HIS 571SEM - 20c German Readings

This course offers a survey of the long-term developments as well as the dramatic ruptures¿and frequent political regime changes¿in 20th-century German history. It highlights the conflicting interpretations that historians have suggested in response to questions such as: Did Germany follow a ¿special path¿ into modernity, culminating in the Nazi dictatorship? Why did the Weimar Republic generate so much cultural creativity¿and failed politically? How can we understand the development, under the Nazi regime, from discriminatory practices to a genocidal war and the Holocaust? What impact did the Nazi past have on Germany after 1945? What made the two German states during the Cold War era from 1949 to 1990 distinct–and, at times, comparable? Why was the ¿German Question¿ central to the Cold War and its end? We will be discuss secondary literature that addresses these topics as well as source materials, including autobiographical and literary texts. In addition, the analysis of films, which deal with distinct periods of German history, play a prominent role in our seminar.

Credits: 3