LibGuides: German Language: Books & Media

Where in the Library.....?

are the German language books?

The World Languages books are located in the corner near the reference books, next to the ESL materials. You will find books for learning German as well as novels and other books in German. Please ask at the information desk if you need help!

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AV language-learning materials

ISpeak German : the ultimate audio + visual phrasebook for your iPod by Alex Chapin
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3121 .C43 2007

Publication Date: 2007-03-27

Audio CD with phrasebook for learning common phrases. CD will only play on MP3 compatible players.
Talk German (DVD)
Call Number: VIDEO COLLECTION PF3112.7 .T35 2002

Publication Date: 2002

A 6 DVD set produced by the BBC with dialogs presenting everyday scenarios like chatting over coffee, ordering food in a restaurant, typical greetings, etc.

Books for learning German at EvCC

All books listed below are in the World Languages collection of the library and can be checked out. Please click on the title of each book to check its current availability in the library catalog.

Master the Basics : German by Paul G. Graves; Henry Strutz
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3112 .G67 1995

Publication Date: 1995
Cassell's Contemporary German by Christine Eckhard-Black
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3112.E27 1992

Publication Date: 1993
Streetwise German by Paul G. Graves
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3121.G73 1994

Publication Date: 1991
501 German Verbs by Henry Strutz
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3271 .S855 1998

Publication Date: 1998
German Grammar by Linda C. Demeritt
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3112.D37 1994

Publication Date: 1994
German À la Cartoon by Albert H. Small
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3117 .G517 1991

Publication Date: 1990
German Picture Dictionary by Passport Books Staff
Call Number: WORLD LANGUAGES COLLECTION PF3629.L48 1991

Publication Date: 1991

German language films

The library owns many feature films and documentaries in the German language. All of the films listed below also have English subtitles and are shelved in the video collection.

Run Lola run (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .R8611 1999

Publication Date: 1999

A frenetic thriller about Lola's race-against-time to save her boyfriend from the mobster he owes.
The Edukators (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .E351 2005

Publication Date: 2004

Dark comedic thriller about young radicals who vandalize the homes of vacationing rich people to spread a revolutionary message.
Sophie Scholl : the final days (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .S672 2005

Publication Date: 2005

Drama based on the life of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi resistor.
Mostly Martha (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .M678 2003

Publication Date: 2001

Romantic comedy about a driven chef whose life is upended when she takes in her orphaned niece.
Good Bye Lenin! (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .G592 2004

Publication Date: 2003

Comedy about a Socialist mother in East Germany who falls into a coma months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Europa Europa (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .E92 2003

Publication Date: 1991

Drama based on the autobiography of a young German Jew who survives the Holocaust by hiding his true identity and joining the Hitler Youth.
Wings of desire (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .W564 2003

Publication Date: 1987

Wim Wenders' tale of a lonely angel drawn to a troubled trapeze artist in Berlin.
Heimat: a chronicle of Germany (DVD)
Call Number: PN1997 .H456 2005

Publication Date: 1984

West German television miniseries begun in 1984 which traces the lives of several families from 1919 to 1982.

Books by German authors (in English translations)

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Call Number: PT2680.L54 V6713 1998

Publication Date: 1999

This tale of illicit romance and complicity for Holocaust atrocities became a runaway bestseller in Germany, an Oprah's Book Club pick, and an Academy-Award winning film staring Kate Winslet.

For a peek into the German Weltanschauung , EvCC has many notable German (and Austrian and Swiss) novels translated into English. Books by and about German literature will be in the PT1 to PT4897 call number range at EvCC; here are some of the most well-known:

The Metamorphosis, in the Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Call Number: PT2621.A26 A225 1996

Publication Date: 1915

Kafka was a German writer born in Prague in 1883. His novels and short stories address themes of alienation and hopelessness. "Metamorphosis" is the tale of a man who awakes to find himself transformed into a repulsive insect.
Lust by Elfriede Jelinek
Call Number: PT2670.E46 L871 1992

Publication Date: 1993

This Austrian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 is known for her portrayals of female sexuality and the lyrical structure of her novels.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Böll
Call Number: PT2603.O3947 B64 1994

Publication Date: 1974

Heinrich Böll won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1972. His novels generally reflect on the Post-WW II psyche (and guilt) of the German people. This book was adapted into an acclaimed German-language film in 1975.
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Call Number: PT2617.E85 S53 1961

Publication Date: 1927

This German-Swiss author wrote in the first four decades of the 20th Century and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. His novels, especially Siddhartha and Journey to the East, enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 1960's because of their themes of Eastern spirituality and the quest for enlightenment.
The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller
Call Number: PT2673.U29234 H4713 1996

Publication Date: 1996

Winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize, Müller's novels focus on totalitarian oppression Ceauşescu regime in her native Romania and the experiences of the German-speaking minority there.
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Call Number: PT2625.A44 A6 1992

Publication Date: 1924

This possibly autobiographical novella describes the erotic obsession a famous author has with a boy he glimpses while on holiday in Venice. Other well known works by Mann (winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature) are "The Magic Mountain" and "Buddenbrooks".
Auto Da Fé by Elias Canetti
Call Number: PT2605.A58 B553 1984

ISBN: 0374518793

Publication Date: 1935

Canetti was a Bulgarian who wrote in German. Auto Da Fé, the story of an obsessed book lover, was banned by the Nazis and did not become well known until the 1960s. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.
Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill.
Call Number: ML50.W42 D82 1964

Publication Date: 1984-12-01

This famous musical combined the talents of dramatist Brecht and composer Weill and produced the famous song "Mack the Knife".