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

Part One: Contemporary German History (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 Texts (Gerrit-Jan Berendse, spring semester)

Part two of this module is designed to introduce aspects of German culture through a selection of poems and pop songs. The texts will be discussed and analysed in their relevant historical contexts. Students will have to write four commentaries. The module will be taught both in German and in English.

Aims of this course

Part One aims to:

• Provide an introduction to the history of contemporary Germany since 1945;
• Facilitate an understanding of the significance of diverse historical experiences and identities in Germany, such as nation, class, gender, generation and region;
• Raise awareness about the plurality of historical perspectives on contemporary German history by examining the validity as well as the shortcomings of different approaches and theories.

Part Two aims to:

• Provide an introduction to the history of German literature from 1945 till 1990;
• Apply techniques for analysing German texts in their historical contexts;
• Raise awareness about the different artistic forms of German texts and the plurality of contemporary historical contexts;
• Learn writing commentaries of fictional texts.

• Demonstrate a knowledge of various aspects of German social, political, economic, and cultural history since 1945;
• Comment on major historiographical and cultural debates which have dominated the study of German society over the past thirty years;
• Discuss critically the historical causes and complex nature of both the division of Germany and its sudden reunification;
• Write commentaries on literary texts; and
• Use appropriate registers when communicating knowledge and understanding of the course material.

PART ONE:

The first part of the course is taught by means of weekly lectures accompanied by fortnightly seminars and by feedback (total number of contact hours:15). 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 the course is taught by means of one weekly lecture / seminar, a commentary workshop, and by feedback.

Every second week students will have to start writing their commentaries as a conclusion of the topic covered in the past two weeks as formative assessments. At the end of PART TWO, students will take a 2 hour written exam in the Spring semester exam period.

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

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:

Introduction

1945-1950 - Günter Eich, ‘Inventur’

New beginning and Group 47 | commentary workshop

1965-1970 - Erich Fried, ‘Einbürgerung’

Politics and literature in the Sixties | commentary workshop

1970-1980 - Ton Steine Scherben, ‚Macht kaputt was euch kaputt macht‘

Cultural memory of left-wing terrorism | commentary workshop

1980-1990 – Adolf Endler, ‚Die Stunde des Korrektors‘

Literature in East Germany | commentary workshop

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:

Recommended text books

Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (ed.),The Cambridge History of German Literature(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). [PT91.C20]

Michael Minden, Modern German Literature (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011). [PT111.M4]

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)