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Home , Ernst von Salomon, Frank McDonough, Hans Fallada, Mary Fulbrook, Monika Maron, The Triumph of the Dark

Note: Some assignments are provisional and subject to change

The Graduate School and University Center Ph.D. Program in History Spring 2014

History 71600 and the Two World Wars

Professor Christoph M. Kimmich Office: 212-817-7241 [email protected] Hours: TBA

The course covers German history since 1914 -- a turbulent period of five different regimes and two world wars. We shall explore the political and economic crises that led to these upheavals, and where and how these shaped and were shaped by broader European developments. Milestones along the way are the Kaiser’s war and its consequences; the unsettled first republic; the political and cultural confrontations of the late 1920s and early 1930s; the rise, consolidation, and impact of the Nazi regime; Hitler’s war, its brutal aftermath, and its legacy; the establishment of Communism in the East and of parliamentary democracy in the West. Many of these topics have become matters of controversy, often driven by specific cultural and political agendas, and we shall examine these as well.

Objectives: The course will enable students to demonstrate a command of significant narratives in Germany’s modern history; to read critically, to identify major issues, to determine the cogency of an argument, to assess evidence and weigh conflicting interpretations; and to make oral and written presentations effectively and with confidence.

Requirements: Students are expected to engage in active and informed discussion in class; to introduce the readings in any given week; and to prepare a paper (15-20 pp.) on a topic to be chosen in consultation with the instructor.

Required readings are listed below and should be completed in time for class.

Evaluation: The grade for the course will be based on the quality of your contribution: class participation (60%) and written work (40%).

Background: The course presumes some background in twentieth-century German history. If you need to refresh your knowledge of the period or want to check chronology and references, consult either Mary Fulbrook, The Divided Nation: A , 1918-2000 (2nd ed., 2002) or Dietrich Orlow, History of Modern Germany, 1871 to the Present (7th ed., 2012). Required Readings

A. Graduate Center Library: on reserve

Bartov,Omer, Germany’s War and : Disputed Histories (2003) [ISBN 9780801438240] Bessel, Germany after the First World War (1993) [ISBN 9780198219385] Blank, Ralf, Germany and the Second World War: German Wartime Society, 1939-1945, Vol. 9/I (2004/2008) [ISBN 9780191557798] Broszat, Martin, The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Internal Structure of the Third Reich (1969/1981) [ISBN 9780582489974] Browning, Christopher R., Ordinary Men: Reserve Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (1992) [ISBN 9780060190132] Caplan, Jane, ed., (2008) [ISBN 9780199276875] Davis, Belinda J., Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in (2000) [ISBN 9780807825266] Fulbrook, Mary, The People’s State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (2005) [ISBN 9780300108842] Garton-Ash, Timothy, In Europe’s Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (1993) [ISBN 9780394557113] Garton-Ash, Timothy, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of ’89 witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague (1990) [ISBN 9780394588841] James, Harold, A German Identity, 1770-1990 (1989) [ISBN 9780415901802] Judt, Tony, Postwar: A since 1945 (2005) [ISBN 9781594200656] Kershaw, Ian, The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944-1945 (2011) [ISBN 9781594203145] Klemperer, Victor, I will bear Witness, Vols. I, II (1995/1998-99) [ISBN 9780679456964 and 9780375502408] Lowe, Keith, Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II (2012) [ISBN 9781250000200] Martel, Gordon, ed., Modern Germany Reconsidered, 1870-1945 (1992) [ISBN 9780415078122] Mazower, Mark, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century (1999) [ISBN 9780679438090] Peukert, Detlev, The : The Crisis of Classical Modernity (1987/1992) [ISBN 9780809096749] Wright, Jonathan, Germany and the Origins of the Second World War (2007) [ISBN 9780333495551]

B. Graduate Center Library: available online

Jarausch, Konrad H., After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995 (2006) [ISBN 978019127799] Jarausch, Konrad H., and Michael Geyer, Shattered Past: Reconstructing German Histories (2003) [ISBN 9780691059358] Strachan, Hew, The First World War, Vol. I (2001) [ISBN 9780670032952]

Class Assignments

30 January: Introduction

6 February: Assessing German History

Assigned Reading Jarausch/Geyer, pp. 1-108 James, pp. 1-33, 111-164 Michael Geyer, “Germany, or, the Twentieth Century as History,” The South Atlantic Quarterly 96 (1997), 663-702 Supplementary Reading Ute Frevert, “Europeanizing German History,” German Historical Institute, Washington, Bulletin 36 (2003), 9-24 Helmut Walser Smith, The Continuities of German History (2008) [e-book] Richard J. Evans, “German History: Past, Present and Future,” in Gordon Martel, ed., Modern Germany Reconsidered, 1870-1945 (1992), 237-54

I. The Legacy of the First World War

13 February: Germany and the Great War

Assigned Reading Strachan, pp. 1-110 (reprinted in The Outbreak of the First World War [2004], pp. 3-140) Davis, pp. 1-23, 93-136, 219-46 Supplementary Reading Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring (1989) Jürgen Kocka, Facing Total War. German Society, 1914-1918 (1973/1984) Fiction Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel (1920/1929) , All Quiet on the Western Front (1928/1929) Ludwig Renn, War (1928/1929)

20 February: Monday Schedule

27 February: Revolution, Constitution-building, Peacemaking

Assigned Reading Conan Fischer, “A Very German Revolution” German Historical Institute, London, Bulletin 11 (2006), 6-32 Bessel, pp. 254-84 Peukert, pp. 19-77

Supplementary Reading Reinhard Rürup, “Problems of the German Revolution,” Journal of Contemporary History 3 (1968), 109-35 Wolfgang Mommsen, “The German Revolution, 1918-1920,” in Richard Bessel and E.J. Feuchtwanger, eds., Social Change and Political Development in Weimar Germany (1981), pp. 21-36 Fiction/Reportage Theodor Plivier, The Kaiser goes, the Generals Remain (1932/1933) , I was a German. The Autobiography of Revolutionary (1933/1934)

6 March: Weimar: The New Republic

Assigned Reading Peukert, pp. 79-246 Supplementary Reading Patrick O. Cohrs, The Unfinished Peace after World War I (2006) Eric Weitz, Weimar Germany. Promise and Tragedy (2007) Fiction/Reportage , What I Saw: Reports from Berlin, 1920-1933 (2003) , The Outlaws (1930/1931)

13 March: Weimar: The End of the Republic and the Rise of

Assigned Reading : Peukert, pp. 247-82 Evans and Fritzsche in Caplan, pp. 26-72 Caplan in Martel, pp. 117-39 Supplementary Reading Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis (1998) Peter Fritzsche, “Did Weimar Fail?” Journal of Modern History 68 (1996), pp. 629-656 [review essay] Fiction/Reportage Alfred Döblin, Alexanderplatz, Berlin (1929/1931) , Little Man, What Now? (1932/1933) Harry Kessler, In the Twenties (1961/1971)

20 March: The Third Reich at Home

Assigned Reading Broszat, pp. 57-95, 133-240, 262-327, 346-361 Supplementary Reading Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History (2000) Noakes, Stephenson, Wachsmann, and Tooze in Caplan Bernard Wasserstein, On The Eve (2012)

Fiction/Film Philip Kerr, March Violets (1989) , The Seventh Cross (1939/1942) Ernst Wiechert, Forest of the Dead (1937/1946) “Triumph of the Will” (Riefenstahl, 1935)

27 March: Germany and Europe

Assigned Reading Wright, entire Mason/Kaiser/Overy in Past and Present 122 (1989), pp. 200-240 Supplementary Reading John Hiden, Germany and Europe, 1919-1939 (2nd ed., 1993) Frank McDonough, ed., Origins of the Second World War. An International Perspective (2011) , The Triumph of the Dark (2011) Reportage Arvid Fredborg, Behind the Steel Wall (1944) William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary (1941)

II. The Legacy of the Second World War

3 April: War and Genocide

Reading Assignment Browning, pp. 1-77, 121-189 Blank, pp. 1-83 Bartov, pp. 3-78 Mazower, pp. 138-181 Supplementary Reading Peter Longerich, Holocaust. The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (1998/2010) , Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (2008) , Why the Allies Won (1995) Tim Snyder, Bloodlands (2010) Fiction/Reportage Hans Fallada, (1947/2009) Willi Heinrich, Cross of Iron (1955/1956) Wendelgard von Staden, Darkness over the Valley: Growing up in Nazi Germany (1979/1981) Marie Vassiltchikov, Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 (1987)

10 April: The War at Home

Reading Assignment Klemperer, Vols. I, II, selections; Kershaw (The End), selections Supplementary Reading Bartov, ch.7 Max Hastings, Armageddon. The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945 (2004) Fiction/Film/Reportage Günter Grass, The Tin Drum (1959/1963) Ursula von Kardoff, Diary of a Nightmare. Berlin, 1942-1945 (1962/1965) Hans-Georg von Studnitz, While Berlin Burns (1963/1965) “Kolberg” (Harlan, 1945)

24 April: “The Rubble Years”: Revival and Reconstruction

Assigned Reading Lowe, pp. 3-72, 230-48 Judt, pp. 13-128 Supplementary Reading Douglas Botting, In the Ruins of the Reich (2005) Jeffrey Olick, In the House of the Hangman. The Agonies of German Defeat, 1943-1949 Ben Shephard, The Long Road Home (2010) Fiction/Film Gerhard Kramer, We Shall March Again (1952/1955) “The Marriage of Maria Braun” (Fassbender, 1978) “The Murderers are among us” (Staudte, 1946)

1 May: The German Democratic Republic: The “Other” Germany

Assigned Reading Fulbrook, pp. 1-114, 179-194, 234-268. 291-298 Supplementary Reading Charles S. Maier, Dissolution (1997) Patrick Major and Jonathan Osmond, eds., The Workers’ and Peasants’ State (2002) Andrew I. Port, Conflict and Stability in the German Democratic Republic (2007) Corey Ross, Constructing Socialism at the Grass-Roots: The Transformation of , 1945-65 (2000) Fiction and Film , Silent Close No. 6 (1991/1993) , The Quest for Christa T. (1968/1979) “The Lives of Others” (Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)

8 May: The Federal Republic of Germany: The Culture of Prosperity

Assigned Reading Jarausch (After Hitler), pp. 3-183 Robert G. Moeller, “War Stories,” American Historical Review 101 (1996), 1008- 1048

Supplementary Reading Robert G. Moeller, ed., under Construction: Politics, Society, and Culture in the Adenauer Era (1997) Hanna Schissler, ed., The Miracle Years. A Cultural History of West Germany, 1919-1968 (2001), esp. chs. 3, 4, 9, and 10 Nick Thomas, Protest Movements in 1960s West Germany (2003) Fiction Heinrich Böll, The Train was on Time (1949/1956); And where were you, Adam? (1951/1955); And Never said a Word (1953/1978)

15 May: Coming to Terms with Nazism (student presentations)

The Debate Hans Ulrich Wehler, Imperial Germany (1980/1985), pp. 5-31, 215-46 David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History (1984), pp. 1-35, 144-55, 286-92 [e-book] (Supplementary: Jürgen Kocka, “German History before Hitler,” Journal of Contemporary History 23 [(1988], pp. 3-16) The “Historians’ Dispute” Forever in the Shadow of Hitler? The Dispute about the Germans’ Understanding of History (1993), esp. essays by Broszat, Habermas, Hildebrand, Hillgruber, Nolte, and Mommsen, and letters by Bracher, Habermas, Nolte, and Stürmer (Supplementary: Charles S. Maier, The Unmasterable Past [1988], chs. 1-2) The Historicization of National Socialism Baldwin, Peter, ed., Reworking the Past: Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Historians’ Debate (1990), pp. 77-134 (Supplementary: Maier, Unmasterable Past, ch. 3)

22 May: The Presence of the Past

Assigned Reading Garton-Ash (Europe’s Name), pp. 1-215 Garton-Ash (Lantern), pp. 11-23, 61-77 Supplementary Reading Rudy Koshar, From Monuments to Traces (2000) Alon Confino, Germany as a Culture of Remembrance (2006)