Semester-long course programme
Information on participation
Registration is required for participation and will be considered in the order in which it is received. A confirmation of participation with a corresponding invoice will be sent to you. To register online, please click on the seminar you wish to attend and click on "Online registration" at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, you can also use the registration form (pdf file) listed here and print it out if required:
- Registration form (summer semester 2026)
Cancellation of registration is possible in writing up to two weeks before the start of the seminar at no cost. After this deadline, cancellation with a waiver of the course fee is only possible if another participant from the waiting list can take their place.
More information about our lecturers
Semester-long course programme
The semester-accompanying course programme is primarily aimed at older adults who may wish to deal with academic issues following their active professional life or family work. The seminars in the programme are not part of the general courses offered by the university, but are specifically geared towards the interests and needs of older adults and are the responsibility of the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Oldenburg.
The seminars can be taken without any special participation requirements, and guest auditor status is also not necessary.
For the summer semester 2026, we have once again put together an attractive course programme for you, covering topics from art history, literature, health, theology, psychology and writing.
We hope to have piqued your interest and would be delighted to welcome you to one of the courses.
Preserving life stories - autobiographical writing for beginners
Lecturer: Dr Ralf Raabe
Description:
In this seminar, you are invited to look back on your life and record special milestones, experiences and turning points in writing - for yourself or for your family. Together with others, you will develop your first autobiographical texts in a protected atmosphere and receive impulses on topics such as memory work, structuring, language and narrative technique. The aim is to build bridges between the past and the future, to appreciate your own life more consciously and to put your growing life experience into words. If you wish, you can read your texts to the group and receive appreciative feedback.
No previous knowledge is required - just a desire to remember and write. The seminar is based on the textbook provided by the lecturer:
Dr Ralf Raabe: Von der Erinnerung zum Buch: Wie Sie Ihre Lebensgeschichte bewahren. In 6 steps to your autobiography, ISBN-13: 979-8285044819 (paperback), €25.00
Still unsure whether the seminar is for you?
On Tuesday, 21 April, we are offering a free taster session from 14:15-15:15. This will give you an insight into autobiographical writing and show you how easy it can be to get started. A first short writing exercise shows that you don't need perfect sentences, just the courage to start now. You can simply register for the free taster session by emailing studium.generale@uol.de or calling 0441/798-2276.
Event number: 30.50.106
Dates:
Tuesdays on 12 May, 26 May, 9 June and 30 June 2026, from 2:15 pm to 5:30 pm (16 hours)
Number of participants: max. 15
Course fee: €128
Online registration
Just write!
Lecturer: Ann-Kathrin Marr
Description:
Do you feel like writing but just can't get round to it? In everyday life you often lack the time, perhaps also the courage or ideas to get started. This course is aimed at anyone who enjoys writing and is looking for inspiration to finally get started. We will awaken the joy of writing, play with language and create texts - personal and imaginative, playful and thought-provoking. We work with exercises from creative writing, try out different approaches and find our own language and way of expression. In addition to short methodological impulses, you will above all have time to try things out. If you like, you can share your text with the group. Please bring paper and a pen that you enjoy writing with.
Event number:
30.50.104
Dates:
Mondays, 8 June, 15 June and 22 June 2026, from 4:15 - 6:30 pm (9 hours)
Number of participants: max. 15
Course fee: €72
From substance to form - an introductory course in prose writing
Lecturer: Henriette Dyckerhoff
Description:
What inspires us to write a story? A short scene that we observe? A gesture that touches us? A landscape? Or a theoretical consideration?
In this seminar, we explore how an idea - the material - can develop into a literary form. We will talk about dramaturgy, develop interesting characters with depth and examine what makes a good story. We try out different literary genres: We write poetry, narrate, fabulate. Another focus is on the writing process itself: How can writing be integrated into everyday life? What rituals and methods help us to stay creative? This course is aimed at anyone who is interested in writing prose - regardless of whether they already have writing experience or not.
Event number:
30.50.105
Dates:
Tuesday, 15/09/2026
Wednesday, 16/06/2026
Tuesday, 29/09/2026, from 14:30 - 17:45, (12 hrs)
Number of participants: max. 12
Course fee: €84
"What is man?" (Psalm 8:5) - Anthropological insights from the Old Testament
Lecturer: Dr Kim strübind
Description:
Man has always been a mystery to himself, which is why he likes to deal with himself and his place within the created world. The lecture series explores the ancient oriental ideas of man as a social being dependent on relationships, as laid down in the Old Testament. The recognisable empirical observations are not only remarkable in their realism. The often very vivid descriptions are based on a multidimensional perception of reality that also anticipates the ideas of modern psychosomatics.
Event number:
30.50.107
Dates:
Thursdays, 10:15 - 11:45
28.05., 04.06., 11.06., 18.06. and 25.06.2026 (12 lessons)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: €72
Leitmotifs of literary history (14): Wanderlust
Lecturer: Prof. Dr Helga Brandes
Description
Travel literature has what it takes to report on countries, cities and landscapes in a historical, social and political context and to bring the people who live there closer to the reading public. It is not uncommon for fundamental or current problems, developments etc. to be highlighted - and in an entertaining way. A successful example of this kind is Heinrich Heine's "Reisebilder", the first part of which, "Die Harzreise" (1824), is the focus of our seminar.
Heinrich Heine: Reisebilder. Edited by Bernd Kortländer. Stuttgart: Reclam 2010. ISBN: 978-3-15-018730-2 (€12.80)
Event number: 30.50.110
Dates:
Wednesdays, 14:15 - 15:45
06.05., 13.05., 20.05. and 27.05.2026 (8th hour)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: €80
Online registration
"..., and she was allowed to go into all the rooms, only there was one room in the corridor that she was not allowed to enter." - Prohibitions and transgressions in fairy tales
Lecturer: Sabine Lutkat
Description:
How do we deal with prohibitions? And how do we deal with the consequences of breaking a prohibition? Such questions occupy us throughout our lives, so it is not surprising that this topic also plays an important role in fairy tales. In many fairy tales, prohibitions are pronounced and, as a rule, the prohibitions are not obeyed: Doors are opened, characters are seen in the light, secrets are eavesdropped on, and yet fairy tales usually end well. The seminar will focus on fairy tales in which prohibitions are spoken and broken. Based on the fairy tales, we will reflect together on whether the violation of prohibitions is a catastrophe, a danger or a necessity, and also explore the question of what distinguishes prohibitions from taboos. Fairy tales in which prohibitions are not violated and this leads to a good end will also be discussed.
Event number:
30.50.110
Dates:
Tuesdays, 13:15 - 16:30 (incl. break)
15.09., 22.09. and 29.09.2026 (12 hrs.)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: €86
Online registration
Letteratura italiana - Seminario di conversazione in lingua italiana
Lecturer: Pasqua Pastore
Description:
Il seminario di conversazione in lingua italiana è incentrato sulla lettura di un'opera letteraria italiana (in lingua italiana). Il titolo del libro scelto per il Sommersemester 2026 è il seguente: "Italica" di Giacomo Papi, casa editrice Rizzoli. Inoltre, saranno messe a disposizione ulteriori letture riguardanti curiosità e aspetti interessanti della cultura italiana. Per la partecipazione al seminario è consigliata la conoscenza della lingua italiana a partire dal livello B1 del Quadro europeo di riferimento per le lingue (GeR).
The Italian conversation course focuses on reading newspaper articles and watching short reports, documentaries and films in Italian. The content, which deals with Italian politics, culture and society, is provided by the lecturer. At the request of the participants, certain aspects of Italian grammar can also be deepened. Knowledge of Italian at level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is recommended for participation in the seminar.
Event number: 30.50.111
Dates:
Mondays, weekly from 13/04/2026 to 06/07/2026, 10:15 - 11:45 (24 hrs)
Number of participants: max. 18
Course fee: €168
Online registration
A look at art history: from Botticelli to Modigliani
Lecturer: Bärbel Schönbohm
Description:
Our journey through art history takes us to Italy. In this seminar we will meet six artists who have had a decisive influence on European art history. From Sandro Botticelli, whose poetic imagery continues to fascinate us today, the path leads to Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the first successful female painters of the Renaissance. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio brings the dramatic chiaroscuro of the Baroque period to the centre: his revolutionary use of light fundamentally changed European painting. Artemisia Gentileschi builds on this, but develops her own powerful visual language. Modernism is represented by Umberto Boccioni, the leading Futurist who redefined movement, speed and the dynamics of modern life, and Amedeo Modigliani, whose elongated figures and melancholic portraits became timeless icons of the 20th century.
Event number: 30.50.102
Dates:
Mondays, 14:15 - 16:45
31 Aug., 07 Sept., 14 Sept., 21 Sept. and 28 Sept. 2026 (15 hrs.)hours)
Number of participants: max. 35
Course fee: €90
Online registration
Joseph Beuys and the "expanded concept of art"
Lecturer: Detlef Stein
Description:
With his use of unusual materials such as grease and felt, his sometimes spectacular Documenta contributions such as the "7000 Oaks" and his charismatic appearance, Joseph Beuys polarised the art world for a long time. His ideas and forms of expression seemed too unusual to be readily accepted as art. Beuys is now regarded as a modern classic and his ideas have been widely recognised. The seminar traces the artist's life, sheds light on his little-known early work and conveys the "expansion of the concept of art" suggested by the artist.
Event number: 30.50.101
Dates:
Mondays, 04.05. and 11.05.2026, each from 14:15 - 16:45, (6 hrs.)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: €60
Online registration
Women artists!
A visit to the Kunsthalle Bremen
Lecturer: Bärbel Schönbohm
Description:
Rachel Ruysch, Eva Gonzalès, Clara Rilke-Westhoff, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Renée Sintenis, Pippilotti Rist. Together we will explore the lives and works of important female artists from the Kunsthalle Bremen collection. We will also visit the exhibition "More Women! Bremen Women Artists on Paper", in which the Kunsthalle Bremen highlights those women artists who, alongside Paula Modersohn Becker, shaped the regional art scene in the first half of the 20th century. They include Marie Bock, Anna Plate, Dora Bromberger and Olga Bontjes van Beek. The Kupferstichkabinett preserves a surprising number of their works - from fine drawings and watercolours to expressive charcoal sketches. As women were excluded from state academies until 1919, Bremen's female artists organised themselves early on in their own associations, such as the Malerinnenverein, founded in 1899, or later joined the "Gemeinschaft deutscher und österreichischer Künstlerinnen und Kunstfreundinnen" (GEDOK). The exhibition shows their networks and the close connection to places such as Worpswede, Fischerhude and Dötlingen, where they lived, worked and taught.
The journey to the Kunsthalle Bremen is made independently. The entrance fee of €12.00 is not included in the course fee and will be paid by the participants directly at the museum.
Event number: 30.50.103
Date:
Friday, 02.10.2026 from 11:00 - 12:30 (2 hrs)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: € 22,-
Online registration
Qigong -
Self-effective exercises for resilience, balance, stress competence and immune system
Instructor: Susanne Sander
Description:
Qigong is a unique way of practising body-oriented awareness that leads us to balance from our inner centre. The movements and postures stimulate the self-effective forces of body, breath and mind/imagination, strengthen muscles and bones, promote the circulation of blood and Qi and allow us to calm down. Through Qigong, we can promote our mindful perception, inner strength, resonance, resilience and balance and master life's challenges such as departures, changes and upheavals differently. The exercises with their aesthetics of balance in movement can be learnt by people of all ages without prior knowledge. Aspects from theories and philosophies complement the focus on practical exercises.
Event number: 30.50.113
Dates:
Tuesdays, 08:00 - 09:00
weekly from 07.04.2026 to 07.07.2026 (19 lessons)
Number of participants: max. 25
Course fee: 108,- €
Online enrolment
Embracing the moon - Meridian (49er channels) Qigong
Exercises to promote resilience, inner balance and stress competence
Lecturer: Susanne Sander
Description:
Traditional Chinese medicine TCM and philosophy describe: "When life energy Qi and blood flow, illness is kept at bay." For the flow of Qi, so-called meridians (pathways) run through the entire body as a self-effective energetic network. The meridians are often compared to watercourses such as springs, streams and oceans. 12 main and eight extraordinary meridians as well as numerous smaller meridians connect and penetrate the surface of the body as well as the inside of the body and the organs. The Qi flow in the meridians can be regulated by acupuncture and Qigong, among other things. The Qi exercises stimulate physiological as well as psychological and consciousness-specific effects that can promote, enable and facilitate one's own resilience, physical and mental balance and suppleness, the ability to focus and to find inner peace. In the first part of the seminar, the basics, principles and effects of Qigong are taught using selected exercises. In the second part, we will focus on learning and practising selected Meridian Qigong exercises.
All those interested in Qigong and willing to experiment are welcome. The exercises are easy to learn and suitable for all ages. Comfortable clothing and light, flat shoes are suitable for Qigong. No previous experience is required.
The course fee includes seminar refreshments (cold drinks, coffee/tea, fruit and biscuits).
Event number: 30.50.114
Dates:
Friday, 25 September 2026 from 15:00 - 18:30 (incl. break)
Saturday, 26 September 2026 from 09:00 - 16:45 (incl. break), (12 hrs.)hours)
Number of participants: max. 18
Course fee: €120
Online registration
Self-management with the Zurich Resource Model (ZRM®) according to Dr Maja Storch and Dr Frank Krause
Lecturer: Katrin Scholz
Description:
Do you recognise any of the following situations?
- Are you in a transition phase and wondering how you want to organise the next chapter of your life?
- You set yourself a goal, have the determination to achieve it and can't?
- Are you in a situation where you have to or want to make a decision and you can't?
- Do you have the feeling that you are still missing something, or do you want to change something in your life but don't yet know exactly what and how?
Then a workshop with the Zurich Resource Model - a self-management method based on neuroscientific and motivational psychological findings - might be just the thing for you.
The method enables you to
- clarify unconscious needs
- formulate actionable goals
- develop new patterns of action and store them in your brain
- gain inner motivation and strengthen willpower
- clarify current professional and private issues
- stop unconscious automatisms and act competently
- activate your own resources and develop new ones.
You can implement the contents of the workshop effortlessly and sustainably in your everyday life, which can lead to a high degree of relaxation, satisfaction, happiness and success.
Please note: This workshop is not a substitute for therapy and cannot resolve serious acute life crises.
The course fee includes seminar refreshments (cold drinks, coffee/tea, fruit and biscuits).
Event number: 30.50.113
Dates:
Friday, 06.11.2026 and Saturday, 07.11.2026, each from 09:00 - 17:00, (16 hrs)
Number of participants: max. 12
Course fee: €144
Online registration: Registration for this course is possible from 01 September 2026
Illusion of perception
Lecturer: Evgenij Coromaldi
Description:
How do we perceive the world - does our perception correspond to reality or is it all just a constructed reality - a construct of our sensory organs and our brain - an illusion? How can our perception deceive us? What influence does attention have on what we perceive or do not perceive? What are the laws that determine our perception or our illusions? What are the limits of our perception? What significance does all of this have for our lives?
This course examines these and other questions from a psychological and neuroscientific perspective and illustrates them using numerous examples and a number of experiments.
Event number: 30.50.112
Dates:
Wednesdays, 14:15 - 16:30
02.09., 09.09., 16.09. and 23.09.2026 (12 hrs.hours)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: €72
Online registration
Human - Artificial - Super-Intelligence (online)
A series about science, vision and responsibility
Lecturer: Mark Dahlhoff
Description:
How will our world change if artificial intelligence not only thinks, but understands? When machines learn to meet us - or even surpass us - in creativity, analysis and empathy? This series of events focuses not only on technology, but above all on people: their values, their creativity and their responsibility. Using the latest technologies, philosophical and especially ethical challenges will be addressed in order to discuss the development towards a possible super-intelligence that could surpass human control and develop its own consciousness. Together, we will explore the questions of how the relationship between humans and machines is changing, what opportunities and dangers lie therein - and how we can shape our future before it shapes us.
Note: The seminar will be held online and takes place in co-operation with the University of Magdeburg. After your registration, we will send you the access link by email in good time.
Event number: 30.50.115
Dates:
Thursdays, from 11:15 to 12:45
27 August, 3 September, 10 September, 17 September and 24 September 2026 (10 hours)
Number of participants: max. 20
Course fee: €60
Online registration
Six-week intensive course:
Biblical Hebrew
Lecturer: Dr Kim Strübind
Description:
The ancient Hebrew language, on which modern Hebrew is also based, opens up a fascinating view of the original text of the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) and its way of grasping reality linguistically. This is where the Semitic languages differ greatly from the Indo-European languages, which means that translations do not fully capture the Hebrew way of thinking and remain approximations, "as if one were kissing a bride only through the veil" (Shalom Ben Chorin).
The event, organised in co-operation with the Oldenburg Synagogue, is more than just a language course, because it also imparts knowledge about the Jewish and Christian approach to the Bible. The course is based on the tried-and-tested textbook "Alef-Bet", which the course leader has published as the culmination of his many years of teaching at Oldenburg University.
Over the course of six weeks with daily sessions, students learn Hebrew and, if they wish, can also take the recognised Hebraicum exam, which is a prerequisite for studying theology. However, participation is not tied to an examination. Participation and personal interest are sufficient.
The seminar is accompanied by a tutorial, which is included in the course fee and is offered from Monday to Thursday from 12:00 - 12:45. Attendance is not compulsory. Tutor: Jana Finzel
The course can be held as a hybrid course if required, so that you can participate in presence or online. This allows for flexible and location-independent participation.
Event number: 30.50.108
Dates:
Monday, 17/08/2026 to Friday, 25/09/2026,
daily from Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 11:30 (120 hours), optional tutorial takes place Mon.-Thurs. afterwards.
Number of participants: max. 15
Course fee: 168,- €
Online enrolment
