The making and breaking of German democracy remains one of the great ‘what ifs’ of the twentieth century. This module questions whether it was inevitable that a thousand years of German history would culminate in the Third Reich. Examining inter-war Germany as a ‘laboratory’ of social and political experimentation encourages a considered understanding of Hitler’s rise to power. Exploring cultural, social and economic history, together with the politics of the Weimar Republic, this module re-examines the development offascism as a mass movement. Suitable for those with no previous knowledge of the subject, the module is organised chronologically, drawing out key themes and debates that continue to weigh on Europe’s collective conscience.

• Display knowledge and understanding of the main historical events discussed in the course;
• Display knowledge and understanding of the key, cultural, social, political and economic history of the Weimar Republic;
• Display knowledge and understanding of ongoing historical debates surrounding the rise of Nazism and the collapse of German democracy.

Intellectual Skills:

• Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the underlying concepts and principles associated with the study of history.
• Initiate, undertake and articulate a basic analysis of historical information.
• Develop explanations and support them with evidence.
• Communicate, in both verbal and written form, the knowledge and understanding acquired on the course, and to be able to distinguish between myth and reality.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• Identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and or peculiarities of alternative historical interpretations.
• Initiate, undertake and articulate a basic analysis of historical information.
• Deepen understanding of the broad themes and developments considered in the course through the analysis of an historical source or sources.
• To research, plan and structure history essays and/or projects.
• To recognise, evaluate and interpret different types of historical evidence.
• To develop, at a basic level, subject-specific and critically-discerning information literacy skills.

This module is taught in 10, two-hour sessions, delivered on a weekly basis.

• Tutor-led sessions: these introduce the basic information to the students, and will form the bulk of provision. Hence there will be basic seminar-style sessions with tutor leading with talk and PowerPoint presentations during the first part of the session as basis for group discussion and questions and answers in the second part. Students will be invited to read up on relevant topics for homework including specific passages.
• Students will be issued with handouts and a reading list, allowing them to read up on relevant topics, as well as allowing them to develop their own interests and identify the key questions which they need to answer in their assessment project.

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will have:

·       found relevant resources in the library and online;

·       assessed the reliability of different sources of information;

·       demonstrated a critical approach to academic texts.

Transferable/employability Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will have shown that he/she can:

• work effectively as part of a group;
• present an argument, accurately, succinctly and lucidly, and in written or oral form.
• time manage and organise study methods and workload;
• gather, organise and deploy evidence, data and information; and familiarity with appropriate means of identifying, finding, retrieving, sorting and exchanging information

Type of assessment

%Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

EITHER:

Summary/ Comprehension

50

750 words

Set in Week 3, submit at end of week 5

Essay

50

750 word essay

Set in Week 5, submit at end of course

OR:

Formulate Essay Question

10

Essay question with 100 word justification

Set in Week 3, submit at end of week 5

Essay

90

1,500 words

Set in Week 5, submit at end of course

1) The Roots of European Fascism

2) Germany and the First World War

3) The German Revolution,

4) The Weimar Republic in Crisis, 1919-1923

5) Relative Stability, 1924-1928

6) Return to Crisis, 1930-1933

7) The Nazi Party: Organisation, Ideology and Propaganda

8) Who Voted Nazi?

9) The Nazi 'Seizure of Power', 1932-33

10) What caused the collapse of the Weimar Republic?

Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis (Harvard University Press, 1998)

Anthony McElligott (ed.), WeimarGermany (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Eric D. Weitz, WeimarGermany: Promise and Tragedy (PrincetonUniversityPress, 2007)

Richard Bessel, Germanyafter the First World War (Oxford University Press, 1993)

Richard Bessel and E.J. Feuchtwanger (eds.), Social Change and Political Development in Weimar Germany (Croom Helm, 1981)

Paul Bookbinder, WeimarGermany: The Republic of the Reasonable (Manchester University Press, 1996)

Martin Broszat, Hitler and the collapse of Weimar Germany (Berg, 1987)

Keith Bullivant (ed.), Culture and Society in the Weimar Republic (Manchester University Press, 1977)

E.J. Feuchtwanger, From Weimar to Hitler: Germany, 1918-33 2^nd edn (Macmillan, 1995) 

Conan Fischer, Rise of the Nazis 2^nd edn (Manchester University Press, 2002)

Elborg Forster and Larry Eugene Jones, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy (University of North Carolina Press, 1996)

John Garrard, Vera Tolz and Ralph White (eds.), European Democratization since 1800 (Macmillan, 2000)

John Hiden, Republican and Fascist Germany: Themes and Variations in the History of Weimar and the Third Reich, 1918-45 (Longman, 1996)

Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, Edward Dimendberg (eds.),The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (University of California Press, 1994)

Ian Kershaw (ed.), Weimar: Why did German Democracy Fail? (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990)

Eberhard Kolb, The Weimar Republic (Unwin Hyman, 1988)

Marshall M. Lee and Wolfgang Michalka, German Foreign Policy 1917-1933: Continuity or Break? (Berg, 1987)

A. J. Nicholls, Weimarand the rise of Hitler 4^th edn (Macmillan, 2000)

Anthony Nicholls and Erich Matthias (eds.), German Democracy and the Triumph of Hitler: Essays in Recent German History (Allen and Unwin, 1971)

Panikos Panayi (ed.), Weimarand Nazi Germany: Continuities and Discontinuities (Longman, 2000)

Detlev J. K. Peukert, The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity (Allen Lane, 1991)

Mark Roseman (ed.), Generations in Conflict: Youth Revolt and Generation Formation in Germany, 1770-1968 (Cambridge University Press, 1995) 

Dirk Schumann, Political Violence in the Weimar Republic 1918-1933: Fight for the Streets and Fear of Civil War (Berghahn Books, 2009)