Module description
This introductory module on German history will provide you with an overview of the most important aspects of Germany’s past in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The aim of this module is to provide you with a sound understanding of how history has affected the development of the German polity, using the ‘German Question’ and the geo-strategic challenges it has put to Europe as a central and unifying theme.
The first part of this module will be devoted to the years before and after the unification of Germany and its aftermath (1800-1914), and the way that the ‘German Question’ evolved as an internal (states vs. nation), external (geopolitical), and political (authoritarian vs. democratic) question. We will pay particular attention to the complexities and contradictions on Germany’s path to unification as well as the resulting socio-political tensions, which shaped the development of Imperial Germany after 1870. The second part will give an account of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, starting with a discussion about the psychological, financial and political ways in which the Republic was burdened by the legacy of the First World War. This is followed by a discussion of the ways in which politics, economics and the final collapse of the Republic were interlinked and gave rise to Nazism in Germany. The sessions on Nazi Germany will help us understand why Hitler was so popular in Germany and provide insights into the escalation of racial laws, putting the holocaust in historical perspective by looking at the impact of anti-Semitic and racial ideologies upon German society up to 1945. Questions that will move our discussion of German atrocities in World War I and World War II are why these happened, and why they happened in Germany. Given the importance of history to German politics and identity, this part of the module also shows how both German post-war states have dealt with the legacies of this past. The module will conclude with sessions on post-war German history. The division of Germany will be assessed in its Cold War context and with special attention to West German Ostpolitik, critically treating attempts at normalizing the division. In the concluding session, re-unification and developments since 1990 will be discussed, providing the opportunity to explore whether different aspects of the ‘German Question’ have been resolved in post-unification Germany.
At the end of the module you will have improved your ability to critically assess events and processes in German history and their role in a European context. The module will familiarize you with key approaches and historiographical debates in the study of German history, such as the intentionalism vs. functionalism debate over Third Reich policy-making. It will also sharpen your analytical skills with primary and secondary historical sources. This implies not only good preparation of the core readings for each week but also active participation in seminar work, including the analysis of primary sources and group exercises. The module is taught and assessed in English.
Assessment details
one 2-hour exam (50%) and one essay (50%). All coursework should be 1,500 words in length.
Teaching pattern
Two hours per week
Suggested reading list
- John G. Gagliardo, Germany under the Old Regime 1600-1790 (Longman, London, 1991)
- David Blackbourn, History of Germany 1780-1918: The Long Nineteenth Century (Blackwell, Oxford 2003)
- Mary Fulbrook, ed., German History since 1800 (Bloomsbury, London 2010 2nd ed.)
- David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History (OUP, Oxford 1984)
- Peter Alter, The German Question and Europe (Arnold, London 2000)
- Peter Pulzer, Germany 1870-1945 (OUP, Oxford 1997)
- Peter Pulzer, German Politics 1945-1995 (OUP, Oxford 1995)
- Reinhard Rürup, The Problem of Revolution in Germany 1789-1989 (Berg, Oxford 2000)
- Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945 (OUP, Oxford 1978)
- Mary Fulbrook, A History of Germany 1918-2008: The Divided Nation (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2010)