German House has 24 residents including our GRT (Graduate Residential Tutor: a MIT graduate student who lives in German House and is constantly available as a resource and counselor). It is a co-ed living group. In addition there is an undetermined number of "social" non-resident members.

German House is a great environment in which to learn and apply German language skills. Most members take foreign language classes here at MIT and many join the MIT Germany program and go abroad to Germany for summer internships. There are many aspects to the German House community (hanging out, movies, road trips, trips to Europe etc.) but probably the most important one is the daily German House dinner.

The German House dinner is the main daily social event in German House. It's a time for talk, relax and catch up with news. Faculty members are often invited to our dinners; this provides a relaxed setting to get to know one's teachers.

Each evening, Sunday through Friday, 3-4 German House members cook together in a "cook crew." Every member of the House has to be part of one cooking crew. Each week in advance, the head cook in the cooking crew determines the menu that their crew wishes to cook, gives it to the steward, who then orders the food.

When you come home at 6pm, dinner is on the table. Since we shop for the food ourselves, the prices are lower and the quality is better than the standard MIT meal plan. Personal preferences, like vegetarian, are taken into account by the cooking crews.

Our big German House kitchen is on the second floor. It has two ovens and stoves, a dishwasher, a restaurant microwave, four refrigerators (two for the general German House community, two for the storage of the food for the cook crews) and many pots and other kitchen equipment. It is used for by the cook crews for the daily dinners, but is also open for personal use 24 hours a day.

Much of the German House social life takes place around the comfortable couches of the German House lounge. The lounge is right next to the kitchen; this makes it easy to cook and then sit down and eat in the lounge. We also have brand new 27 inch TV and a multisystem VCR, which can display videotapes in American NTSC format as well as the German PAL and the French Secam video format. We have a growing collection of recent German movies, hand-delivered from Germany. Additionally German House has two smaller lounges with a collection of German literature, dictionaries, travel guides, the past MIT yearbooks (Technique) and other books.

Kaffeeklatsch is the German hour at MIT. German House is proud to host it in its lounge. It offers th whole MIT community a possibility to practice their German. We provide German movies, German newspapers, music and cookies.

All the rooms in German House are singles with view either on the river, towards Next House or inner Cambridge. Every room is furnished with desk, bed, cupboard, drawers and bookshelf. Further all rooms in New House and therefore German House have Air condition in every room. This is special, since hardly any other dorm has this feature and Boston gets very hot in summer.

German House is conveniently located in New House (location) on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor. It is near the Next House dining hall and the MacGregor convenience store. New House is on West Campus which is found along the Charles River. Like fraternities, German House is an official living group; unlike fraternities, German House is found inside a dorm. It therefore combines the benefits of living in a dorm with the community of a living group.

For more information, please contact:
dhrush@mit.edu