Stanford in Berlin

Stanford in Berlin is one of ten overseas campuses run by the Bing Overseas Studies Program of Stanford University. It hosts Stanford students of all majors for periods of three to nine months of study and optional, subsequent internships. Coursework spans a broad array of disciplines: from Berlin’s avant-garde theatre scene to the political economy of Germany in the new Europe, from film studies to the city’s rich art collections, from intensive beginning German to advanced courses taught in German.

All courses are an integral part of the Stanford University curriculum in Palo Alto — but the innovative modes and venues of learning developed here, and the use of the metropolis and its stellar institutions as the classroom, make for a concrete and intensely interactive learning experience. Free transportation passes, frequent extracurricular activities, the H.G. Will field trips to new and prospective EU member states, events with students at local universities, concert and opera visits, and the heavy subsidy of cultural events give students the full spectrum of opportunities of this great European metropolis.

After their studies in Berlin, the majority of students enter internships throughout Germany under the Krupp Internship Program, designed exclusively for students of Stanford in Berlin. Since 1982 it has placed over 1,250 Stanford students in full-time, paid internships across more than 550 host institutions — from artificial intelligence to medical research, from banking to forestry, from theatre to engineering.

During their studies at Stanford in Berlin, Internship Coordinator Wolf Junghanns works closely with the students to help them focus their interests, finalize an appropriate placement and prepare for the German workplace. Internship work permits are provided through the generous cooperation of the DAAD, and students receive a stipend sufficient to cover all of their local costs. Students who intern spend between six and nine months in Germany in a combination of study and work.

Haus Cramer

Stanford in Berlin is not only a place where history is taught — it is itself a historical site. Stanford’s Berlin home is a villa designed by architect Hermann Muthesius, in the district of Dahlem not far from the Free University and neighbouring the guesthouse of the German foreign minister.

Haus Cramer and its gardens are registered as a historical architectural site under the name of the family that built the house in 1912. In 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, the family emigrated to the U.S. The villa was largely destroyed by a gas explosion in the 1950s and stood in ruins for many years. Thanks to the architectural historian Julius Posener, the house was not razed in the mid-1970s as planned, but was rebuilt by the Senate of West Berlin for use as Stanford’s campus in Berlin.

In 1988, 1996 and 2002, donations by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin and the Stanford Club of Germany allowed for a historically accurate restoration and modernization of Haus Cramer under the direction of Berlin architect Burckhardt Fischer. In 1988 the history of the villa came full circle when Charlotte Cramer of New York donated a 1928 painting by Leo von Koenig to Stanford in Berlin from the estate of her parents — a beautiful portrait of her from the time when she lived in the house.

The generosity and vision of Berlin alumnus Hans George Will and of Stanford President Prof. Gerhard Casper enabled the University to purchase Haus Cramer from the city of Berlin in 2000 — the first property the University owns outside the United States. In 2005, the Berlin Will Foundation provided funding to build a multi-purpose sports court in the portion of the garden that had once been a tennis court.