This module introduces you to key developments in modern and contemporary German history and culture. It consists of two parts:

Part One: Contemporary German History (Heiko Feldner, autumn semester)

More than twenty years on, the fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989 is still one of the most written about historical events in twentieth century German history. Why was there a wall in the middle of Berlin? How did it come to symbolise the division of Germany and indeed of Europe for 28 years? Why had Germany been divided in the first place? What was life like in the two Germanys of the Cold War? Why, after 40 years of existence, did the GDR collapse in 1989? Why did the Federal Republic survive? Did it, in fact, survive? What are the problems and prospects of reunified Germany today? These and other questions will be explored in Part One of this module, which provides an overview of major issues and developments in contemporary German history and historiography. It can serve as a base for all further studies on modern German history, society and culture.

Part Two: German Culture – Modernity and Metamorphosis (Monika Hennemann, spring semester)

Part two of this module introduces two cultural movements which go to the heart of what is distinctive in German-language culture - Modernism and Romanticism. These movements are studied by examining a series of landmark stories by famous writers. Besides introducing cultural movements and landmark works, part two of the module introduces techniques of textual analysis.

• Demonstrate a knowledge of various aspects of German social, political, economic and cultural history since 1945;
• Comment on major historiographical and literary debates which have dominated the study of German history and culture over the past thirty years;
• Discuss critically the historical causes and complex nature of both the division of Germany and its sudden reunification;
• Use appropriate registers when communicating knowledge and understanding of the course material;
• Analyse a story, its ideas and narrative effects;
• Relate texts to one another and their literary context;
• Deliver commentary on a poem or extract, its themes and linguistic effects;
• Show familiarity with different phases and trends in the history of German culture;
• Apply basic concepts of textual analysis; and
• Present arguments logically, drawing on secondary reading.

PART ONE:

The first part of the course is taught by means of weekly lectures accompanied by fortnightly seminars and by feedback. Students are expected to write one essay of approx. 1,500 words and to contribute actively to seminar discussions. Please bear in mind that learning is an active process, requiring not only the acquisition of knowledge but also the exchange of ideas, opinions and arguments with others. It is therefore essential that you do all the reading for the seminars: the essential preparatory reading will be provided on Learning Central.To facilitate your preparations, lectures will be complemented by relevant film screenings. You will receive continuous feedback throughout the semester. There will be a revision component in the final lecture and guidance on how to draft a quality essay will be given throughout the semester. Please make use of my weekly office hours – they are reserved for you!

PART TWO:

The second part of this module is taught weekly in small-group sessions throughout the Spring Semester. 

On completion of this module a typical student will be able to:

Personal transferable skills

·         Communicate ideas effectively and fluently, both orally and in writing as appropriate.

·         Use communications and information technologies for the retrieval and presentation of information.

·         Work independently, demonstrating initiative, self-organisation and time-management.

·         Collaborate with others and contribute to the achievement of common goals.

·         Close reading.

·         Critical thought.

·         Basic research skills.

·         Organisational skills.

·         Study skills.

·         Writing skills.

Generic intellectual skills

·         Gather, organize and deploy evidence, data and information from a variety of sources.

·         Develop a reasoned argument, synthesize relevant information and exercise critical judgement.

·         Reflect on his or her own learning and make use of constructive feedback.

·         Manage his or her own learning self-critically.

The generic skills will be manifest in the following activities: literature searches on the internet and CD ROM (library), compilation of bibliographies for essays, and presentation of written work.

PART ONE:

Lectures

1. Introduction: approaching contemporary German history

2. Flashback: Volksgemeinschaft (peoples community), Rassenpolitik (race policy), Völkermord (genocide)

3. The twisted road to division: 1945-1949

4. Two states one nation? 1949-1989 (I)

5. History of everyday life:1949-1989 (II)

6. READING WEEK

7. German Sisters

8. The fall of the Wall and the rush to unity

9. “Good bye Lenin!” or the question of (n)ostalgia

10. From unification to recession: Germany since 1990

11. Forever in the shadow of Hitler?

Seminars

Unified but not united? Approaching contemporary German history

The GDR: “Worker's and Farmer's State” or “Second German Dictatorship”?

“1968”: the second foundation of the Federal Republic?

The myth of female emancipation? Women in the two Germanys

Facing the Nazi Past

PART TWO:

Week 1: Introduction to basic concepts

Week 2: Franz Kafka's story Die Verwandlung

Week 3: Extract from Die Verwandlung for close analysis

Week 4: Expressionist art and poetry

Week 5: Gottfried Benn's Schöne Jugend and Bertolt Brecht's Vom ertrunkenen Mädchen

Week 6: READING WEEK

Week 7: Heinrich von Kleist's Das Erdbeben in Chili

Week 8: Enlightenment quiz and worksheet on Das Erdbeben

Week 9: ETA Hoffmann's Der Sandmann

Week 10: Extract from Der Sandmann for close analysis

Week 11: How to pass the assessment

PART ONE:

Recommended text books

·         Jürgen Thomaneck and Bill Niven, Dividing and Uniting Germany (London and New York: Routledge, 2001). [DD290.25.T4]

·         Mary Fulbrook, A History of Germany, 1918-2008: The Divided Nation, 3^rd edition (Oxford and Malden/MA: Wiley-Blackwell 2009). [DD232.F8]

·         Mark Allinson, Germany and Austria 1814-2000: Modern History for Modern Languages(London: Arnold, 2009). [DD203.A5]

Topic specific seminar readings with guiding questions will be provided on Learning Central.

PART TWO:

Franz Kafka, Die Verwandlung (story)

Poems provided in class

Heinrich von Kleist, Das Erdbeben in Chili (story)

ETA Hoffmann, Der Sandmann (story)

PART ONE:

Recommended further reading

·         William Hagen, German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

·         O’Dochartaigh, Pol, Germany since 1945 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). [DD259.O3]

·         Anne Fuchs, Kathleen James-Chakraborty, and Linda Shortt (eds.), Debating German Cultural Identity Since 1989 (Rochester/NY: Camden House, 2011 [DD290.26.D3]

·         Mike Dennis and Eva Kolinsky (eds.), United and Divided: Germany Since 1990 (Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2006). [DD290.25.U6]

·         Simon Green et al., The Politics of the New Germany (London and New York: Routledge, 2008). [JN3971.A58.P6]

·         David Childs, The Fall of the GDR: Germany's Road to Unity(Harlow and New York: Longman, 2001). [DD261.C4]

·         Lothar Kettenacker, Germany since 1945, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). [DD 257.4.K3]

·         Anthony J. Nicholls, The Bonn Republic: West German Democracy 1949-1990 (London and New York: Longman, 1997). [DD 259.4.N4]

·         Partrick Major and Jonathan Osmond (eds.), The Workers' and Peasants' State: Communism and Society in East Germany under Ulbricht 1945-1971 (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2002). [DD282.W6]

·         Corey Ross, The East German Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of the GDR (London and New York: Arnold, 2002).

·         Bill Niven, Facing the Nazi Past: United Germany and the Legacy of the Third Reich (London and New York: Routledge, 2002). [DD256.48.N4]

·         Bill Niven, Germans as Victims: Remembering the Past in Contemporary Germany (New York et al.: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2006). [DD256.48.G3]

·         Mary Fulbrook, The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (Yale University Press, 2008).

·         Mary Fulbrook, Anatomy of Dictatorship: Inside the GDR 1949-1989 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). [DD 261.4.F8]

·         Mike Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1990 (Harlow and New York: Longman, 2000). [DD261.D3]

·         Mary Fulbrook (ed.), 20^th Century Germany: Politics, Culture, and Society 1918-1990, (London: Arnold, 2001). [DD232.T9]

·         Peter Pulzer, German Politics 1945-1995 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). [JN 3971.A2.P8]

·         Stuart Parkes, Understanding Contemporary Germany (London: Routledge, 1997). [DD290.25.P2]

·         Derek Lewis and John McKennzie (eds.), The New Germany: Social, Political and Cultural Challenges of Unification (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1995). [DD290.25.N3]

·         Mary Fulbrook, German National Identity after the Holocaust (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999). [DD117.F8]

·         Konrad H. Jarausch, ed., Dictatorship as Experience: Towards a Socio-Cultural History of the GDR (Oxford: Berghahn, 2009). [DD261.4.D4]

·         Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (Cambridge/Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1997). [D 810.J4.H3]

·         Eva Kolinsky, Women in Contemporary Germany: Life, Works and Politics, 2^nd revised edition (Providence, RI: Berg, 1993). [HQ 1623.K6]

·         Jonathan Osmond (ed.), German Unification: A Reference Guide and Commentary (Harlow: Longman, 1992). [DD 290.25.08]

·         Konrad H. Jarausch, The Rush to German Unity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). [DD 290.25.J2]

·         Reiner Pommerin (ed.), Culture in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945-1995 (Oxford: Berg, 1996). [DD 259.25.C8]

Recommended films:

German Sisters (1981)

The Lives of Others (2006)

The Reader (2008)