|
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. Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann
Coordinator Office Hours:
Wednesday 14:00-15:00
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Tobias Ebbrecht Hartmann
Course/Module description:
The course "German Social History" provides an introduction into the society and culture of Germany in the 20th century. The focus is on post-war German history that is reviewed from a comparative perspective as asymmetrical development between East and West Germany. Methodologically and thematically the course is adopting the concepts of 'modernity' and 'crisis'. Topics that should be discussed are, among other things, political and social protest movements, dealing with the past and the European and international framework of the German development. The course gives an overview of the history of the Weimar Republic until unification in the 1990s and will deal intensively with the two post-war societies in East and West. In addition to political and social issues also cultural phenomena and particulary the cinematic reflection of the socio-historical development will be examined.
Course/Module aims:
The course gives an insight into different aspects of German social history. Furthermore it provides methodological approaches in order to perceive the post-war development in Germany both in comparative perspective (comparative, asymmetric historiography) as well as with regard to various phenomena (society, culture, politics). The course intends to present a complex and wide-ranging picture of Germany. The students will thus be offered a basis for subsequent detailed studies in various subject areas. At the same time they will become familiar with different historiographical concepts of social and cultural history.
The course will be held partly online.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- orient within the course of German 20th century history,
- communicate knowledge about German society and culture,
- apply methodological and theoretical concepts (asymmetrical history, crisis as concept of history, transnational historiography) to particular research topics,
- understand the specific social and political composition of the contemporary German society on the basis of its history and development
- get a reflective view on Germany’s politics and culture of memory and on the impact of the national-Socialist past.
Attendance requirements(%):
80%
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
The teaching is organized as a thematically arranged chronological overview of the German social history of the 20th century. Main sessions are concerned with the conceptual and methodological question of how this history can be explored and narrated. All sessions are based on corresponding texts, which must be read for each session. The lessons are based on both the input of the lecturer and the joint discussion of texts as well as on group work and students’ presentations during class. The course will be partly taught online (hybrid).
Course/Module Content:
The general theoretical framework of the course will be the concept of social history as ‘crisis history’.
20/03/2024 Introduction: German Social History – Society, History & Crisis (in class)
27/03/2024 Crisis of Modernity – The Ambivalences of Weimar (online)
03/04/2024 Total Integration – The Principle of German Volksgemeinschaft (online)
10/04/2024 A Society in Ruins – “Zero Hour” and the Question of Guilt (online)
01/05/2024 Restart, Continuity and Crisis – Developing Society, Culture and Identity in East and West Germany (in class)
08/05/2024 Between Stability and Conflict – Social Protests, Gender and Youth Movements (+ student presentation, online)
15/05/2024 Conflicting Past(s) - The two Germanys and the Holocaust (+ student presentation, online)
22/05/2024 1968 - From Protest to Terror (+ student presentation, in class)
29/05/2024 German ‘Alltag’: Youth, Culture and Everyday Life in the two Germanys (+ student presentation, in class)
05/06/2024 New Germans: Foreign Workers, Migration, Multiculturalism (+ student presentation, in class)
19/06/2024 The Road to Unification: A German Revolution? (online)
26/06/2024 From Hoyerswerda to Halle: Germany's Remnants of Nationalist Authoritarianism (online)
Required Reading:
• Reinhart Koselleck, Some Questions Regarding the Conceptual History of “Crisis”. In: The practice of conceptual history. Timing history, spacing concepts. Stanford: Stanford University Press 2002, pp. 236-247.
• Axel Schildt and Arnold Sywottek, “Reconstruction” and “Modernization”: West German Social History during the 1950s. In: Robert G. Moeller (ed), West Germany under Construction. Politics, Society and Culture in the Adenauer Era, Ann Arbor 1997, pp. 413-443.
• Jürgen Kocka, Toward a Social History of the German Democratic Republic. In: Civil Society and Dictatorship in Modern Germany, Hanover, NH 2010, pp. 33-66.
• Hans-Jürgen Schröder. "From division to Unity: The History of the Federal Republic of Germany." The New Germany: History, Economy, Policies. Ed. Reimund Seidelmann. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2011. 13-64.
• Lindenberger, Thomas. "Everyday History: New Approaches to the History of the Post-War Germanys." The Divided Past: Rewriting Post-War German History. Ed. Christoph Klessmann. Oxford: Berg, 2001. 43-67.
A full reading list will be provided at the beginning of the seminar.
Additional Reading Material:
A full reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course.
Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 60 %
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture/ Seminar / Pro-seminar / Research proposal 40 %
Additional information:
1. Active participation
2. Oral presentation (15 Minutes) - 20%
3. Written version of the oral presentation (5 Pages, 12 pt., Double space) – submission deadline: 1 July 2024 – 20%
4. • Final paper (10 Pages, 12 pt., Double space) – submission deadline: 31 August 2024 – 60%
In addition, it is possible to write a seminar paper in the course:
a) choose topic related to the course by: 5 January 2022,
b) submit written seminar paper (25 pages) by: 30 September 2024.
|
close