History of Germanies, 1806-1990 - Detailseite

Language requirements: min. English B2.

This course surveys German history through the prism of Berlin between the Confederation of the
Rhine to the second unification of the German lands in 1990. We concentrate on politics and
political culture of the Germanies.

Following the wars of liberation against Napoleon, 38 states constituted the German Confederation
at the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. In its aftermath, the national-liberal movement lobbied and
fought for the creation of a democratic German nation-state culminating in the revolution of 1848.
After its failure, the liberals collaborated with conservative forced under Bismarck and traded
political rights for a unified German Empire. This coalition allowed Bismarck to undermine the
German Confederation and, eventually, to engineer the unification and Prussification of the German
lands through ‘blood and iron.’ After the defeat of central powers during the World War I, German
was plunged into bloody civil war, and eventually emerged as the first democratic German republic.
In 1933, the Germans used their democratic rights and elected the dictatorship. Nazi Germany set
out to commit atrocities on an unprecedented scale throughout Europe.

The grand wartime Alliance stopped and occupied Nazi Germany. The integration of the Western
zones were a symptom of cold war tensions. Hardening bipolar antagonism created a surreal status
for Berlin as city divided among the two superpowers. In 1961, the East German government
finalized the division and walled in the Western zone of the city. The wall symbolized the separation
of the two Germanies, which, however, remained remarkably stable throughout the cold war. In
1989, East Berliners brought down the wall in a peaceful revolution unifying both city and country.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to discuss major themes in German and Berlin
history and critically analyze both primary and secondary sources. We will take a ‘hands on’
approach to history through visits to museums and sights in Berlin

1. Introduction & End of the Holy Roman Empire
2. German states and the formation of Empire
Smith Walser, Helmut, The Nation, Jonathan Sperber ed. Germany 1800-1870, Oxford: OUP
2004, 230-256.
Green, Abigail, Political and Diplomatic Movements, 1850-1871, in Jonathan Sperber ed.
Germany: 1800-1870, OUP 2004, 69-90.
3. Field Trip DHM
4. Empire’s Internal Consolidation
Weichlein, Siegfried Nation State, conflict resolution, and culture war, 1850-1878, in Helmut
Walser Smith ed. The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History, OUP 2011.
Orlow, Dietrich, A History of Modern Germany: 1871 to Present, 7 ed. Upper Saddle River:
Pearson 2012, 13-38.
5. European and Global Empire
Orlow, Dietrich, History of Modern Germany, 42-64.
Walser Smith, Helmut (2008). The Continuities of German History: Nation, Religion, and Race
across the Long Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, CUP, 170-182.
Anghie, Antony, Berlin Conference, Merriam, John and Jay Winter eds, Europe 1798-1914:
Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire, Scribner 2006, 220-224.
Schroeder, Paul W., International Politics, Peace, and War 1815-1914, Blanning, T.C.W., ed. The
Nineteenth Century Europe 1789-1914. Oxford: OUP 2000, 181-209.
6. Weimar Republic
Orlow, Dietrich, History of Modern Germany, 88-95.
Fulbrook, Mary, A History of Germany 1918-2008: The Divided Nation, 3 ed. Chichester:
Wiley-Blackwell 2009, 21-33.
McElligott, Anthony, Political Culture, Ibd. ed. Weimar Germany. The Short Oxford History of
Germany. Oxford: OUP 2009, 26-44, 299-307
7. Nazi Germany
Orlow, Dietrich, History of Modern Germany, tba.
Fulbrook, Mary, A History of Germany 1918-2008, tba.
8. Field Trip: KZ Sachsenhausen
Mazower, Mark, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century, London: Penguin 1998, tba.
9. Germany no More: Occupation and Reconstruction
Fulbrook, History of Germany, 113-117, 129-142.
Jarausch, Konrad H., After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995, OUP 2006, 19-63.
10. Two Polities
Fulbrook, History of Germany, 143-153.
Sperber, Jonathan, 17 June 1953: Revisiting a German Revolution, German History 22:4 (2004),
619-638.
11. Two Economies
Fulbrook, History of Germany, 153- 166, 137-42, 171-175.
Steiner, Berghoff, H. and U. A. Balbier (2013). The East German Economy 1945-2010: Falling
Behind or Catching up?, CUP, 17-27.
12. Field Trip Every Day Life in the GDR
Frank Beyer (director), Traces of Stone, 1966 (1989).
13. Protest 1960s
Brown, Timothy S., ‘1968’ East and West: Divided Germany as a Case Study in Transnational
History, American Historical Review 114:1 (2009), 69-96.
14. German-German ‘Foreign’ Relations
Harrison, Hope, Driving the Soviets up the Wall: A Super-Ally, a Superpower, and the Building
of the Berlin Wall, 1958-1961, Cold War History 1:1 (2000), 53-74.
Fulbrook, History of Germany, 175ff.
Suri, Jeremi, Ostpolitik as Domestic Containment: The Cultural Contradictions of the Cold War
and the West German State Response, in Belinda Davis at al. eds., Changing the World,
Changing Onself, Berghahn 2010, 143-147
15. Peace Movement of the 1980s
Nehring, Holger, Creating Security from Below: Peace Movements in East and West Germany
in the 1980s, Kevin McDermott and Matthew Stibbe eds. The 1989 Revolutions in Central and
Eastern Europe. From Communism to Pluralism, Manchester University Press 2013, 136-53.
16. 1989: Annus Mirabilis
Grieder, Peter, When your neighbour changes his wallpaper’: the ‘Gorbachev factor’ and the
collapse of the German Democratic Republic, in Kevin McDermott and Matthew Stibbe eds. The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe: From Communism to Pluralism,
Manchester University Press 2013, 72-87.
Patton, David F., Annus mirabilis: 1989 and German Unification, in Helmut Walser Smith ed.
The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History, OUP 2011, 755-771.

For international incoming students who enroll in the Berlin Perspectives module.

Application via Berlin Perspectives ONLY: BP module application

No registration via Agnes.

Internationale Programmstudierende.

International Incoming Students.