Wadham College German Taster Session

By Jessica Gregory - Tuesday 6 June 2023

I decided to watch a German taster session from Wadham College in order to get a deeper understanding of what it would be like to study German at Oxford University.

The half an hour session was incredibly informative and really enjoyable. The focus was on a poem by Jakob van Hoddis (1887-1942), which was called Weltende (1911).

Although this poem was only eight lines long, the session involved breaking it down in order to gain a deeper understanding. As a student of not only German, but also English Literature, I found this fascinating as it gave me an opportunity to expand my own literary knowledge.

Additionally, I found the approach to the poem from the speaker interesting. Initially, she asked us to focus on the title and consider any preconceptions we might have about Weltende (the end of the world).

Afterwards, the session turned its focus solely onto the first line for a while. The speaker expressed that she believed this to be vitally important to any poem.

We then continued to break down the poem line by line, analysing literary structures and technique.

After we'd broken down the poem, she explained to us the historical context of the poem. Only one year earlier, Halley's Comet had been seen, which had caused many people to believe that the world would soon end. This poem could therefore be seen as Van Hoddis' way of mocking mass hysteria.

What did I learn? Other than the poem being interesting to study, I learnt how I can approach other examples in future. I would like to practice this more, not only because it's interesting, but because the speaker indicated that this is the style that part of the interview would take.

Additionally, I should like to explore more expressionistic poems in German because I found the style of writing incredibly interesting.

However, in the session, there was also a translation of the poem below. The speaker addressed that this version wasn't entirely accurate but she had used it because of the rhyme scheme.

I can therefore use this knowledge in order to justify an opinion on translation, as I know this is a common theme for MFL interview questions at Oxford.