Berlin Consortium for German Studies - BCGS

23/07/2026

It's time to say good-bye...
The lecture period at Freie Universität Berlin is over and both BCGS students and staff are looking forward to their well-deserved summer breaks. But before leaving, we shared food, stories, and insights about Berlin for a final time. Really a final time? Of course not, we will see many of you back in our dazzling but challenging city! Be it for a Master's, an internship, or a regular job... 👋

14/07/2026

Langsen, one of our current Cornell students, worked on the project “Babel Reloaded” with his course “Designed Languages” to be presented at the Long Night of the Sciences at Freie Universität. Let him share his experience with you:

“I’d love to share the wonderful outcome of my participation in the Long Night of the Sciences this June. As part of my course on constructed languages, we created a poster and was selected to present it at the event. It was an amazing experience to help set up the poster section with my instructor Dr. Lohmann from the Dahlem Center for Linguistics. My poster attracted a lot of interest, so I ended up continuously giving mini‑presentations to introduce my work to the general audience. I really enjoyed interacting with visitors of all ages in German.”

22/06/2026

Leipzig is BCGS’s summer 2026 city of the year! The fast train took us swiftly to the beautiful city on the historic crossroads of the European medieval trade routes, Via Regia and Via Imperii. Our first stop was the very colorful MdbK, the “Museum der bildenden Künste” (Museum of Fine Arts), with its focus on modern European Art and the two periods of the “Leipziger Schule”. Full of impressions, we went to fill our bellies before we set off crisscrossing through the whole city. We discussed bears with locals, stopped with our tour guide where also Goethe and Bach had spent years of their lives, and went window shopping through the renowned arcades of the trade fair city.

04/06/2026

Rent out your bed cause science says you will not need it this Saturday!!!
👨‍🔬🧪🛏️💨

The Long Night of Science takes place on June 6th, 2026. From 5 p.m. to midnight, around 50 scientific and science-related institutions in Berlin invite you to spectacular experiments, exciting lectures, science shows and guided tours, giving visitors the opportunity to look behind the scenes.

…and not only will BCGS’ absolute fave, the Freie Universität Berlin, be a big part of it but also BCGS itself: With a little luck you might run into one of our students contributing to the event. He and his classmates of the course “Designed Languages” present “Babel reloaded: Designed Languages and Species‑Specific Communication.”

They aim to examine constructed languages through the lens of species‑specific communication, emphasizing the distinctiveness of human linguistic behavior in contrast to potential extraterrestrial forms of communication. This approach includes both the study of planned languages and the analysis of systems developed to enable communication across species boundaries.

(https://www.langenachtderwissenschaften.de/en/program/detail/7cea8a81-8f23-f111-8341-0022485c2722)

Long Night of Science: https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/langenacht/index.html

17/04/2026

Hey BCGS Berliners! Have you booked your Hochschulsport courses yet?!? There are still plenty offers available... 🤸‍♀️⛹️🤾‍♀️🤺🏇🧘‍♂️🚣‍♂️

🧗‍♂️✨ Bouldern – deine Challenge an der Wand
Du willst hoch hinaus – ganz ohne Seil? Beim Bouldern kletterst du in Absprunghöhe an Felswänden oder künstlichen Kletterwänden und stellst dich immer neuen Herausforderungen 💪
Egal ob du erste Erfahrungen sammeln oder deine Technik verbessern möchtest – unsere Kurse bieten dir das passende Level:
Von den Basics wie Fußtechnik und Eindrehen bis hin zu komplexeren Bewegungen und dynamischen Elementen.
Neben Kraft und Technik trainierst du auch Koordination, Beweglichkeit und mentale Stärke 🧗‍♀️✨

Mach den nächsten Griff und wachse über dich hinaus 🙌

👉 Jetzt anmelden (https://www.fu-sport.de/angebote/aktueller_zeitraum/_Bouldern.html )

17/04/2026

BCGS students took a first glimpse into Berlin's vibrant theater scene when we went to the Berliner Ensemble, which "is one of the most renowned and long-standing theatres in Germany. Named after Bertolt Brecht’s world-famous company. Berliner Ensemble has written theatre history throughout its 125-year history."

In the play 'Das Schloss,' "land surveyor K. arrives at the foot of a castle in a village, he is not allowed to stay. He needs a residence permit from the castle. The harder K. tries to get this proof of his professional and personal existence, the further he seems to get from his goal." The play by "British playwright Georgia Bruce combines motifs from Franz Kafka's novel fragment "The Castle" with Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus" and his image of the endless cycle of hardship – told from the perspective of a trans man seeking acceptance. As violence against trans and q***r peoples increases worldwide and the mere existence of q***r bodies is called into question and criminalised, Jules Head looks at the Sisyphean task that it is to be trans and the absurdity of the world's response to the simple wish to be allowed to be."

https://www.berliner-ensemble.de/en/production/castle-das-schloss

14/04/2026

“The traveller in the Mark must also feel equipped with a more delicate sense for nature and landscape. There are coarse eyes that demand glaciers or raging seas in order to be satisfied. Such people had better stay at home.” (Theodor Fontane, Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg)..and we did not stay home and went to the Mark to see the beautiful city of Neuruppin! 😄
..and here for our German connoisseurs:
„Der Reisende in der Mark muß sich ferner mit einer feineren Art von Natur- und Landschaftssinn ausgerüstet fühlen. Es gibt gröbliche Augen, die gleich dem Gletscher oder Meeressturm verlangen, um befriedigt zu sein. Diese mögen zu Hause bleiben."

14/04/2026

Hey BCGS Spring or Fall 2025 students, Why don't you become a Young DAAD Ambassador! 🇩🇪🇺🇸🇩🇪🇺🇸

Young Ambassadors are undergraduate students from North America who recently studied abroad in Germany and promote study in Germany at their home universities with help from the DAAD.

Young Ambassadors are undergraduate students from North America who recently studied abroad in Germany and promote study in Germany at their home universities with help from the DAAD.

13/04/2026

Join us for this year's Germany Grad Fair to meet representatives from German universities, funding agencies, and cultural institutions!

The Germany Grad Fair 2026 is your gateway to discovering exciting opportunities for study, research, funding, and career growth.

Friday | April 17 | 3-5 PM EDT
German House
871 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017

https://form.jotform.com/260574827414966