A
History of the German-Speaking Peoples 1860-2000
Alexander Maxwell
This course provides basic cultural literacy in German history by
exploring the modern political history of German-speaking peoples in
Course Structure
This
course meets three days a week. Students have three lectures on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and one discussion section. The
discussion
sections will discuss the course readings.
Texbooks
Gordon Craig
Grading System
15% Midterm
1
15%
Midterm 2
30% Final
exam
20% Research
paper
10% Discussion
The midterms check that
students have mastered the basic facts of German history.
The final
includes, in essence, both a third midterm covering the last third of
the
class, and a review exam. All include paragraph-long “ID” questions and
in-class essays.
Discussion
sections are graded on attendance. To receive credit for attending class,
students must (1) be present, and (2) have completed the response paper
on the
weekly readings printed in bold letters. The response paper is not
graded for
content, though I will give feedback on it. It may not be handed in
late. It
encourages students to have done the reading, but should also teach
students
read secondary sources critically, which is in turn important for the
research
paper.
The research paper must
examine primary sources in the light of historiographical debate. Students must describe a debate, referring to
at least three secondary sources, and then analyze at least two primary
sources
in terms of that debate. The
bibliography must have at least ten printed sources (i.e. no webpages.)
Students will receive a list of sample topics, or may select their own
with
instructor approval.
For
students interested in visual culture, this course includes a
series of 14 films related to themes discussed in the course. Students present at 11 of the 14 films may
write a paper and receive extra course credit.
Week 1: Introduction
M Introduction
to course.
Problems of German history: National history vs. state history.
W Lands inhabited by German-speakers in
1848. Empires, Principalities,
F The Monarchical Principle,
the German “nation.”
Week 2: The struggle for
Political Unity
Film
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick
M The
Austro-Prussian war.
W Habsburg retrenchment: the
Ausgleich.
German-Czech tensions in
F
Week 3: The Happy Empires
Film
Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel)
M The Gründerzeit. Optimism, Industrialization,
Technological Progress. Nietzche.
W Turn
of the century art and society. Freud, Mahler, Schiele, Klimt.
F Modernism
and its discontents: Socialism, Anti-Semitism, Hyper-Nationalism
Week
4: The “Great War”
Film
Radetzkymarsch (Radetzky March)
M Kaiserreich
Jingoism. The Boer
war and Naval Armarment.
W Austrian interests in the Balkans:
Week 5: Victory and Defeat
Film
All Quiet on the W. Front
M The Eastern
Front: The
Occupation of Serbia. Tannenburg, the Brusilov offensive, Brest Litovsk.
F The Räterepublik, the Kapp Putsch.
Socialism, the Freikorps, Weimar
Republic.
Readings:
Craig.
396-433 (Kiel mutiny to Kapp putsch) Liulevicius.
War Land on the Eastern Front. “The ‘Kultur’ Program”
113-144.
Week
6: The Weimar Republic
Film:
Cabaret
M The Paris
Peace Conference,
border revisions.
W Germany’s first liberal democracy.
Social freedom, political extremism. Modern art, architecture, theater.
“Decadence.”
F French occupation of the
Saar. Hyperinflation. The Great Depression.
Readings
Kaes, Weimar Republic Sourcebook,
40-51 (KPD Manifesto, Weimar Constitution)
Craig 470-495 (“Weimar Culture”); Martin Kitchen
The Coming of Austrian Fascism “Economic Problems of
the Austrian Republic,”
75-95.
Week
7: The Question of Hitler
Film:
Triumph of the Will
M MIDTERM 1 – 10 “ID” questions,
choose one of three essays.
W Hitler’s biography to 1930.
Hitler’s
initial supporters. Hitler’s view of Jews.
F The fateful year, 1933.
Hindenburg, von Papen, Schleicher. The Reichstag fire, Ermächtigungsgesetz. “Who
voted for Hitler?”
Readings:
Bullock: “Formative Years, Months
of Opportunity.” 187-250; Kaes, Weimar Sourcebook, 133-141
(Breeding, Antisemitism, Hitler’s speech)
Week 8: National Socialism in
Austria and Germany
Film
Metropolis
M Economic
Stabilization. The
social policy of the National Socialists (KdF, Hitlerjugend)
W Seipel, Dollfuss, Schuschnigg.
Austrian Nazis and Germany.
F Germans in Eastern
Europe:
Sudetenland, Banat, Transylvania.
Readings:
Craig,
618-663 (Social and cultural developments) Barbora
Jelavich Austrian History 173-224.
Week
9:
World War Two
Film:
Der Blechtrommel (Tin Drum)
M Rearmament,
Rhine Occupation. The Anschluss. The
Munich pact. Hitler-Stalin pact.
W Invasion
of Poland. German victory in France and Yugoslavia. Barbarossa.
F The
political structure of Nazi-occupied Europe
Readings:
Bullock,
442-553 (“From Vienna to Prague,
Hitler’s War”); Craig,
697-713
Discussion
Propaganda
from the Second World War
Week
10:
The Holocaust
Film: Bittere Ernte (Angry Harvest)
M Social
Darwinism, Anti-Semitism.
W History
of the Camp System. Intentionalism vs. structuralism. Numbers.
F The
perpetrators: Sonderkommando.
Non-German perpetrators. Eichmann.
Discussion Goldhagen
Hitler’s Willing Executioners “Exploring
the popl.’s actions” 379-406; Browning
Ordinary Men ‘Conclusion’ 159-189
Week
11: Defeat and Destruction
Film:
Das Boot (The Boat)
M Stalingrad,
Kursk. German and Soviet weapons programs.
W Air
War, Speer. The Normandy invasion. Defeat. Hitler’s suicide.
F “Stunde Null.” Expulsions. Occupation, border changes.
Readings:
Craig,
740-762.
Week
12:
The Re-division of Germany
Film:
One, Two Three
M MIDTERM 2 – 10 ID questions, one of
three essays.
W The
Cold War alliance system. Austrian Neutrality. The
Bundesrepublik and its parties.
F The
EEC. Wirtschaftswunder and the
Deutschmark. The Franco-German alliance.
Readings:
Turner,
1-103 (including pages with pictures) de Zayas The German Expellees, 85-121
Week
13: Cold War Germanies
Film:
Die Verlorene Ehe Katarina Blum
M The
Soviet Sector to DDR. 1953. The Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall.
W Ghosts
of the Past: Willi Brandt and Kurt Waldheim. Verfassungspatriotismus.
F Social
Change in the Federal Republic: Student movement, Turkish immigration.
Reading:
Turner,
148-190; Miller Narratives of Guilt and
Compliance in
Unified Germany “If only I had known”
Week
14: The End of Socialism
Film:
Meier
M
Bader-Meinhoff:
German Terrorism. The Autonomen. West
Berlin and its culture.
W The
Stasi. Fluchtversuche. Economic
stagnation, 1968 and the end of Socialism.
F Gorbachev
and the Sinatra Doctrine. 1989:
“Refolutions.”
Reading
Turner
190-255; Bohrer
“Why we are not a nation”
in James, When the Wall Came Down. 60-70
Week
15:
Unified Germany and Unified Europe?
Film:
Goodbye Lenin
M German reunification. The end of
the Warsaw Pact. Austria in United
Europe and Austria’s response.
W The D-Mark and the Euro. “The
wall in the head”Ossi-Wessi tensions. Ausländerfeindlichkeit: Haider, Skinheads.
F
Review for Exam
Reading
J. Habermas The Past as Future “The Normative
Defects of Unification,” 33-54.
Final exam: 20 ID questions, two essays.