This module introduces you to key developments in German history since 1945, as well as in German culture and literature since 1780. It consists of two parts:

Part One: Contemporary German History since 1945 (Hilary Potter, 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 and Literature from the Age of Enlightenment to Expressionism (Monika Hennemann, spring semester)

The culture component introduces the major cultural developments in German-speaking countries from the Age of Enlightenment to the first decades of the twentieth century.  The respective literary periods are studied by examining a series of landmark stories and poems by famous writers, accompanied by representative examples from the musical and arts worlds.  The module will additionally introduce 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.

The module is taught by means of weekly lectures accompanied by fortnightly seminars and by feedback.  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 have the opportunity to receive continuous feedback throughout the semester.   Please make use of the lecturers’ weekly office hours – they are reserved for you!

PART ONE:

Students are expected to write one essay of approx. 1,500 words and to contribute actively to seminar discussions. 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.  Lectures will be held in English, and seminars in a mixture of German and English.

PART TWO:

Students will sit an exam during the Spring examination period.  There will be a revision component in the final lecture and guidance on how to prepare for the exam will be given throughout the semester. Past exam papers are available for consulation on the university website.  Lectures will be held in English, accompanied by powerpoint presentation in German to increase language proficiency in general, and familiarity with relevant terminology in particular.  One of the seminar groups will be offered in German, the others in English.

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 (library), compilation of bibliographies for essays, and presentation of written work. 

Essay - 1,500 words - 50% - Autumn semester

Exam - 2 hours - 50% - Spring exam period

PART ONE:

Lectures

Week 1: Introduction

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

Week 3: The twisted road to division: 1945-1949

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

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

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: German Sisters

Week 8: The fall of the Wall and the rush to unity

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

Week 10: From unification to recession: Germany since 1990

Week 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:

Lectures

Week 1: Introduction; The Age of Enlightenment (“Die Aufklärung”)

Week 2: Storm & Stress/Classicism (“Sturm und Drang”/”Die Klassik”)

Week 3: Romanticism I (“Die Romantik” I)

Week 4: Romanticism II (“Die Romantik II)

Week 5: The Idea of “Gesamtkunstwerk” (“Die Idee des Gesamtkunstwerks”)

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: Literature and Culture from 1800-1850 (“Literatur und Kultur von 1800- 1850”)

Week 8: Literature and Culture  from 1850 to 1900 (“Literatur und Kultur von 1850 bis 1900)

Week 9: Expressionism I (“Der Expressionismus” I)

Week 10: Expressionism II (“Der Expressionismus” II)

Week 11: Revision

Seminars

• Kant, “Was ist Aufklärung” (excerpts); select poems
• Kleist, “Das Erdbeben in Chili”
• E.T.A. Hoffmann, „Der Sandmann“;2 fairy tales
• Hofmannsthal, „Ein Brief“; select poems
• Kafka, „Die Verwandlung“

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:

Primary texts (every student must bring a copy to the respective seminars): (available at Blackwells Book Store; alternative formats are available on Learning Central)

alternative formats are available on Learning CentralinarDie Marquise von O... - Das Erdbeben in Chili und weitere Texte.

alternative formats are available on Learning CeDer Sandmann.

alternative formats are available on Learning CeDer Sandmann.Marquise von O... - Das Erdbeben in Ch

Supplementary text (a dual-language paperback edition containing the first two of the stories):

Stanley Applebaum's Five Great German Short Stories (ISBN-13: 978-0486276199)

Recommended further reading, Part 1

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]

Patrick 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 further reading, Part 2

Bernd Schurf and Andrea Wagener (eds), Deutschbuch Literaturgeschichte (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2010).

Recommended films, Part 1:

German Sisters (1981)

The Lives of Others (2006)

The Reader (2008)

Recommended films, Part 2:

Goethe! (Young Goethe in Love) (2010)

Der Sandmann (Lingua Video) (2012)