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Syllabus Study Excursion: Destruction Construction Reconstruction: Shaping Berlin's Space and Image - 54618
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Last update 24-08-2020
HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Cont. German Studies:politics, Soc.&Cult

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Kobi Ben-Meir

Coordinator Email: kobibobm@gmail.com

Coordinator Office Hours:

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Kobi Ben-Meir

Course/Module description:
The course is an 8 day study trip to Berlin, which will explore in situ how contemporary Berlin imagines itself. It will follow the course taught at Mt. Scopus (54617), and will delve more thoroughly into the historical heritage of the city, namely of the 18th-20th centuries. We shall walk through the city's different districts, physically explore its layout and internal logic, study some of its larger and smaller monuments as study cases for the image of New Berlin, visit some of the best museums and art collections in the world, and meet some influential people from the cultural scene and city officials.

Course/Module aims:

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
• understand the historical context of Berlin's contemporary visual and conceptual image;
• analyze the political aspects of the architecture of Berlin as methods of image-making and memory shaping;
• identify major trends in Berlin's contemporary urban design;
• engage with visual culture as source of knowledge for their study.

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:

Course/Module Content:
The excursion will include (tentative):
• Humboldt Forum and Museums Insel: evolution of a site
• Unter den Linden and its monuments
• Hackescher Markt, Alexanderplatz and Karl Marx Allee
• Potsdamer Platz and Kulturforum
• From Tiergarten memorials to Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche
• Treptower Park and other Socialist memorials
• Contemporary art: Hamburger Bahnhof and Gropius Bau
• A walk through Prenzlauer Berg: from 1920's workers' housing to gentrification of the East
• Potsdam and Park Sanssouci

Required Reading:
Selected chapters from (TBC):
• Colomb, Claire, 2011. Staging the New Berlin: Place Marketing and the Politics of Urban Reinvention Post-1989. London – New York: Routledge.
• Huyssen, Andreas, 2003. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Ladd, Brian, 1997. The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• MacGregor, Neil, 2014. Germany: Memories of a Nation. London: Allen Lane.
• Staiger, Uta, Henriette Steiner and Andrew Webber, 2009. Memory Culture and the Contemporary City. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Taberner, Stuart and Frank Finlay (eds.), 2002. Recasting German Identity: Culture, Politics, and Literature in the Berlin Republic. Camden House.
• ύTill, Karen E., 2005. The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Additional Reading Material:

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 60 %
Participation in Tutorials 40 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
Preliminary requirement: participation in course no. 54617.
The study excursion includes extensive walking in the city.
The study excursion is mostly subsidized by the Centre for German Studies.
To enroll, please contact the Centre for German studies at elishevam@savion.huji.ac.il.
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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