[gutzmank]

I would always do the assigned reading. Maybe you’ll disagree with it, but that’s what your teacher will expect you to know, and it will stand you in good stead even if you only want to be able to critique it later.

A minor shouldn’t drive your selection of a college unless it’s very obscure and you’re fixed on it.

Is your point that you think you want to be a historian of Germanic cultures? That’s a bit far down the road; I counsel seeking a good undergraduate education before coming to that kind of decision. Who knows: you may decide in college that academia isn’t for you, that you don’t really care about Bavaria, or for some other reason you were mistaken at this point.