By Linda J. P. Mahdesian
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 unleashed a penned-up thirst among East Germans for anything of the West, especially a thirst to learn the dominant sprache of the New World Order - English. Little did German professor Katherine Goodman know when she visited a friend in the town of Wust in 1990 that she would become the founder of a new school that would do the exact opposite of what she does at Brown - instead of teaching in German with English-speaking students, she would spend her summers teaching in English with German students.
"I fell in love with the village," says Goodman, her eyes sparkling behind her gold-rimmed glasses. "The people are so hospitable and the town has such a rich history." Wust was in the path of Charlamagne's eastward expansion, with Romanesque architecture and a church practically on every corner. Legend has it that Fredrich the Great despised his strict father and favored the flute and literature over life as a prince. He and a friend ran away but were caught at the French border. Upon order of the king, the prince's life was spared but he was forced to watch as his friend was decapitated. The coffin lies in a crypt in the village of Wust.
An hour's drive west of Berlin, Wust has become something of a tourist attraction for East Germans - and the 600 villagers are capitalizing on it. "After the Wall came down," says Goodman, "everyone started renovating rooms over garages and even chicken coops."
Goodman and her friend, Maria von Katte, whose family's 18th-century estate manor serves as the school building and main dormitory, recognized the demand and need among former East Germans to learn English. Another friend, Harriett Watts, a Texan who is the assistant curator at the Leon Feininger Museum in Quedlinburg (in former East Germany), helped to organize the new school.
Goodman and company went to the district administrators to propose the idea. "We told them we could guarantee 400 students and we were told that 75 percent of the costs would have to be privatized," she says. Funding was not going to be a problem, because companies were already charging the equivalent of $1,000 for similar programs to learn English. Tuition for four weeks of classes at Goodman's school is only $275 or 400 German marks.
The biggest hurdle was recruiting teachers who would teach at the school for little or no pay, just room and board and the chance to stay with a local family. Goodman and her fellow founders sent messages over the Internet and got 20 volunteers from Britain and the United States. She also recruited a few Brown undergraduate and graduate students. "I thought this would be a great experience for students, to see the changes taking place in Germany."
And so in 1991, one year after the unification of Germany, the Summerschule Wust für Englische Sprache, Literatur, Theater und Musik opened its doors - and has thrived ever since. Each summer, from the end of June until the end of July, the quiet farming village of Wust nearly doubles in size, from 600 to about 1,000. Almost all of the students are from former East Germany, most are English teachers. But the age range for students goes from 17 to 70, says Goodman, and includes bishops, mayors, politicians and families with children who camp out in the camping area. "It's kind of a circus actually," she says laughing.
The curriculum features beginning to advanced English conversation and writing, theater, and even computer courses (Hewlitt-Packard donated three computers). Electives include shorts courses on film, creative writing, folk dancing, business English, cultural studies and history. Evenings are filled with entertainment and lectures by visiting scholars. Goodman teaches advanced English and helps administer the programs. This year the school runs from June 30 through July 27, and two Brown students, Moriah Williams, a freshman, and Aaron Prevots, a graduate student in French studies, will join the "faculty."
"The fun is meeting new people," says Goodman, "the villagers are so warm-hearted. The volunteers are very creative and energetic - it's just a lot of fun."