University of Wyoming Fall 2019: Thursday History Building, Rm 156 4:10 – 6:40 p.m. HIST 5400-01: Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy
Instructor: Dr. Adam A. Blackler Office: History Building, Rm 256 E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Mon., Tues., 10-11 a.m.
(Source: Jeanne Mammen, Sie repräsentiert, ca. 1928)
Course Introduction: Peter Gay writes in the opening chapter of his Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider that the “Weimar Republic was an idea seeking to become reality.” After four years of war, economic ruin, and social strife, Weimar symbolized “a prediction, or at least a hope, for a new start.”
Women attained the right to vote a full year before the United States ratified the 19th Amendment. Religious minorities practiced their faiths without fear of state interference. Gay men and lesbian women found new freedom in Berlin, which was unofficially known as the “gay capital” of the world. Magnus Hirschfeld revolutionized sex education in his Institute for Sexology. Federal programs guaranteed financial, health, and unemployment benefits to urban and industrial workers, while artists, writers, architects, and musicians created stirring masterpieces that continue to inspire onlookers today. The prewar “outsiders became insiders,” a historic change that shifted the scope of German society in a more open direction.
Nevertheless, the dangerous potentials of the postwar period also galvanized right-wing and völkisch movements that sought the revocation of the so-called “Diktat of Versailles,” a return of all forfeited territories in Europe and overseas, the right of national self-determination, and, for some, the expulsion of all internal “foreign elements” beyond Germany’s borders. The eventual rise of the Nazis to power emerged from this hyper-nationalist milieu, a disastrous representation of Weimar’s incredible potential and tragic outcome. This course will engage with Weimar Germany’s triumphs and achievements, as well as its limitations and calamities, both as a means to illuminate its considerable potential and to learn from its ruinous downfall.
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Required Texts: Ankum, Katharina von, ed. Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Beachy, Robert. Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity. New York: Knopf, 2015.
Canning, Kathleen, Kerstin Barndt, and Kristin McGuire, eds. Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects: Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s. (New York: Berghahn, 2010.
Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.
Hochman, Erin R. Imagining a Greater Germany: Republican Nationalism and the Idea of Anschluss. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016.
Isherwood, Christopher. The Berlin Stories. New York: New Directions, 2008.
Jones, Mark. Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 1918-1919. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Lutes, Jason. Berlin. Berlin: Drawn & Quarterly, 2018.
Marhoefer, Laurie. Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015.
Peukert, Detlev. The Weimar Republic. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993.
Sneeringer, Julia. Winning Women’s Votes: Propaganda and Politics in Weimar Germany. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Weitz, Eric D. Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.
Course Webpage: Along with the required texts, please find supplementary materials on the course webpage. These readings will often comprise the entire source base for the week. Also note that some of these readings are primary sources, so think about how they fit into the themes of the course. Students must complete all readings before the start of each class.
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Assignments: Class Attendance and Participation: 25% Two Seminar Facilitations: 20% Two Analytical Essays 30% Annotated Syllabus Project 25%
25% Class Attendance and Participation Graduate students must attend class every day and engage conscientiously with the readings, lectures, and class discussions. Two un-excused absences will result in a failing grade. Please be prepared to offer thoughtful commentary on the assigned readings and to consider alternative perspectives on the weekly discussions.
Some additional information: Few activities frustrate me more than when people start packing-up their belongings before the end of class. Please wait to put away materials until class ends officially.
I expect proper e-mail etiquette in our respective correspondence. I reserve the right to ignore messages that do not include a subject heading, salutation, and well-written query/statement. Please understand that I am not asking for Shakespeare. I merely want us to communicate in a professional manner.
I will not grant “Incompletes” for this class (with the notable exception of health-related matters, of course). Please expect to finish every assignment on time and in full.
20% Two Seminar Facilitations Each week, two students will facilitate the conversation in class. The dialogue can include references to weekly readings, class discussions, historiographical interventions, and all other relevant material related to the course. It is the facilitators’ job to 1) pose questions that encourage group discussion; 2) establish the merits of the weekly readings; 3) probe the author’s methodology; and 4) question the types of sources she/he uses to establish their argument. Everyone must come prepared to speak thoughtfully each meeting. The instructor will distribute a sign-up sheet during the first week of class.
30% Two Analytical Essays Students will write two 5-7-page (1250-1750 words) essay during the semester (12-point, Times New Roman font, and double-spaced). Students will submit these essays on their scheduled facilitation weeks.
These essays must establish a clear and easily identifiable argument that provides a detailed commentary on the selected readings (not summary of the reviewed works). Successful papers
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will situate the merits of the readings in a larger historical context. This enables one to enter into a “conversation” with the materials under review. Successful essays do not need to agree with an author’s argument or the instructor’s position in class. Whether one supports or disagrees with a thesis is important, but the most important aspect of any argumentative essay is how and why an historian arrives at a position. As a means to supplement a point-of-view, students should consider a scholar’s methodology, historical evidence, organization, and methods of analysis.
25% Annotated Syllabus Project (Due: 20 December 2019) Students will submit an annotated syllabus for an upper-level undergraduate course on a topic of their choosing, related to the Weimar era (1919-1933). This is a major assignment that will require students to consider the entire scope of Weimar’s history. I urge everyone to take this assignment seriously. Even the most senior faculty member requires time, research, and peer review in order to construct a rich, thoughtful course syllabus.
This project is similar to both a historiographical essay and research article. HIST 5400 students will need to examine numerous articles, books, films, and other sources to craft the chronological/thematic intent of their course, and then simultaneously posit it to their hypothetical student body in a manner that inspires curiosity and interest.
Some general (not all) questions for consideration:
What kind of course will I teach (thematic/content/etc)? What is my rationale for taking this approach?
Will my course have a clear chronological/thematic arch? Or will it follow a “chaotic” structure that seeks other kinds of outcomes for students?
What will I use for readings? Will I rely on a main text, or several? Or will I scrap readings altogether and include different mediums to advance course content?
Do I intend for my course to be research oriented or reading intensive? Either choice is fine, but remember to have realistic expectations for your students.
What kinds of assignments will you offer your students? Will they write several analytical essays over the semester, take essay exams, or something else entirely? Make sure to provide examples of prompts/writing assignments/etc with your syllabus.
Are you teaching this course at a small liberal arts college, or a public research university? Does it even matter?
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There is no fixed page number for this assignment. Students should focus their attention on creating a comprehensive class that fulfills the requirements of an upper-division undergraduate course. Each week in the syllabus must include a thorough annotation that justifies the chosen readings, content, assignment, and how it ties together with the course’s larger goals. HIST 5400 students can incorporate no more than three books / two articles from this syllabus.
This is a rigorous assignment, but one that (hopefully) provides everyone a rewarding experience. Remember that this is your course! Teach something that interests you and that you believe needs further attention at your institution. Have fun! That is the surest way to have a successful class—not just for you, but also (and most importantly) your students.
Grading Rubric: This course will follow the University of Wyoming’s standard grading scale: A=90-100 B=80-89 C=70-79 D=60-69 F=59 and below. General Evaluation Rubric for Writing Assignments:
• Thesis/argument is easily identifiable and insightful. It will serve as the thumbnail sketch for the entire paper. • The use of evidence includes primary source material and relevant historiographical literature throughout the paper. • The analysis requires the author to incorporate quoted material, primary evidence, and sound historical viewpoints to support the proposed argument. • The structure requires a clear introduction, body, and conclusion that are easily identifiable by the instructor. Students should present their thesis statement within the introduction; provide evidence throughout the body section; and adequately summarize their findings in the conclusion section. • The mechanics of the paper include proper/clear sentence structure, grammar, and dictation.
Please see WyoCourses module “Academic Standards and University Information” for policies and outreach information
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FALL 2019 CLASS SCHEDULE
Week One: Weimar Germany and Its Histories 05 September 2019
Rüdiger Graf, “Either-Or: The Narrative of ‘Crisis’ in Weimar Germany and its Historiography,” Central European History 43 (2010): 592-615.
Benjamin Ziemann, “Weimar was Weimar: Politics, Culture and the Emplotment of the German Republic,” German History 28, No. 4 (542-571).
Eric D. Weitz, “Weimar Germany and its Histories,” Central European History 43 (2010): 581- 591.
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Week Two: Democratic Potentials and “Pre-revolutionary Traditions” 12 September 2019
Detlev J. K. Peukert, The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity (New York: Hill and Wang, 1987).
Erin R. Hochman, Imagining a Greater Germany: Republican Nationalism and the Idea of Anschluss (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016), 21-130.
Kathleen Canning, “Introduction: Weimar Subjects/Weimar Publics: Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s,” in Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects: Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s, Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt, and Kristin McGuire, eds. (New York: Berghahn, 2010), 1-30.
Manuela Achilles, “With a Passion for Reason: Celebrating the Constitution in Weimar Germany,” Central European History 43 (2010): 666-689.
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Week Three: A Troubled Beginning 19 September 2019
Mark Jones, Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 1918-1919 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Michael Brenner, “Gemeinschaft and Gemeinde: The Ideological and Institutional Transformation of the Jewish Community,” in The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany, Michael Brenner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 36-65.
Wolfram Pyta, “Hindenburg and the German Right,” in The German Right in the Weimar Republic: Studies in the History of German Conservatism, Nationalism, and Antisemitism, Larry Eugene Jones, ed. (New York: Berghahn, 2014), 25-47.
Larry Eugene Jones, “Conservative Antisemitism in the Weimar Republic: A Case Study of the German National People’s Party,” in The German Right in the Weimar Republic: Studies in the History of German Conservatism, Nationalism, and Antisemitism, Larry Eugene Jones, ed. (New York: Berghahn, 2014), 79-107.
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Week Four: Walking Weimar (with Eric D. Weitz, Distinguished Professor, CUNY) 26 September 2019
Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013).
Jason Lutes, Berlin (Berlin: Drawn & Quarterly, 2018), 5-102.
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Week Five: NO CLASS 03 October 2019
42nd German Studies Association Annual meeting (Portland, Oregon)
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Week Six: “The Outsider as Insider”: An Idea in Search of Reality 10 October 2019
Peter Gay, Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (New York: W.W. Norton, 1968).
Robbie Aitken, “Surviving in the Metropole: The Struggle for Work and Belonging amongst African Colonial Migrants in Weimar Germany,” Immigrants & Minorities 28 (2010): 203-223.
Brett M. Van Hoesen, “The Rhineland Controversy and Weimar Postcolonialism,” in German Colonialism in a Global Age, Bradley Naranch and Geoff Eley, eds. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2014), 302-329.
Sharon Gillerman, “‘A Little State Within a Larger One’: The Expansion of Jewish Welfare During the Weimar Republic,” in Germans into Jews: Remaking the Jewish Social Body in the Weimar Republic, Sharon Gillerman (Stanford University Press, 2009), 78-106.
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Week Seven: “Weimar was Berlin, Berlin Weimar” 17 October 2019
Christopher Isherwood, “A Berlin Diary,” in The Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood (New York: 1935).
Jason Lutes, Berlin (Berlin: Drawn & Quarterly, 2018), 105-203.
Rory Maclean, “Christopher Isherwood, in a City of the Imagination,” in Berlin: Portrait of a City through the Centuries, Rory Maclean (New York: Picador, 2014), 171-185.
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Week Eight: “A World of Its Own”: Sexual Emancipation and Weimar’s “Gay Identity” 24 October 2019
Laurie Marhoefer, “Introduction: The Opening Night of the Institute for Sexual Science, July 1919” and “Homosexual Emancipation, Censorship, and the Revolution of 1918-1919,” in Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis, Laurie Marhoefer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 3-51.
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Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (New York: Vintage, 2014).
Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlin’s Third Sex (Berlin, 1904).
Sara Ann Sewell, “The Party Does Indeed Fight Like a Man: The Construction of a Masculine Ideal in the Weimar Communist Part,” Weimar Culture Revisited, John Williams, ed. (New York: Palgrave, 2011), 161-182.
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Week Nine: Weimar’s “New Women”: Going Beyond ‘Kinder, Küche, Kirche’ 31 October 2019
Julia Sneeringer, Propaganda and Politics in Weimar Germany (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).
Renate Bridenthal, “Beyond Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Weimar Women at Work,” Central European History 6, No. 2 (June 1973): 148-166.
Rüdiger Graf, “Anticipating the Future in the Present: ‘New Women’ and Other Beings of the Future in Weimar Germany,” Central European History 42 (2009): 647-673.
Lynne Frame, “Gretchen, Girl, Garçonne? Weimar Science and Popular Culture in Search of the Ideal New Woman,” in Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture, Katharina von Ankum, ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 12- 40.
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Week Ten: “Theater am Schiffbauerdamm”: Cabaret as Metropolitan Montage 07 November 2019
Peter Jelavich, Berlin Cabaret (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (Berlin, 1928).
Maria Makela, “Rejuvenation and Regen(d)eration: Der Steinachfilm, Sex Glands, and Weimar- Era Visual and Literary Culture,” German Studies Review 38, No. 1 (2015): 35-62.
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Week Eleven: Cradle of the Modern 14 November 2019
Jason Lutes, Berlin (Berlin: Drawn & Quarterly, 2018), 211-354.
Debbie Lewer, “Revolution and the Weimar Avant-Garde: Contesting the Politics of Art, 1919- 1924,” in Weimar Culture Revisited, John Williams, ed. (New York: Palgrave, 2011), 1- 21.
Anthony McElligott, The German Urban Experience 1900-45: Modernity and Crisis (New York: Routledge, 2001).
Neil MacGregor, “Cradle of the Modern,” in Germany: Memories of a Nation, Neil MacGregor (New York: Vintage, 2014), 355-375.
Young-Sun Hong, Welfare, Modernity, and the Weimar State, 1919-1933 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 3-75.
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Week Twelve: A Cinematic Sonderweg? 21 November 2019
Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947).
Anton Kaes, “The Return of the Undead: Weimar Cinema and the Great War,” in Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects: Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s, Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt, and Kristin McGuire, eds. (New York: Berghahn, 2010), 31-41.
Thomas Elsaesser, “No End to Nosferatu,” in Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era, Noah Isenberg, ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 79- 94.
Ofer Ashkenazi, “Middle-Class Heroes: Anti-Nationalism in the Popular Adventure Films of the Weimar Republic,” in Weimar Culture Revisited, John Williams, ed. (New York: Palgrave, 2011), 73-98.
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Week Thirteen: NO CLASS 28 November 2019
Thanksgiving Holiday
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Week Fourteen: Did Weimar Fail? 05 December 2019
Jason Lutes, Berlin (Berlin: Drawn & Quarterly, 2018), 357-549.
Peter Fritzsche, “Did Weimar Fail?” The Journal of Modern History 68, No. 3 (September 1996): 629-656.
Annemarie Sammartino, “Defining the Nation in Crisis: Citizenship Policy in the Early Weimar Republic,” in Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects: Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s, Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt, and Kristin McGuire, eds. (New York: Berghahn, 2010), 321-338.
Willeke Sandler, “The Stakes of Overseas Colonialism in the Weimar Republic,” in Empire in the Heimat: Colonialism and Public Culture in the Third Reich, Willeke Sandler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 23-58.
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Week Fifteen: Weimar and Its Legacies 12 December 2019
Christopher R. Browning, “The Suffocation of Democracy,” New York Review of Books (25 October 2018): 1-9.
Eric D. Weitz, “Weimar Germany and Donald Trump,” Tablet (July 2016): 1-5.
Jochen Hung, “‘Babylon Berlin’ and the myth of the Weimar Republic,” The Washington Post (20 March 2018).
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