German offers an exciting pathway to a liberal arts education through the study of Europe's most widely-spoken first language. German is unquestionably the language of some of the most influential, intellectual, scientific, literary, and artistic production in the Western world. As one of the most commonly used languages on the globe, German will retain a prominent position in an increasingly interconnected world.
There are important economic, cultural, and political reasons for studying the language and cultures of German speakers. Indeed, the present world cannot be adequately understood without knowledge of the influence from German-speaking Europe across the centuries. German speaking intellectuals, artists, and scientists from Gutenberg, Bach, Luther, Leibniz, Kepler, and Kant to Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, have left indelible marks on our efforts to understand and critique ourselves through literature, art, philosophy, natural science, and the social sciences.