Syllabus: B393 (V650)/H509 (V653)

German History from Bismarck to Hitler: Summer I 2004

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 6:00-8:15: Cavanaugh CA 221

(Subject to change)

Professor Kevin Cramer Cavanaugh 503 M

317-278-7744 Tues/Thurs: 3-5

kcramer@iupui.edu and by appointment

Required Texts

Edgar Feuchtwanger, Imperial Germany, 1850-1918, (London and New York, Routledge, 2001).
A. J. Nicholls, Weimar and the Rise of Hitler, fourth edition, (New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
D.G. Willliamson, The Third Reich, third edition, (London and New York, Longman, 2002).

Course Description

As the European nations move closer to full economic and political union, and with the reemergence of independent nation-states in Central Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet bloc, an understanding of Germany’s place in Europe becomes more pertinent than ever before. With that goal in mind, this course will examine the development of the modern German nation from a perspective shaped by an enduring and problematic question in European history, “A European Germany or a German Europe?” This course begins with Bismarck’s creation of a unified nation out of a loose confederation of sovereign entities in 1871 and ends with the destruction of Hitler’s Third Reich in 1945. The course will examine the rise of the modern German nation state as a “case study” of the problems arising out of the political, economic, social, and cultural revolutions of the nineteenth century and their impact on the twentieth century. The main focus is on developments within Germany itself, but given the impact of German national ambitions on the modern world, international aspects are considered as well.

Course Objectives

The aim of this course is not to reduce the course of modern German history to the catastrophic denouement of the twelve years of the Third Reich. Rather, the intention is to show the development of the German nation-state within the broader context of European political, social, and economic modernization. The hope is to offer a historical explanation for the “peculiarities” of German national development without resorting to the opaque claim that Germany was somehow “different” from all other western countries. The course is also designed to further develop and improve the skills required by the university's "Principles of Undergraduate Learning” (for details and further information on the PUL go to www.iupui.edu/~history/principlesundergradlearning.htm). Lectures and exams will introduce you to facts, concepts, themes, and terms that will allow you to understand the importance of this event while giving you the historical context for a better understanding of Germany’s profound impact on the world we live in today. The term paper assignment will enable you to develop your reflective, critical, and analytical abilities while requiring you to become familiar with library resources and research techniques. In-class participation and discussion will enable you to sharpen your communication skills as well as your capability to efficiently and spontaneously summarize, categorize, interpret, and evaluate information. This part of the course also allows you to make a vital and necessary contribution to how topics and issues are brought into focus in each class.

Course Requirements

1. Final Exam (non-cumulative): 30%

2. Mid-Term Test: 25%

3. Essay on the Primary Sources (10pp.): 25%. Important note: Students in the graduate section (H509) are required to submit a 15 to 20-page research paper (details and requirements TBA).

4. Participation in five discussion sessions on primary source readings: 20%

Grading System and Policies

Tests, quizzes, and other course work will be graded on the traditional 100-point scale. An A-range grade evaluates work that goes substantially beyond the formal outlines of the assignment by showing marked originality, creativity, and strength of argument, organization, and conception. A B-range grade evaluates work that fulfills the assignment with noticeable, but not thorough, attention paid to these ideas. Such work might also include flawed reasoning and organization as well as stylistic problems (sentence structure, spelling, vocabulary, use of scholarly conventions, etc.). A C-range grade evaluates work of genuine effort that largely fulfills the assignment but displays substantial weaknesses in several of the above areas. D-range work is evaluated as meeting the bare minimums of the assignment in a perfunctory fashion. Obviously, an F grade indicates complete failure to fulfill the assignment. Grades will be posted as promptly as possible on Oncourse (please be patient).

Course Policies

Make-up tests and quizzes will only be offered in emergencies (they cannot be taken later than the end of the week in which they were originally scheduled) and when I am notified no later than the morning of the test or quiz class day. Keep me informed reasonably in advance of circumstances that will force you to miss lectures. Lecture outlines, writing assignments, test reviews, film and slide notes, discussion questions and other important information and course material will be posted on Oncourse, so check it regularly. To log on or get help go to https://oncourse.iu.edu. All assignments must be completed for your final grade to be accurately calculated (an A+ on the introductory test, for example, does not give you the option of skipping the map quizzes). Failure to turn in assignments or take tests and quizzes will be noted as part of your participation grade. Unless there are extraordinary and documented circumstances (I am always open to reasonable and good-faith negotiation) that prevent timely submission, late submission of the term paper will be penalized a third of a grade (e.g. B to B-) for every day past the due date. Papers overdue by more than two weeks will not be accepted. You are allowed two unexcused absences before your participation grade will be adversely affected. You must provide a copy of documentation for an excused absence.

Academic Misconduct

Plagiarism is the appropriation of someone else's research, ideas, and conclusions and representing them as your own. Inattention, ignorance of citation conventions, and sloppy note taking can also result in what can be construed as plagiarism. Though these lapses are common, they do not constitute a defense or an excuse. The penalties for plagiarism (or cheating during tests) are not trivial. Due process allows for initial consultation with the instructor when he or she feels there is evidence for plagiarism. Sanctions can run from an F on the assignment to an F for the course through more formal (and severe) penalties administered by the Dean of Students. Please consult the IUPUI Campus Bulletin (2001-2002) for further guidelines and information on plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. For details and further information, also see “Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct” at www.hoosiers.iupui.edu/studcode.

Other Important Information

The schedule for the summer term is very compressed. As participation in class discussions is part of your final grade, and lecture material not covered in the textbooks is tested on the exams, attendance is important (and it also effects your participation grade). For the same reasons, tardiness and leaving early will also be noted. Please read the assigned chapters in the texts before the lecture. By doing this you will find the lectures much easier to follow and comprehend.
Most course materials will be posted under “Schedule” on Oncourse. But please regularly check the “Course Announcements” as well.
Lecture outlines will be posted on Oncourse no later than the day before the lecture.

Learning to take effective notes is a skill rewarded by heightened comprehension, increased retention of information, and good grades; the recording of lectures (and use of laptop computers) is therefore prohibited barring special circumstances.
The five discussion sessions will be based on sets of primary source readings. These readings are accessible as links from the syllabus posted on Oncourse.
The readings for each week are intended to provide background information for that week’s lectures. The primary source readings are for that week’s discussion session (they must be read in advance). It is essential that you keep up with the readings. You are strongly encouraged to read as far in advance as possible. The tests will have material drawn from the texts that will not always be discussed in class.
Because of the sheer number and profound differences in quality of Internet sources and references, they can only be used (sparingly) in the term paper with my approval.

Class Schedule and Readings

Week One

1. Introduction (Th 5/13): The Syllabus

Discussion Session 1 Questions posted on Oncourse

Week Two

Lecture 1 (M 5/17): The Fragmented Nation and German Unification: Bismarck’s “Revolution”

Readings: Feuchtwanger, chapters 1-3.

3. Lecture 2 (T 5/18): The Second Reich: Economy and Society

Readings: Feuchtwanger, chapters 4-5.

Essay Topic and Format and Slide Presentation 1 posted on Oncourse

Discussion Session 1: The Problems of German Unification

· Johann Gottlob Fichte, “To the German Nation” (1806)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1806fichte.html

· “Documents on German Unification”

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/germanunification.html

· Georg Friedrich List, “National System of Political Economy” (1856)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1856list.html

· “The Gotha (1875) and Erfurt (1891) Programs”

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111gotha.html

4. Lecture 3 (Th 5/20): The Second Reich: Nationalism and Culture

Slide Presentation 1: Nationalist Iconography

Discussion Session 2 Questions posted on Oncourse

Week Three

5. Lecture 4 (M 5/24): Crisis, Instability, and War

Readings: Feuchtwanger, chapters 6-8.

Discussion Session 2: WWI: The Grasp Toward Hegemony

· Kaiser Wilhelm II, “A Place in the Sun” (1901)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1901kaiser.html

· Heinrich Class, “If I Were Kaiser” (1912)

http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/class.html

· General Friedrich Bernhardi: “The Next War” (1914)

http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/bernhardi.html

· “To the Civilized World!” (Manifesto of the Ninety-Three Intellectuals; 1914)

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/93intell.html

· “Reichstag Peace Resolution” (1917)

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/reichpeace.html

· The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/brestlitovsk.html

Lecture 5 (T 5/25): Peace, Revolution, and the Founding of the Weimar Republic

Readings: Nicholls, chapters 1-4.

Film 1: “War Without End”

Mid-Term Test Format and Review posted on Oncourse; Slide Presentation 2 posted on Oncourse

Lecture 6 (Th 5/27): Weimar Radicalism

Slide Presentation 2: German Expressionism and Bauhaus

Mid-Term Review

Readings: Nicholls, chapters 5-9.

Discussion Session 3 Questions posted on Oncourse

Monday, 5-31: Memorial Day Holiday (no classes)

Week Four

Mid-Term Test (T 6/1)

Lecture 7 (Th 6/3): The Rise of the Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, 1924-1933;

Readings: Nicholls, chapters 10-11.

Discussion Session 4 Questions posted on Oncourse

Discussion Session 3: The Threat of Civil War

· Rosa Luxemburg, “The War and the Workers” (1916)

http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/lux.html

· Adolf Hitler, “Speech of April 12, 1921”

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111hit1.html

· Oswald Spengler, “The Decline of the West” (1922)

www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/spengler-decline.html

Week Five

Lecture 8 (M 6/7): The Nazi “Revolution”, 1933-1938

Readings: Williamson, chapters 3-6.

Discussion Session 5 Questions posted on Oncourse

Discussion Session 4: The “Führer State” and the Volksgemeinschaft

· Adolf Hitler, “Excerpt from Mein Kampf: On Race” (1924)

http://www.csustan.edu/History/Faculty/Weikart/hitlermk.htm

· Joseph Goebbels, “Der Führer” (1929)

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/angrif09.htm

· Hitler Youth Guidebook, “On the German People and Its Territory” (1937)

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/hjhandbuch.htm

· 5^th Grade Textbook for Girls: “Biology for the Middle School”

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/textbk01.htm

Film 1 (T 6/8): Triumph of the Will; Essay Review

Lecture 9 (Th 6/10): Lebensraum and Ideological War, 1939-1942; Essays due

Readings: Williamson, chapters 7 (up to p. 66), 8, 9 (up to p. 95), and 10.

Film 2: Barbarossa

Week Six

Lecture 10 (M 6/14): The Holocaust: Exclusion and Appropriation

Readings: Williamson, chapter 7 (pp. 67-71).

Discussion Session 5: The “Final Solution”: The Murder of the European Jews

· “Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race” (1935)

http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw2.html

· “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor” (1935)

http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw3.html

· General Reichenau, “Order to the Wehrmacht for the War in the East” (1941)

http://h-net.org/~german/gtext/nazi/reichenau-english.html

· Wannsee Protocol (1942):

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111wann.html

· Heinrich Himmler, “Speech to the SS Leadership” (1943)

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111him.html

Lecture 11 (T 6/15): Extermination; Graduate papers due

Film 3: Genocide

Readings: Williamson, chapter 9 (pp. 96-100).

Final Exam Format and Review posted on Oncourse

Lecture 12 (Th 6/17): 1945: “Zero Hour”

Film 4: Reckoning

Readings: Williamson, chapters 11-12.

Week Seven

Lecture 13 (M 6/21): Post-War Germany

Final Exam Review

17. Final Exam (T 6/22): 6:00-8:00