German-speaking cultures have had a profound international influence. German ranks in the world’s top 20 languages and in Europe, more people speak it as their native language than any other.On this flexible joint honours programme, you have the chance to gain professional skills in all aspects of German, including:reading and listeningwriting and translatingspeaking and presentingYou will spend a year of the programme studying and using your German abroad.Alongside your language studies, in German classes, you will explore and compare historical and cultural developments in the German-speaking world from different perspectives. This will enable you to critically appraise topics such as:German identitiesEncounters with non-GermansNationalism and anti-nationalismNature and cultureMinority culturesMigration in the German-speaking worldBeyond German history, you can choose to take courses in the history of other cultures and civilisations, from ancient Rome to the modern United States.From the early Middle Ages to the most recent past, the Edinburgh experience is distinctive for its range of historical themes, chronological periods and geographical areas of study.Work in history takes the form of interaction with evidence in primary form and through critical reading of a wide body of historical writing.We use a rich variety of approaches to the past, including political history, cultural history, social history, economic history, intellectual history, gender history, and global and transnational history.You will also be able to study topics such as the history of science, architecture and Western medicine.