Berlin Consortium for German Studies - BCGS

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

27/03/2026

Crunchtime in the Bundestag! The German Parliament didn't let us down when we visited the Bundestag during Government Question Time.

From the gallery, we listened to Chancellor Merz’s responses to the inquiries of MPs on digital and physical violence against women, energy prices, windfall taxes, and income tax reforms. A day later, we could not only read and see some answers in the news again but also took the rhetoric apart in our German Discourse and Culture classes: BCGS at the heart beat of German politics!

24/03/2026

BCGS students prepare not only for their academic and professional but also their artistic careers by living in Berlin for a semester or two. 😉 The latter is the prerequisite for their art to be exhibited at Berlinische Galerie.

At the exhibition, we talked about different art periods, how they overlap and how war, politics, and technological development influence them.

18/03/2026

"Hello from BCGS' 25 alums from NYC! Last week, Jessica Wu (Columbia) and Karolina Naidon (Vassar) had a mini-reunion after Vassar BCGS alums came to NYC to attend the Fourth Annual Mosse Lecture by German author Daniel Kehlmann. Recalling their memories from Berlin, they wish all current students to enjoy their time in the program!"

12/03/2026

Last week we moved around the streets and this week we took the roads not taken. BCGS went to the exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum “Roads not Taken. Or: Things could have turned out differently”. Here’s how the German History Museum describes their unusual dismantling of German history:

“Starting from key dates in German history, the museum presents a look back(wards) at decisive historical events of the 19th and 20th centuries. It brings actual turning points face to face with what might have happened if it were not for various factors. (…) The course of these caesurae begins in 1989 with the Peaceful Revolution in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and ends in the year 1848, when Germany first tried to attempt a democratic awakening. The exhibition takes up retrospectively such topics as “Ostpolitik”, the building of the Wall, the Cold War, the assumption of power by the National Socialists, as well as revolution and democratisation at decisive points – and illustrates that history by no means had to end as it actually happened.”

After the show is before the show and the next day in class, our students presented their impressions on German factual and conjectural history.

09/03/2026

Schlesisches Tor is already one of the most colorful and bustling areas in Berlin - adding graffiti and street art to the mix really tops it off! Almost every other step, we stopped to learn about the crews and artists and tried to put things into context with our wonderful tour guide Caro. A great first outing into Berlin which our Spring 2026 BCGS students now can call their home!

12/12/2025

🎄🌰🍪 Frohe Feiertage | Happy Holidays 2025-26 🍪🌰🎄