The Berlin Wall - Visual Narratives in History and Memory - Detailseite

The Berlin Wall - Visual Narratives in History and Memory

Language requirements: English B2

The course focuses on images of the Berlin Wall and the access they provide to the history of the Cold War as experienced and represented from various perspectives: Eastern and Western media, private photographers and agents of the production of collective memory. They ways in which the symbolic power of the Berlin Wall has transcended its historical context will be studied as well. Students will get acquainted with the history of the divided city and the struggles over the legacies of the SED dictatorship. Methodological learning objects concern the analysis and contextualization of visual sources and usages of photography as a tool in social science.

Bibliography

Aleida Assmann, Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archive, Cambridge 2012.

Hope Harrison, Driving the Soviets Up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations, 1953–1961, Princeton 2003.

Hans-Hermann Hertle, The Fall of the Wall. The Unintended Self-Dissolution of East-Germany’s Ruling Regime, In: Cold War International History Project Bulletin, pp. 131-164, retrieved from: http://zzf-pdm.de/Portals/images/mitarbeiter/2009_04_08_CWIHP_Bulletin_12_Hertle_Fall_Wall.pdf

Alf Lüdtke, The History of Everyday Life: Reconstructing Historical Experiences and Ways of Life, Princeton 1995

Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper, London 2005

Jens Schöne, The Peaceful Revolution – The Path to German Unity, Berlin 2009.

Julia Sonnevend, Stories without Borders. The Berlin Wall and the Making of a Global Iconic Event, Oxford 2016.

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

NO registration via Agnes.

Application via Berlin Perspectives ONLY: BP Module application

International incoming students / Internationale Austauschstudierende.

HU-Studierende im ÜWP.