German is a major language of business, commerce and science, as well as the gateway to understanding a vibrant modern multicultural society with a rich and complex past and influential cultural output.

German is, with over 90 million native speakers, the most widely spoken language in Western Europe, and Germany is second only to the United States as a trading partner to the United Kingdom. We will help you not only to become highly proficient in writing, reading, speaking and listening to contemporary German, but also to understand the society, history, politics, linguistics, culture, literature and cinema of Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

German graduates are some of the most highly sought after by employers and our German students are particularly well-placed to achieve their full potential in the workplace. We have excellent links with a wide-range of German employers across all sectors: from financial to energy companies, manufacturers to retailers, including Nespresso, Framatome, AON risk solutions, KERN Global Language Services, Bosch, Zänker & Kollegen, AO.com, Ernst&Young, Aldi and Lidl. These links are used frequently to help students find work placements on the Year Abroad or to secure graduate jobs.

Whilst the perfection of language skills is at the heart of modern languages degrees in Liverpool, all our degrees demand a full intellectual engagement with a wide selection of areas in German studies. We research and teach German history, culture, literature and film from the 19th to 21st centuries, , linguistics and translation, and much more.

Our students participate in a number of extracurricular activities, including the regular writer-in-residence programme, the annual translation workshop organised across the Department and the Sauerkraut Cup inter-university football tournament run by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). They regularly win prestigious DAAD Summer School Grants.

We are justifiably proud of our excellent record on graduate employment. Our graduates go on to careers in all sectors worldwide. These include the media, industry and commerce, finance, local and central government, administration, translation, interpreting and teaching in schools and universities.

Many of our students also undertake postgraduate study, either in our own department or for example, on a PGCE translation or law conversion course. All students have the opportunity to gain employability skills and work experience and we work closely with Careers & Employability to ensure that the curriculum delivers the skills that graduate employers are looking for.