German Courses

Photograph: Marta Mayer/DESY

Please register here for the German courses. If you are uncertain about your language level, the teachers may arrange a placement test for you.

This test is designed to give students and teachers a quick way of assessing the approximate level of a student's knowledge of German grammar and usage.

The test should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete.

Note: Due to the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak all language courses take place online. Classroom-based teaching will continue as soon as the situation will allow us to do so.

German A1.1 (few places available) - Started 6 April 2022
When: Wednesdays, 5:30 - 7 pm
Where: online
Teacher: Gisa Günther

German A1.1 (few places available):
When: Wednesdays, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Where: online
Teacher: Cornelia Johannsen

German A1.2 (few places available) Starts September 2022
When: Tuesdays, 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Where: online
Teacher: Dorothea Geyken

German A1.2 (few places available)
When: Fridays, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Where: online
Teacher: Gisa Günther

German A2.1 / 2 sessions per week (fully booked)
When: Tuesdays and Fridays, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Where: online
Teacher: Cornelia Johannsen

German B1.1 intensive course / 3 sessions per week (few places available)
When: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Where: online
Teacher: Gisa Günther

German B2.1 / 2 sessions per week (fully booked)
When: Mondays and Thursdays, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Where: online
Teacher: Cornelia Johannsen

German at DESY Education

There are other German classes on the Bahrenfeld campus, which are organised by DESY Education. Target group are DESY staff, but doctoral students or visting scientists are also welcome. You can join the classes at any time. The fee is 30 €. The course overview is accessible for all users with a DESY account.

German for newcomers:
This is a course for everyone who arrive at DESY during a regular language trimester and have no knowledge of German yet. Objectives: First steps in German vocabulary, phrases, basic grammar. You can attend this course until a new regular course beginns.The course is free of charge. For more information please contact Sabine Hinz: education@desy.de,  phone: +49 40 89 98 33 35.

German at Hamburg University

Hamburg University offers German classes at all levels from A1.1 to C2. Costs for PhD students are between 42-82 € per course, depending on the number of lessons. Online registration starts usually a few weeks before a new semester course begins.There are also intensive classes during the semester holidays in February/March and August/September.

DESY Language Café

Do you need to strengthen your languages skills in e.g. German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (e.g. Mandarin or Cantonese), Swedish, Norwegian or any other language in the world or you just simply miss speaking your own mother tongue? Then please join us every two weeks at the DESY Language Café!

The key idea of this Language Café is: "Learn a language well for free while helping others learn another language well for free." UPDATE: So far we have had 8 very successful Language Café meetings with around 25-30 participants each time, who participated at either the German, French, Italian, English, Mandarin, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian or Spanish speaking table. The Language Café will be held every two weeks, on Fridays around lunch hour.

More information: DESY Language Cafè

Contact and queries
PIER Office
Phone: +49-40-8998-5507
E-mail: graduateschool@pier-hamburg.de