Georgetown University Richard F. Wetzell Department of History Email: [email protected] BMW Center for German & European Studies Phone: (202) 552-8939
HIST 433 NAZI GERMANY SPRING 2008 SYLLABUS
Class meeting time: Tuesdays, 5:15-6:55 pm
Contacting the Instructor: You can reach me by email at [email protected] or by phone at my office at (202) 552-8939.
Short course description
This class provides an introduction to Nazi Germany by examining a range of topics: the Weimar Republic (1919-1933); the rise of Nazism; the Republic’s collapse and the Nazi seizure of power; a local study of the rise of Nazism in one German town; German society under the Nazi regime; popular support and political dissent; sexuality and gender; art and culture; Jewish life and Nazi anti-Semitism; the creation of a "racial state"; the role of science and medicine; the Holocaust; the German army’s participation in war crimes; and Germany’s approach to its Nazi past after 1945. The class is designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. We will meet each week to discuss a common set of readings. Most weeks, the reading will consist of a single book or a collection of essays, sometimes supplemented by articles that provide the historiographical context, i.e. what other historians have written on the topic. In addition to shorter book review papers, there will be different term paper assignments for undergraduates and graduate students: Undergraduates will write a term paper based on two Nazi-era memoirs; graduate students will write a historiographical paper on a topic of their choice.
Class Participation
Your careful preparation and active participation in class discussion is crucial to the success of the class. Oral participation will account for 40% of your grade. To prepare for class you should: read the assigned text, take notes on your reading, reflect on what you have read, formulate your own criticisms and questions regarding the reading, decide on the questions and issues that you would like to raise in class. History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 2
Written Assignments
1. A book review of William S. Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, the common reading for the third week, due in class on Feb. 5. Length: 1200 words (about 4 pages).
2. A comparative book review of two books: (a) the common class reading of any week between week 4 and 12 and (b) one book marked with an asterisk (*) on the list of “further reading” for that week. This paper should compare the approach and arguments of the two books and briefly situate them in the historiography. These reviews are due at the class meeting at which the common reading in question is being discussed. Length: 1700 words (about 6 pages).
3a. Undergraduate term paper: A paper on two memoirs selected from the list at the end of this syllabus. You may pick other memoirs, but please clear this with me ahead of time. If you read German, please consult with me, since you will have more choices of memoirs published in German only. Further instructions for this assignment follow in the last section of this syllabus. A brief statement on your selection of memoirs will be due in class on Feb. 19. This assignment will be due on April 25. Length: 2000 words (about 7 pages).
3b. Graduate term paper: a ten-page historiographical paper reviewing major books and articles on a topic of your choice. Topics and books to be chosen in consultation with the instructor.
Grading
Class attendance is mandatory. Components of final grade: 40% participation in class discussion 10% Review of W.S. Allen book (Assignment 1) 20% Comparative book review (Assignment 2) 30% Term paper (Assignment 3) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 3
Required Books
The following books are required reading. They will be placed on reserve in the library and have been ordered for the campus bookstore. All except the first are available in paperback. The books are listed in the order in which we will read them in class.
1. Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), hardback, $29.95, ISBN 069101695X 2. Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), paperback, $18, ISBN: 0143034693 3 . William Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experiences of a Single German Town, 1922-1945 (Franklin Watts, 2d ed., 1984), paperback, $19.95, ISBN: 0531056333 4. Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin, 2005), paperback, $20, ISBN 0143037900 5. Claudia Koonz, The Nazi Conscience (Cambridge: Harvard Univ./ Belknap Press, 2003) paperback, $17.50, ISBN 0674018427 6. Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 (translated, New York: Random House, 1998), paperback $16.95, ISBN 0375753788 7. Dagmar Herzog, Sexuality and German Fascism (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004), paperback, $25, ISBN: 1571815511 8. Jonathan Huener and Francis Nicosia, eds., The Arts in Nazi Germany (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), paperback $25, ISBN 184545359X 9. Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 1, The Years of Persecution, 1933- 1939 (New York, Harper Collins, 1997), paperback $17.95, ISBN: 0060928786 10. Francis Nicosia and Jonathan Huener, eds., Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany (New York: Berghahn, 2002), paperback, $22.95, ISBN 157181387X 11. Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland (New York: Harper, 1992), paperback $14.00, ISBN: 0060995068 12. Omer Bartov, Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and the War in the Third Reich (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991), paperback $15.95, ISBN: 0195079035 13. Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1997), paperback, $17.95, ISBN 0674213041 History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 4
Additional book used in class Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 4th edition (London/New York: Arnold/Oxford UP, 2000; ISBN: 0340760281). Several chapters are assigned reading; this book provides the best survey of the historiography.
Writing and Style Guides Joseph Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (various editions, 8th ed., 2004). This book teaches how to write clearly. It is does not deal with grammatical issues. Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing about History (various editions, 4th ed., 2001) This book teaches students how to write papers in history classes. Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers (various editions; 6th ed., 1996) This books deals with the mechanics of proper footnoting and formatting.
Reference works on Nazi Germany Roderick Stackelberg, The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany (2007) Richard Overy, ed., Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (1996) Tim Kirk, ed., The Longman Companion to Nazi Germany (1995) James Taylor, ed., Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich (1997) Roderick Stackelberg and Sally Anne Winkle, eds., The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts (Routledge, 2002), a good collection of primary sources
Surveys of the Nazi period Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History (2000) Jost Dülffer, Nazi Germany 1933-1935 (1992, trans. 1996) Norbert Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany (1987, trans. 1994) Karl-Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship (1970) Martin Broszat, The Hitler State (1969; trans. 1981)
Essay collections on the Nazi period Neil Gregor, ed., Nazism (2000) Christian Leitz, ed., The Third Reich (1999) Michael Burleigh, ed., Confronting the Nazi Past (1996) David Crew, ed., Nazism and German Society, 1933-1945 (1994) Thomas Childers and Jane Caplan, eds., Reevaluating the Third Reich (1992)
Hitler Biographies Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1886-1936: Hubris (1999; in paperback) Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis (2000; in paperback) John Lukacs, The Hitler of History (1997) Sebastian Haffner, The meaning of Hitler (trans. 1983) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 5
SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS
Jan. 15 Introductory Meeting
If possible, get a head start on the class reading for next week.
Jan. 22 1. The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) I: Politics, Society, Culture
Class Reading: Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton, 2007), entire book (368 pp.)
Further Reading on the Weimar Republic:
Anton Kaes, et al., eds., The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (1994) *Detlev Peukert, The Weimar Republic (1987) *Hans Mommsen, The Rise and the Fall of Weimar democracy (1996) Eberhard Kolb, The Weimar Republic (trans. 1988) Peter Gay, Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (1968) Walter Laqueur, Weimar: A Cultural History (1974) John Willett, Art and politics in the Weimar period: The new sobriety 1917-1933 (1978)
Jan. 29 2. Weimar Republic II: The Failure of Democracy and the Rise of Nazism
Class Reading: Richard Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, (New York, 2004), pp. xv-308 Ian Kershaw, “Historians and the problem of explaining Nazism,” in: Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship, 4th edition, pp. 1-19
Further Reading on the Republic’s Collapse:
Ian Kershaw, ed., Weimar: Why did German democracy fail? (1990) Martin Broszat, Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany (1987) Conan Fischer, The Rise of the Nazis (1995) Albrecht Tyrell, “Toward Dictatorship: Germany 1930 to 1934,” in The Third Reich, ed. Christian Leitz (1999), 27-48 History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 6
Feb. 5 3. The Rise of Nazism in a Small Town
Class Reading: William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experiences of a Single German Town, 1922-1945 (2d ed, New York, 1984), entire book (303 pp.)
Further Reading: Local Studies Andrew Bergerson, Ordinary Germans in Extraordinary Times: The Nazi Revolution in Hildesheim (2004) Rudy Koshar, Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg 1880-1935 (1986) Rudolf Heberle, From Democracy to Nazism (1970) Geoffrey Pridham, Hitler's Rise to Power: The Nazi Party in Bavaria 1925-1933 (1974) Jeremy Noakes, The Nazi Party in Lower Saxony, 1921-1933 (1971)
Feb. 12 4. The Nazi Consolidation of Power, 1933-35
Class Reading: Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, pp. 310-461 Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power (New York, 2005), pp. xv-118
Feb. 19 5. Constructing the Racial State I
Class Reading: Claudia Koonz, The Nazi Conscience (Cambridge, 2003), entire book (274 pp.)
Further reading: Ian Kershaw, Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich: Bavaria 1933 - 1945 *Robert Gellately, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany (2001) Eric Johnson, Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, the Jews and Ordinary Germans (1999) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 7
Feb. 26 6. Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: Victor Klemperer’s Diary
Class Reading: Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 (translated, New York, 1998) (selections) Kershaw, “The Third Reich: ‘social reaction’ or ‘social revolution’,” in: Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship, 4th edition, pp. 161-182
Further Reading on the social history of the Third Reich: *Pierre Aycoberry, The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945 (1999) *Detlev Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life (1982, trans. 1987) Lisa Pine, Hitler’s National Community: Society and Culture in Nazi Germany (2007) Tim Mason, Social Policy in the Third Reich (rev. and trans. 1993) Richard Bessel, ed., Life in Third Reich (1987) David Schoenbaum, Hitler's Social Revolution (1966) Tim Mason, Nazism, Fascism and the Working Class (1995) Nicholas Stargardt, Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives under the Nazis (2006) Jill Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front: The Nazis in the Countryside (2006)
March 3-9 Spring Break
March 11 7. Sexuality and Gender in Nazi Germany
Class Reading: Dagmar Herzog, ed., Sexuality and German Fascism (New York, 2005), selected chapters
Further Reading on Sexuality: *Atina Grossmann, Reforming Sex: The German movement for birth control and abortion reform, 1920-1950 (1995) Cornelia Usborne, The politics of the body in Weimar Germany (1992)
Further Reading in Women’s History: *Renate Bridenthal, Atina Grossmann, Marion Kaplan, eds., When biology became destiny: women in Weimar and Nazi Germany (1984) Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany (rev. ed., 2001) Jill Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women (1981) Claudia Koontz, Mothers in the Fatherland (1987) Nancy Reagin, A German women's movement: Class and gender in Hannover, 1880-1933 (1995) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 8
March 18 8. Art and Culture in Nazi Germany
Class Reading: Jonathan Huener and Francis Nicosia, eds., The Arts in Nazi Germany (New York, 2006), pp. 1-154 Richard Evans, The Third Reich in Power, chap. 2 (pp. 120-218)
Further reading:
*Allan Steinweis, Art, Ideology, & Economics in Nazi Germany: The Reich Chambers of Music, Theater, and the Visual Arts (1993) *Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics in the Third Reich (1997) Jonathan Petropoulos, The Faustian Bargain: The Art World of Nazi Germany (2000) Peter Adam, Art of the Third Reich (1991) Peter Paret, An Artist against the Third Reich (2003) Stephanie Barron, ed., Degenerate Art (exhibition catalog, 1991) Richard Etlin, ed., Art, Culture, and Media under the Third Reich (2002) Glenn Cuomo, ed., National Socialist Cultural Policy (1995)
March 25 9. Jewish Life and Anti-Jewish Policy, 1933-1939
Class Reading: Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 1, The Years of Persecution, 1933- 1939 (1997) (entire book, 333 pp.)
Further Reading:
Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 2, The Years of Extermination, 1939- 1945 (2007) *Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish life in Nazi Germany (1997) Karl Schleunes, The Twisted Road Road to Auschwitz (1970) Avraham Barkai, From boycott to annihilation: The economic struggle of German Jews 1933-1943 (1989) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 9
April 1 10. The Racial State II: Medicine, Eugenics, and the Origins of the Holocaust
Class Reading: Francis Nicosia and Jonathan Huener, eds., Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany (New York, 2002), entire book (139 pp.) Richard Evans, The Third Reich in Power, section “In the Spirit of Science, “ (pp. 506- 535)
Further Reading: *Michael Burleigh/Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (1991) *Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. (Catalogue of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibition, 2004) Robert Gellately and Nathan Stoltzfus, eds., Social outsiders in Nazi Germany (2001) Michael Burleigh, ed., Confronting the Nazi Past (1996) Robert Proctor, Racial hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (1988) Paul Weindling, Health, Race and German Politics, 1870-1945 (1989) Paul Weindling, Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials (2006) Michael Kater, Doctors under Hitler (1989) Götz Aly, et al., Cleansing the fatherland: Nazi medicine and racial hygiene (1994) Michael Burleigh, Death and Deliverance: Euthanasia in Germany 1900-1945 (2000) Henry Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (1995)
April 8 11. The Holocaust
Class Reading: Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York, 1992), entire book (189 pp.) Ian Kershaw, “Hitler and the Holocaust,” in: Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship, 4th edition, pp. 93-133
Further Reading: Donald Niewyk and Francis Nicosia, The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust (2000) Walter Laqueur, ed., The Holocaust Enyclopedia (2001) *Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History (1987) Christopher Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution (2004) Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1933-1945 (trans. 1990) Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (3 vols.; rev. 1985) *Raul Hilberg, Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders (1992) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 10
Philippe Burrin, Hitler and the Jews (trans. 1994) Donald Bloxham/Tony Kushner, The Holocaust: Critical Historical Approaches (2005) Omer Bartov, ed., The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation and Aftermath (2000) Donald Niewyk, ed., The Holocaust:Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (1992) Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (1958)
April 15 12. The Second World War
Class Reading: Omer Bartov, Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and the War in the Third Reich (New York, 1991), entire book (186 pp.)
Further Reading: Richard Bessel, Nazism and War (2006) *The Hamburg Institute for Social Research, ed., The German Army and Genocide: Crimes Against War Prisoners, Jews, and Other Civilians, 1939―1944 (2003) Research Institute for Military History, ed., Germany and the Second World War, 6 vols. (1990-2000) Omer Bartov, The Eastern Front 1941-1945 (1986)
April 22 13. Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past after 1945
Class Reading: Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1997), entire book (394 pp.)
Further Reading: *Norbert Frei, Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi past: The politics of amnesty and integration (trans. 2002) Robert Moeller, War Stories (2001) Ian Buruma, The wages of guilt: memories of war in Germany and Japan (1994) Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (1999) Pierre Ayçoberry, The Nazi question (1981) John Hiden and John Farquharson, Explaining Hitler's Germany (1983) Charles Maier, The Unmasterable Past (1988) Richard J. Evans, In Hitler's shadow. (1989) Peter Baldwin, ed., Reworking the past. (1990) Knowlton and Cates, eds., Forever in the shadow of Hitler? Original documents of the Historikerstreit (1993 History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 11
Undergraduate term paper on two memoirs
Select two titles from the list of autobiographies and memoirs provided with this syllabus or make your own selection from other sources. Don’t select them randomly but match them in some way that allows you to draw meaningful comparisons between the two in your paper. If you can read German, you have many more choices among a large body of untranslated German memoirs. Even if you pick a memoir from this list, I would encourage you to read it in German, if it was originally written in German. You must make your selection by February 12, when a brief statement (one paragraph, typed) explaining the reason for your selection will be due in class. If you select a memoir that is not on the list, you must briefly describe the memoir in your statement, and if possible, bring it in for me to look at. Selections that are not from the list require my explicit approval. . Your assignment is to write a paper on what the memoirs you selected can teach us about the history of Nazi Germany. To help you get started, here are some questions you might want to consider: What sense do the memoir writers make out of their lives and the times in which they lived? What do their memoirs teach us about everyday life in Nazi Germany or Nazi-occupied Europe? How did the memoir writers’ lives change over time? To what extent were they affected by major historical events? What light do they shed on the major events or questions in the history of the Nazi movement or regime? Did the memoirs change your picture of the history of Nazism or Nazi Germany? Also make sure that you relate your two memoirs to each other. Do the perspectives of the two memoir writers complement one another in a way that allows you do draw broader conclusions? Do the memoirists agree or disagree on various topics?
To write a good paper, keep in mind the following suggestions:
1. Remember that the assignment asks for an analysis of how the memoirs relate to larger issues in the history of Nazi Germany. This means you need to avoid two extremes: (a) Do not simply retell the life stories of your memoirists. (b) Do not write a dry, abstract analysis that fails to convey what makes the memoirs interesting. A good paper has to combine trenchant analysis with conveying a vivid picture of the memoirs. 2. Develop your own questions and make your own decisions about what is most interesting, typical or important in the memoirs you have selected. Start this process while you are reading the memoirs. Do not simply answer the questions provided above. 3. Make a list of the points that you would like to make in your paper. Start this process while reading. 4. Look for connections between the points you want to make. Leave aside points that seem unconnected and place the remaining points in a logical sequence that integrates them into an overall argument or thesis. History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 12
5. Prepare an outline based on the sequence of your argument. Pay special attention to how each point fits into your overall argument. 6. Refer to the memoirs to illustrate your argument. Do not let the sources take precedence over your analysis. 7. Quote the memoirs only if the original wording -- the way in which something is said -- is crucial. In all other cases briefly summarize the relevant passage in your own words.
The paper should be typewritten, double-spaced and about 2,000 words long. It will be due via email on Friday, April 25. There will be no extensions. Late papers will incur grade penalties.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NAZI-ERA MEMOIRS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Amery, Jean. At the mind’s limit: contemplations by a survivor on Auschwitz and its realities (trans. 1990) Andreas-Friedrich, Ruth. Berlin underground (1946) Andreas-Salomé, Lou. Looking back: memoirs (1951; trans. 1991) Beck, Gad. An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (trans. 1999) Böll, Heinrich. What’s to become of the boy? (1981, trans. 1984) Brecht, Arnold. The political education of Arnold Brecht: an autobiography, 1884-1970 (1970) Deutschkron, Inge. Outcast: a Jewish girl in wartime Berlin (1979; tr. 1989) Frank, Anne. The diary of a young girl (1947) Friedlander, Saul. When memory comes (tr. 1979) Fromm, Bella. Blood and banquets: a Berlin social diary (1942) Goebbels, Joseph. My part in Germany’s fight [diaries] (1935) Guerin, Daniel. The brown plague: travels in late Weimar and early Nazi Germany (1994) Heger, Heinz. The men with the pink triangle (1972; trans. 1980) Höss, Rudolf. Commandant of Auschwitz (1958) Kessler, Harry. In the Twenties: the diaries of Harry Kessler (1961; trans. 1971) Klemperer, Victor. I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 (1995; tr. 1998) Klemperer, Victor. I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945 (1995, tr. 1999) Koestler, Arthur. Arrow in the blue (1952) Koestler, Arthur. The invisible writing (1954) Krüger, Horst. A crack in the wall: growing up under Hitler (1966; trans. 1982) Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz (1947; trans. 1959) Löwith, Karl. My life in Germany before and after 1933 (1986; trans. 1994) Mann, Klaus. The turning point (1942) Mann, Golo. Reminiscences and reflections: a youth in Germany (1986) History 433/ Nazi Germany/ Syllabus /Page 13
Mann, Thomas. Diaries 1918-1939 (trans. 1982) Moltke, Helmuth James Graf. Letters to Freya, 1939-1945 (1988; trans. 1990) Reck-Malleczewen, Friedrich. Diary of a man in despair (1947; trans. 1970) Sajer, Guy. The forgotten soldier (1967; trans. 1971) Schacht, Hjalmar. Confessions of ’The Old Wizard’ (trans. 1956) Seel, Pierre. I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual (1994, trans. 1995) Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich (1970) Sperber, Manes. God’s water carriers (1974) Sperber, Manes. The unheeded warning, 1918-1933 (1975) Staden, Wendelgard von. Darkness over the valley (1979; trans. 1981) Toller, Ernst. I was a German (1934) Tory, Avraham. Surviving the Holocaust: the Kovno ghetto diary (1990) Vassiltchikov, Marie. Berlin diaries, 1940-1945 (1985) Zuckmayer, Carl. A part of myself (1966; trans. 1970)