GRMN 106*

Germany: A People and its Culture  II (English)

Textbooks:  

Hagen Schulze Germany; A New History (=S)
Gordon Craig, The Germans (=C)

Xeroxed readings will be distributed throughout the term. There will be a charge of $10, to be paid at the office of the Department of German.

The aim of the course is to provide a reflective, multi-faceted and historically informed introduction to the problems of modern German experience, culture and identity. Class activities will consist of lectures, discussions, joint reading and criticism of texts. There will be frequent writing assignments, including an in-class essay as mid-term, and these will be assessed on the basis of good expression (spelling, punctuation, sentence structure) as well as of information.

A film will be shown in the third hour every week. In the case of the films shown in week 1 and in weeks 3-8, you will be required to take notes and to submit a one-page summary (not more, please!) of the film by the following class. You may also send them in by e-mail. Credit will be given for summaries that go beyond the repetition of information and succeed in interpreting the film’s argument

Requirements:

Summaries of films: 20%
Mid-term: 20%
Attendance and oral participation: 10%
Term paper: 20% (2000-3000 words on a subject of your own choice, though after consultation with the instructor; due Friday 3 April)
Final exam (2 hours): 30%

Some useful web sites about Germany:
http://www.goethe.de/enindex.htm
http://www.germanembassyottawa.org/
http://www.germany-info.org/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1047864.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/archive

Week 1: Introductory

Readings: Nietzsche, Hitler (hand-outs)
Lecture: Introduction to course, fundamentals of German history
Film: The First World War, Episode 10.

Week 2: War and defeat, 1918-19

Readings: S 191-205; Jünger/Remarque (hand-outs)
Lecture: The Legacy of World War I
Film: All Quiet on the Western Front

Week 3: Weimar Republic I

Readings: S 205-13; Haffner (hand-out)
Lecture: Politics and economics, the inflation of 1923.
Film: The Nazis: A Warning from History 1

Week 4: Weimar Republic II

Readings: S 215-27; Hesse (hand-out)
Lecture: Modernist culture
Film: The Nazis 2

Week 5: Weimar Republic III

Readings: S 227-43; Th. Mann (hand-out)
Lecture: German film
Film: The Nazis 3

Week 6: Third Reich I

Readings: S 245-53; Maschmann/Fühmann (hand-outs)
Lecture: Nationalism
Film: The Nazis 4

Week 7: Third Reich II

Readings: S 253-97; Hitler (hand-out)
Lecture: Society and culture under Fascism
Film: The Nazis 5

Week 8: Third Reich III

Readings: S 277-97; Böll (hand-out)
Lecture: Germany in World War Two
Film: The Nazis 6

Week 9: Divided Germany I

Readings: S 299-331; Jaspers (hand-out)
Lecture: The Federal Republic
Film: The Marriage of Maria Braun

Week 10: Divided Germany II

Readings: C 35-60; Leonhard (hand-out)
Lecture: The German Democratic Republic
Film: The Marriage of Maria Braun (ctd.)

Week 11: Unification

Readings: TBA
Lecture:  The end of the German division
Film: Ode to Joy and Freedom

Week 12: Contemporary Issues

Readings: S 333-end.
Lecture and discussion: Germany now
Film: Test the West