musicians,

Before applying, ask yourself how a particular scholarship or grant could help further your career path and life goals. If the funder has a work-study requirement, how much time are you ready to spend working while you learn? And what are the funder’s guiding principles? Indeed, some well-known foundations offering scholarships and other opportunities make no secret of their political leanings. The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung is associated with the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), while the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung leans hard left Consider what fits best with your own beliefs. And like elsewhere in the world, there are differences in what is expected in return for funding and other assistance. Most scholarships are no-stringsattached. Fellowships, by contrast, may require a token in return. You may need to publish your research findings in a newsletter or present them. Some donors might expect you to stay in their geographic region or work for them for a period of time after your studies.

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KEEP AN OPEN MIND

Don’t talk yourself out of applying. The odds are in your favor. A 2016 study by Mystipendium and Stiftung Mercator found that 36 percent of funding applications in Germany are accepted. And keep in mind that for students arriving from abroad, assistance can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Take the Erasmus+ exchange program. It has acted as a haven in Europe for students from abroad for a long time. Most recently, the program has helped students from Ukraine as well. Well before the war in Ukraine started, Danylo Matviienko, 22, had planned an exchange semester in Konstanz. The master’s student in history at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was planning to stay from March through August 2022. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 were banned from leaving the country. He feared his plans would fall through, but exceptions were made for students studying abroad. On March 9, with his admission and scholarship documents in hand, Matviienko crossed into Pol-

writers, and other creatives who have fled their homelands. Amount: up to 2,500 euros per month for up to one year, project-based

FO R D ESIG NERS Design magazine AIT and the Sto Foundation fund four interior architecture and design students at European universities each year. Amount: up to 1,000 euros per month for up to one year

FO R D O - ITYOU RS ELFERS The IKEA Foundation offers scholarships for university projects related to housing, product design, and lifestyle. Amount: project-based

and and then on to Konstanz in Germany. The program includes a monthly stipend of 851 euros. The university currently is hosting 25 Erasmus scholarship holders who’ve fled Ukraine. And support goes beyond pure financials too. Matviienko has found a supportive network of peers in Konstanz. German national Timo Loos, 24, has helped some students from Kyiv apply for spontaneous exchange semesters at University of Konstanz. On his way back to Baden-Württemberg from his own semester abroad – in Kyiv – he was asked by university administrators to become a “Ukraine tutor” and assist with the integration process for incoming students. “I help them with questions about their studies but also with language-barrier issues and bureaucratic stuff, like opening bank accounts and getting residence permits,” Loos explains. “Unfortunately, many find the process of dealing with authorities and getting all the required documents quite chaotic and hard to understand.” Indeed, sometimes the most meaningful assistance is simply having someone at your side to help.

Let‘s shape the futurre together…

of Resources y it rs e iv n U n a ce 1765. ... at the Germ in s ty li b a in ta s su – research for

HEARD ON THE STRE ET

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On campus and off, university students in Berlin stop to chat about new projects born of the pandemic and how they’ve helped shape, shift, and redefine life goals

İpek Çınar, 30, Turkey master’s student, art in context, Berlin University of the Arts (UdK)

Frances Breden, 28, Canada master’s student, art in context, UdK In November 2021, I became head editor of the student magazine, Eigenart. It’s a nice way to connect to students despite Covid-19. Being able to publish and support their work is always great. In 2020 someone else had put it online, which is really cool. Every year or so there’s a print edition, and that’s been happening since the 1990s, so our issues are part of this big, long archive. The theme this year is “Hybrid Realities” – it’s a pun on being in these hybrid formats and hybrid classes. It’s a way to think about the dissolution of the borders between the physical world and the online world, and the possibilities.

Gustav Ingold, 28, Germany

My background is in political science, so this is the first time I’m taking art at an academic level, which has broadened my horizons a lot. In the last two years, my work has become more interested in place, joy, and creating unexpected encounters with people. I did a public intervention in a Späti (convenience store) at Kottbusser Damm. My exhibition, which is opening tonight at Oyoun, documents the entire project. I created some sound installations that we put into a coding system: whenever someone opens a refrigerator door at the Späti, it plays some news from Turkey about the Gezi trial. The 2013 demonstrations in Gezi Park in Istanbul were peaceful protests against the undemocratic regime of the current Turkish government. Unfortunately, after that, government oppression increased even more.

bachelor’s student, architecture, UdK I was working for an architecture firm during the pandemic. I was really lucky: I was mostly in the office or out on the construction site. While my friends were staying home and had the hybrid home office, I was mostly working outside. I was able to go out. I had already done an apprenticeship as a carpenter. I’m always thinking of ways to combine architecture with hands-on, practical work – like walking around the construction site. I’ve done a lot with concrete, and I’ve also done work for an artist. One thing I know is that I don’t want to end up in front of a desk 24/7, like so many architects. I always need to be active. BY SYLVIA CUNNINGHAM PHOTOS BASTIAN THIERY

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Sayaka Katsumoto, 38, Japan (with Yugo) part-time master’s student, art in context, UdK The pandemic is one reason why I started learning 3D animation; my pregnancy was another. At the time, pregnant women couldn’t get vaccinated and were a risk group. I hesitated to go outside. One of my projects is working with Christian converts in Japan. I did a lot of interviews when I was enrolled at Freie Universität Berlin, where I’d studied visual anthropology and filmmaking before coming to UdK. I wanted to recreate their experience. Some interviewees, for example, saw a shining heart coming right toward their heads – a very special visual image. 3D animation has a lot of potential to recreate this kind of inner scenery.

Claudia Heinze, 29, Germany master’s student, art education, UdK, and master’s student, Spanish, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (HU) This morning I took my final exam for my master’s degree. I want to be an art teacher. When I was growing up, I felt that art lessons were just so structured. You had to think in these predetermined patterns. There was no real sense of freedom. The UdK program showed me how you can express yourself through different art forms. It shouldn’t be just about learning about artists who are in every gallery or museum anyway. It should be about expanding your horizons, looking more broadly, and keeping art down-to-earth so students don’t limit themselves. 54

Kevin Davina, 26, Germany medical student, Medical School Berlin (MSB) When the pandemic happened, I was working as a nurse at a hospital. At that time people were clapping for hospital staff on their balconies every evening. My colleagues and I thought it was ridiculous: our profession was completely undervalued, and five minutes of clapping didn’t change much. It was a topic for about two weeks early on, and then no one talked about it again. Even today, my colleagues are understaffed, overworked, and underpaid. The appreciation from the patients was nice, though. When you bathe a patient, for example, or do something good for them, there’s this “thank you.” And it goes straight to your heart. That’s what keeps you going. I stopped working as a nurse at the hospital in August 2021 and began studying medicine in the winter semester. I had always dreamed of becoming a doctor. Growing up, I was often told I couldn’t do it. I never had the feeling I was taken seriously. During the pandemic, I had a lot of time at home by myself to reflect. I’m even more motivated to work toward reaching my goal than I was before.

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Jung Hsu, 29, Taiwan special-degree student, art and media, UdK One project I did was on “Bio Art and Protest.” It combines an interest in the biological mechanism of bacteria with activism that takes the form of demonstrations and street protests. These kinds of protest don’t generally have just one leader. Protesters move spontaneously, autonomously. I saw this while I was in Hong Kong in 2019. And that’s quite similar to the way bacteria behave. Bacteria don’t have a leader, either – and they communicate in really smart ways, without language. I want people to think about how we might be able to act like bacteria, how we can learn from them.

Aimée Chancellia Matakoma Lekoubou, 22, Gabon bachelor’s student, mechanical engineering, TU Berlin During the pandemic I worked on my German. I can understand the language, but it was hard to practice when I had no contact with other people. Now I’m socializing again, so I think I’ll improve. My courses are in German. It’s not so easy. But I’m going to do it! Even as a kid, I dreamed of building cars. As a mechanical engineering student, I want to work in the auto industry someday. I picture myself working at Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, or BMW.

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SMALL TALK »Erst kommt das Fressen, dann die Moral« »Sei klug und halte dich an Wunder«

“First comes food, then comes morality,” sang Mackie Messer in Bertold Brecht’s “Threepenny Opera” (1928)

“Be wise and stick to miracles,” advised twentieth-century poet Mascha Kaléko in her poem “Recipe” (n.d.)

»Die Wahrheit ist dem Menschen zumutbar«

»Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein«

“Truth is reasonable for mankind,” author Ingeborg Bachmann noted in a famous speech (1959) 58

“It Can’t Always be Caviar,” claimed the title of a popular spy novel by Austrian author Johannes Mario Simmel (1960)

BY JULIA STEINBRECHER ILLUSTRATIONS LAN TRUONG

BIG WORDS From Goethe to Bachmann: Shine on the dance floor, at the bar, and at your next student party with these winged words from German literature

»Dieses war der erste Streich und der zweite folgt sogleich«

»Nun sag, wie hast du’s mit der Religion?«

“How do you feel about religion?” Gretchen asked Faust in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama “Faust I” (1808)

»Ernst ist das Leben, heiter ist die Kunst«

“Life is earnest, art is joyful,” noted Friedrich Schiller in his trilogy of dramas “Wallenstein” (1798–1799)

“This was the first trick, but the second follows quick,” rhymed Wilhelm Busch in his tale of two rascals, “Max and Moritz” (1865)

»Müde bin ich, geh zur Ruh’, schließe beide Äuglein zu«

“I am weary, I go to rest, I close both of my little eyes,” wrote 18-year-old Luise Hensel in the now-renowned nursery rhyme (1816) 59

MAKE YOUR MOVE AS EASY AS RIDING A BIKE

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Photo: Leon Dreischulte

LOOK FOR LODGING

The first thing you need is a roof over your head. Your cheapest bet is a student residence (Studentenwohnheim), a type of shared housing specifically designed for students. Most university towns have several, run by the local student services. Though rents vary depending on location, size, and amenities, a room costs on average 250 euros per month. Affordability inevitably means popularity, however, so it’s important to register for a place as soon as possible. If you don’t want to move into a dormitory (or don’t manage to secure a spot), you can take the route of the WG (StudentenWohngemeinschaft): sharing a private flat with several other students. You’ll have to take turns with the washing machine and the teakettle, the bathroom, and the kitchen, but you’ll also make friends fast. You can search for shares or post your own want ad on an online platform like WGGesucht, or opt for the more oldschool approach: scouring university bulletin boards. Prioritizing privacy and comfort over cost? Then it might be worth the extra work to hunt for your own place. WG-Gesucht and eBay Kleinanzeigen are good places to start if you want to sublet for a limited period. The latter is also a go-to for sourcing secondhand furniture on a budget. You’ll find everything from beds to balcony furniture for not much money or effort. And you can sell your furniture this way, too, at the end of your stay. If it’s a long-term stay you’re after, try a website like ImmoScout24. But be aware that the price you see listed is only half the story. In addition to base rent (Kaltmiete), you also have to factor

Want to study in Germany? You’ll need to hop over a few hurdles before settling in. Here’s a first to-do list

MOVING RIGHT ALONG

signed!), and a completed and signed landlord’s statement (Wohnungsgeberbescheinigung). German law stipulates that you should make this appointment within two weeks of moving to any German city. But as local authorities tend to be fully booked even months in advance, it often takes longer to clear this hurdle. If you don’t meet the deadline, it’s probably not a big deal, but be sure you can prove that you tried to get an appointment within those first two weeks. HAVE CASH ON HAND

As you’ve probably heard, bureaucracy holds a special place in German life. By all means book an appointment with your local registration authority (Meldeamt) before you move. Securing a certificate of residence, the so-called Meldebestätigung, is a prerequisite to opening many other doors. Be sure to bring along your passport, registration form (Anmeldeformular) (filled out and

A key stepping stone for some for eign students requiring a student visa is a blocked bank account (Sperrkonto). This is a special account in Germany into which you deposit all the funds you’ll need to cover your living expenses for one year, thereby proving to the German authorities that you can support yourself financially. (It also restricts the amount you’re able to withdraw each month, so you can’t go and hit the casinos with those hard-saved funds.) As of 2022, the mandatory deposit required by the German government for a Sperrkonto is a hefty 10,332 euros. If you need to apply for a student visa, the German government advises opening a b locked account “as soon as you get your university admission letter.” A range of public and private German banks offer student bank accounts alongside the Sperrkonto. These include Sparkasse, Postbank, and Commerzbank. Their networks have ATMs on almost every street corner in Germany, where you can withdraw money free of charge (though you should keep an eye out for hidden fees). You’ll need your passport and your Meldebestätigung to get started at your local branch.

BY K AT H A R I N A H EC K E N D O R F A N D M A D E L E I N E P O L L A R D

in the cost of heat, electricity, water, and internet service. In most cases, you’ll need to organize these utilities on your own after moving in. If you need a DSL connection or electricity, for example, take a look at Check24, which lists the most affordable providers in your neighborhood. Landlords, by the way, typically require a security deposit (Kaution) equivalent to three months’ rent, to be returned upon termination of the lease. Stay on the safe side by meticulously doc umenting the condition of the apartment when you move in – this will prove that nothing has been damaged during your stay. You can always spend your first days in an Airbnb and look for apartments from there. In Germany, you still have to go to

apartment viewings to get shortlisted. Just keep in mind that the bigger the city, the more challenging it is to find a place. So if you are moving to a city like Berlin, Hamburg, or Munich, you may need to budget a few weeks or months rather than a few days. MEET THE AUTHORITIES

GERMANY

often a substantial deductible for dental visits. Techniker Krankenkasse, HEK, and AOK are all respected public health insurers. If you’re 30 or older when starting your studies, you can’t get public insurance. But there are many available options for private health insurance. Students taking a preparatory course prior to starting their degrees, including those in German language courses or studying at a Studienkolleg, are not eligible for public health insurance either. In this case, you will need to find a tailored private plan for the duration of the course. (If you’re under 30, you can register for public health insurance once you’ve been accepted into a degree program.) Ottonova, a Munich-based startup, offers digital private

health insurance with special rates for expats in Germany for up to five years. Premiums start at 150 euros per month. GET YOUR PERMITS

You’re on the home stretch. But if you’re from outside the EU, you still need a German residence permit (Aufenthaltstitel) to attend your university or course. Apply for this at the local foreigners’ registration office (Ausländer behörde). There are different types of Aufenthaltstitel and requirements depending on your home country and the type of course or institution you’re enrolling in. Now that you have an appointment, it’s time to show off all of those papers you’ve worked so hard to collect! Bring along

GET INSURED

Everyone in Germany needs health insurance (Krankenversiche rung), and international students are no exception. It’s a good idea to tackle this early on, since proof of German health insurance is a prerequisite for getting a student visa and a residency permit. If you’re not from the European Economic Area or a handful of other countries (and therefore can’t use your home insurance policy) sign up for public or private Krankenversicherung. Students under 30 doing a degree can register for discounted public health insurance. In most cases, public health insurance suffices to cover most medication and hospital stays, though there’s

LIABILITY INSURANCE IS A GOOD IDEA

your passport, a biometric passport photo, your rental contract, your landlord’s statement, proof of health insurance, and confirmation of registration at your local Meldeamt. And fill out the permit application itself – the Antrag auf Erteilung eines Aufent haltstitels, available online – and also bring along 110 euros. Your student residency permit card will either be issued on the spot, or it’ll be ready for collection about six weeks later. (Take note of your local authority’s Covid-19 measures, which could affect the nature of appointments.) READ THE FINE PRINT

Just when you think you’re all set, a bill will come in the mail for a so-called Rundfunkbeitrag. It’s for your obligatory contribution to public television and radio, and everyone who moves into a flat or house in Germany has to pay it. Contributions amount to 220 euros per year and can be paid annually, quarterly, or monthly. If Fido’s coming too, you’ll need to register your dog – but not your cat – with the tax office within four weeks of entering the country. The amount of the obligatory “dog tax” (Hundesteuer) varies from city to city, from 90 euros per year in Hamburg to 120 euros in Berlin. Liability insurance for your dog will run you about 40 euros per year; while it’s mandatory in some states and not others, it’s a good idea to get it. Germans are known for craving a sense of security. So it’s a good idea to line up some liability insurance for yourself, too. After all, you might step on a classmate’s smartphone. Personal liability insurance (Haftpflichtversicherung) starts at about 30 euros per year for individuals and 50 euros for a family.

Photo: Marcus Glahn

Online banks such as Comdirect or ING offer free accounts but have fewer ATM machines in their networks. Thanks to online identity procedures, you no longer have to get up from your sofa to open an account. A laptop with a camera does the job. Among tech-savvy international students, another favorite is N26, a virtual bank that operates purely online and in the English language. Setting up an account with N26 is free of c harge, and you don’t have to show your registration certific ate, eit her. You can use your account via a mobile app that allows you to categorize your transactions and save money in different spaces. What’s more, international transactions are free. And regardless what bank account you opt for, cash is still king in Germany. Even if more and more supermarkets and boutiques are accepting Apple- or Google Pay these days, many kiosks, bars, restaurants, and cafés don’t accept cards of any kind.

“GET INSPIRED BY OUR CULTURAL DIVERSITY”

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