Teaching materials

Picture book for learners of German (level A2)

In autumn 2022, a picture book for learners of German was self-published to accompany the German courses at level A2. The book itself was designed as a bachelor's thesis by FH student Tina Bergmann and published in cooperation with the Department of International Relations / German as a Foreign Language. It is available locally in Graz at the Culturalize office at a price of 15 euros. In addition, two booklets with the English translation and a vocabulary list are available for download free of charge.

Films

All (DVD) films are in the Graz and Kapfenberg library and can be borrowed:

• The sound of music (1965): The film, which was released in 1965, was named Best Picture of the Year. Robert Wise won an Academy Award for Directing for the film, which stars Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp. Hammerstein died before the film was made, and two of the numbers added to the score were written solely by Rodgers: "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good", while three secondary songs were cut from the score and others were shifted toThe film, which was released in 1965, was named Best Picture of the Year. Robert Wise won an Academy Award for Directing for the film, which stars Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp. Hammerstein died before the film was made, and two of the numbers added to the score were written solely by Rodgers: "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good", while three secondary songs were cut from the score and others were shifted to different scenes. different scenes.
• Amadeus (1984): Amadeus the theatrical production tells Mozart's story from the point of view of the court composer Antonio Salieri, who is presented as a caricature of jealous mediocrity. Salieri speaks directly to the audience at many times during the play, his soliloquies serving to move the timeline forward and back, and to narrate the goings on. In the film, Shaffer employs an interlocutor (a young priest) for Salieri to achieve this same function, but the film is told from a more neutral, third-person perspective and there are more scenes without Salieri in them (especially in the Director's Cut). Most of the film, and much of the play, are presented in retrospective.
• Festival of the chicken (1992)
• Run Lola run (1998): Lola's boyfriend, Manni, is involved in a smuggling operation. Manni's final task in a particular job is to transport 100,000 marks to his boss Ronnie. Lola is supposed to drive Manni to the meeting, but her moped has been stolen. Manni resorts to public transportation when Lola does not appear, but he accidentally leaves the money on a subway train after being caught off guard by the appearance of two ticket inspectors. The bag is then found by a homeless person. Manni places a frantic phone call to Lola and explains the situation: he will certainly be killed if he does not have the money when he meets Ronnie at noon. Lola vows to somehow obtain 100,000 marks and get to Manni in the twenty minutes she has. Manni states he will rob a supermarket on the street corner for the money if Lola has not come by then. It is at this point that the alternative-realities sequence begins.
• Come sweet death (2000): In Come Sweet Death, disillusioned paramedic and ex-cop Simon Brenner finds himself trapped between the frontlines of two competing Emergency Medical Services in Vienna's relentless summer heat. But things turn really hot only when Brenner starts looking into the unusually high death rate with elderly patients.
• Good bye, Lenin (2003): The film is set in the East Berlin of 1989 to 1990. The premise of the film is that Alexander Kerner's mother, Christiane Kerner, an ardent supporter of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, falls into a coma shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, following a heart attack she suffered when she saw Alex being arrested in an anti-government demonstration. After eight months she comes out of the coma, but is very weak both physically and mentally, and doctors say that any shock may cause another attack.
• The Edukators (2004): A young waitress becomes close with two relatively non-violent activists who "educate" upper-class people by breaking into their houses, moving furniture around, and leaving notes, e.g. 'your days of plenty are over,' and 'you have too much money.'
• The Downfall (2004): It is the last days of World War Two, and the Red Army is fighting its way into Berlin. Deep within the Führerbunker underneath the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler lives out his last birthday and his final ten days isolated from the world, desperately ordering counterattacks that will never happen, from armies that exist only on maps, commanded by men who are most likely dead.
• Auberge espagnole (Pot Luck) (2004): An absolute delight, L'Auberge Espagnole captures a moment in a life, seemingly about nothing and everything all at once. Xavier (Romain Duris), a young Parisian not sure what his life is about, decides to spend a year in Barcelona studying economics--leaving behind his unhappy girlfriend (Audrey Tautou, Amélie) but joining an international mix of students in a hectic, crowded apartment.
• We Feed the World (2005): We Feed the World is a 2005 documentary in which Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer traces the origins of the food we eat and views modern industrial production of food in a critical light. His journey takes him to France, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, Brazil and back to Austria.
• The Russian Dolls (2005): L'Auberge Espagnole ended with Xavier finally becoming a writer and giving up his nine-to-five job.
• The Lives of Others (2005): The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen) is a 2006 German drama film, marking the feature film debut of writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as Dreyman's lover, a prominent actress named Christa-Maria Sieland.
• The Counterfeiters (2007): The Counterfeiters (German: Die Fälscher) is a 2007 film written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. It fictionalizes Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by the Nazis during the Second World War to destabilize the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England currency.
• Let's Make Money (2008): Let’s Make Money is an Austrian documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer released in the year 2008. It is about aspects of the development of the world wide financial system.
• Fremdland - Early Films (2009): Three early films from the time when Götz Spielmann was studying at the Vienna University of Music, Film Department. FREMDLAND (1984) tells of the week Stefan, son of a Tyrolean farmer, has to spend with the taciturn dairyman on an alpine pasture. ABSCHIED VON HÖLDERLIN (1985) documents the disintegration of an artistic subjectivity. FORGET SNIDER! (1987) entangles several characters in a complex narrative experiment on the verge of absurdity.
• The Unintentional Abduction of Mrs. Elfriede Ott (2010): Horst has been collecting his deceased grandmother's pension for two years; no problem until a local politician shows up to officially congratulate him on his birthday. Shortly afterwards, his friend Toni "borrows" an old lady from the hospital. The fact that he unintentionally catches Mrs. Ott, a chamber actress, is the beginning of numerous entanglements and entanglements.
• Der ganz große Traum (2011): The young teacher Konrad Koch is hired as an English teacher at the Martino- Katharineum in Braunschweig in 1874. He quickly realises that he must resort to unconventional means if he wants to attract the attention of his students. During a longer stay in England, Koch had become acquainted not only with the language but also with the game of football, which is still unknown in Germany. The new sport is to become the key to the hearts and minds of his eleven. He succeeds, but arouses the suspicion of the Prussian-minded teachers and influential parents. Now the students have to fight for Konrad Koch if he is to remain their teacher.
• Truly Best Friends (2011): Philippe leads the perfect life. He is rich, aristocratic, educated and has a host of domestic servants - but nothing works without help! Philippe is paralysed from the neck down. One day, Driss, a young man who has just been released from prison, turns up in Philippe's orderly life. All Driss really wants is an application stamp for his unemployment benefit, and at first glance the charming loudmouth from the suburbs is not at all suited for the job as a carer. But his carefree, cheeky manner makes Philippe curious. He spontaneously hires Driss and gives him two weeks to prove himself. But do Mozart and Earth, Wind & Fire, poetry and coarse sayings, fine threads and hoodies really go together? And why doesn't Philippe ever use the magnificent Maserati parked under cover in the courtyard? It's the beginning of a crazy and wonderful friendship that will change Philippe and Driss forever...
• Do you understand the Béliers? (2014): A weekly market somewhere in the French countryside. Behind their cheese stall, as every week, is the entire Bélier family. While the parents Rodolphe and Gigi and son Quentin are noticeably friendly but very taciturn, daughter Paula is all the more talkative. The customers in the village already know this and have not been surprised for a long time that Paula translates the customers' wishes for her family into sign language. Because the Béliers are a cheerful, conspiratorial bunch and far from taking things as they are: Rodolphe set his mind on becoming mayor and Paula on studying singing in Paris. There's bound to be a lot of hullabaloo...
• Bornholmer Straße (2014): One man, one border crossing, one decision: On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this tragicomedy tells the unbelievable but true story of Lieutenant Colonel Harald Schäfer and the surprising turn of events at the Bornholmer Straße border crossing in the last hours of the GDR.
• Youth Without God (2017):Zach reluctantly sets off for the high-performance camp of the senior class. Unlike his fellow students, he has no interest in getting into the prestigious Rowald University. Although she doesn't understand him, the ambitious Nadesh is fascinated by the loner and tries to get closer to him. Zach, on the other hand, is more interested in the mysterious girl Ewa, who lives in the forest and keeps her head above water by stealing. When Zach's diary disappears and a murder takes place, the fragile cohesion of the youthful elite seems to break in on itself. Only the supposedly morally upright teacher tries to help, but it is already too late for that...
• Tel Aviv on Fire (2018): Things are heating up in Tel Aviv. At least according to the schmaltzy soap opera "Tel Aviv on Fire", which flickers across TV screens every evening and unites Israelis and Palestinians in front of the TV set. The young Palestinian Salam is the scriptwriter of the street sweeper and has to cross the border between Israel and the West Bank every day for the filming. During a checkpoint inspection, the script for the next episode falls into the hands of the Israeli commander Assi. This comes just in time for the bored border guard. To impress his wife, he forces Salam to rewrite the script. A smashing success! From now on, Salam and Assi keep coming up with new absurd plot developments. But then the series is to be cancelled and Salam is suddenly faced with a huge problem.
• The Silent Classroom (2018): 1956: During a visit to the cinema in West Berlin, high school graduates Theo and Kurt see dramatic images of the Hungarian uprising in Budapest on the newsreel. Back in Stalinstadt, they spontaneously come up with the idea of holding a minute's silence in solidarity with the victims of the uprising. But the gesture spreads much further than expected: While their headmaster initially tries to dismiss the whole thing as a youthful whim, the students get caught up in the political mills of the still young GDR. The Minister of Education condemns the action as a clearly counter-revolutionary act and demands that the students name the ringleader within a week. But the students stick together and are thus confronted with a decision that will change their lives forever...
• Balloon (2018): Summer 1979 in Thuringia. The Strelzyk and Wetzel families have forged a daring plan over the course of two years: they want to escape from the GDR in a hot air balloon they built themselves. But the balloon crashes shortly before the West German border. The Stasi finds traces of the escape attempt and immediately starts investigating, while the two families are forced to build a new escape balloon under great time pressure. With each passing day, the Stasi is closer on their heels - a nerve-wracking race against time begins...
• A Hidden Life (2019): The true heroic deeds are often the ones done in silence. This is the thesis of Terrence Malick's latest film, which brings into the light the life of Franz Jägerstätter, a farmer's son born in Upper Austria in 1907, who refused to do military service for the Nazis and was sentenced to death for "Wehrkraftzersetzung". August Diehl embodies the man of conscience with great intensity, while Malick weaves around him a scenic panorama of atmospheric images of a farmer's life, snippets of off-screen dialogue and background music. An elegy for a little-sung hero.