7.2.3.A.4 Didactical Path  Freedom of Conscience and Religion

 

Subject: GERMAN Literature, Advanced Level, 2^nd term of class 12

 

Focus on:  FREEDOM OF RELIGION

 

Obligatory subject according to curricular:              Comparison of Literature

                                                       and Language

 

Obligatory subject according to A-level demands:      Comparative work on

Barock and Modern Poetry

 

Description of a course focus in GERMAN in 12^th form of vocational grammar school

 

To give the necessary background information the students watched a film documentation about the Royal House of Habsburg  and the 30-Years-War that clarified how a religious conflict could develop into a struggle for power (e.g. about the leadership in the Baltic Area). Then followed a short review of the reasons for Reformation and Anti-Reformation and the development of the two forces of the “Union” and the “Liga” .

 

After that we worked with poetry dealing with the subject of war (e.G. Andreas Grythius: Tränen des Vaterlandes. Here the students found out that the typical attitude for barock times was the warning of: “Memento mori “ . We worked with the poetical form of the sonnet and the students concluded that the preferance of its strict rhyme scheme in those troubled times seems to result from the fact that people had a particular need for orientation and stability. The vanitas- motif and the attitude of “carpe diem!” became apparent in the poetry of Hoffmannstal.

 

It was hard for the students to realize and accept the two contradictory sides of the Barock Age. So they read an abridged version of the picaresque novel “Die Abenteuer des Simplius Simplzissimus Teutsch” that both pictures the ups and downs of the 30-Years-War and social- and political criticism. Still, the students weren’t really able to comprehend the protagonist’s notion of saying farewell to the world and the decision to live a hermit’s life to be free of the temptation to commit sins again and again. So now we worked in groups with the works of poets who were asking for the sense of life. We started with epigrams by F.v.Logau, then concentrated on M. Claudius’ Der Mensch, Möricke’s Gebet, D. Bonhoeffer’s Von guten Mächten und Brecht’s Von der Freundlichkeit der Welt and kept discussing the role of religion for finding a deeper sense in life; particularly in times of despotism.

 

Then we worked with Brecht’s drama Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder  and compared it with Grimmelshausen’s novel. Brecht’s drama takes place during the 30-Years_War and was meant to warn against another great war in the 20^th century. Brecht was already in exile and his warnings were overshadowed by the beginning of WW II.

 

In the end of the term we dealt with post-war-literature poetry (“Trümmerliteratur”) and short stories and asked ourselves the question if the experience of war made people lose their faith or if it rather helped them through those hard times.

 

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