My expectations for German 110

The biggest factor that led me to take German 110 was so that I could see history from a different perspective. There is the saying "History is decided by the victor." Obviously this class will be more than just focusing on the wars, but that really interests me so id really like to see it from the opposite side. Besides that other cultures are very intriguing to me. I have not traveled out of the country except for a few miles across the Canadian and Mexican borders. So never having any first hand experience I am very interested in seeing what I can find out. The reason Germany interests me more than other countries is because of my family. I have a lot of German ancestry on both my mom and dads side so I would really like to find out more about where I came from. From what I am told my last name "Lemke" is actually a small town in Germany which is apparently where our name came from. I have no idea if that is true or not but hopefully I can get an answer while taking this class, or at least some more information. One other thing worth mentioning is that I am extremely interested in cars, and Germany has quite a rich history with car, however I don't expect to learn much on that subject.