UCSB Hist 133C, Winter 2004
Germany since 1945
Bldg 387, rm 103, MWF 9-9:50
marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/133c

Prof. Marcuse (homepage)
HSSB 4221, 893-2635
marcuse@history.ucsb.edu
Office hours: Mon 10:30-11:30, Tue noon-1pm

Germany since 1945:
Building Democracy after Dictatorship

2004 Course Syllabus
(pdf print version; superceded by 2007 syllabus)

Introduction and Goals (back to top)

Germany was one of the United States’ main enemies in two world wars prior to 1945, but by the early 1950s it was well on the way to becoming our most reliable ally in Europe, a "bastion of democracy" buffering capitalist western from communist eastern Europe. How was this turnaround possible? This course pays special attention to the process of development of German political culture after 1945.

I realize that a short time after a course most students will remember relatively little of the factual material from that course. Thus I try to emphasize historical themes and skills that I hope will have more lasting value. Throughout this course, we will practice analyzing and interpreting evidence to draw our own conclusions about the causes and effects of historical developments.

Requirements (back to top)

  1. I expect you to attend all classes. Why take a course if you don't make the effort to learn what it teaches? Lectures include images, videos, discussion and information not available elsewhere. I will call roll in order to learn your names. Classroom participation counts for 5% of the course grade.
    If you wish to have an excused absence, including undocumented medical absences, you must inform me by e-mail or phone message (office: 893-2635) before the class in question begins.
  2. There will not be a formal midterm examination. Instead, you will be asked to write a few sentences on simple questions about the assigned readings or films, roughly once each week. These ten questions will be announced one lecture in advance. They are worth 40% of the final grade.
    Make-up questions are only possible for excused absences.
  3. A book essay proposal (1-2 pages), draft, and a final version (1800 words, 6 pages). This paper can be based primarily on one book, but will require some research. (See the blue book essay handout for details.)
    The proposal is due Friday, Jan. 23; the draft Monday, Feb. 9; and the final version Friday, March 5, always at the beginning of class. Together they count for 10+10+20=40% of your final grade.
  4. A two-hour final examination will have 3 IDs chosen from 9, and one essay question from a choice of two. It is worth 15%. A study guide will be distributed on Monday, March 8.
    No-exam option: Students receiving a B+ or better on their paper draft may opt out of taking the final exam. If they want to opt for this, they must submit their final version on Friday, Feb. 27. They must then submit, by March 4, an augmented electronic version for publication on the course web site. This web version must include a 60-word project description and an annotated list of books and links. The grade of this final version will count as the exam grade. A separate handout will be provided. (book essay handout)

Grading: Participation: 5%; 10 questions: 40%; proposal+draft+term paper: 40%; final exam: 15%.
Work submitted after 9am on the due date will lose one point per day.

Required Books (also on reserve at the library) (back to top)

  • Fulbrook: Divided NationTextbook: Mary Fulbrook, The Divided Nation: A History of Germany, 1918-1990 (1992). Textbook focusing on the post-1945 period. DD240.F85 1992
  • Reader with articles and documents, available at GraphikArt in IV, 57 pages, $6.75 incl. tax. (hyperlinked table of contents)
  • Heinrich Böll, Billiards at Half-past Nine (1959). Set in 1958, this novel examines how the Nazi period affected three generations of a German family. PT2603.O394 B513 1994 (class handout)
  • Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper (1983). This novel evokes the situation in divided Berlin in the early 1980s. PT2680.N37 M313 1983
  • Bernhard Schlink, The Reader [person who reads aloud] (1995). A best-selling novel showing how a German born in 1943 unknowingly replicates a legacy of the Nazi past. PT2680.L54 V6713 1997 (class handout)

Schedule of Lectures and Assignments (back to top)

Wk-L#

Date

Topic

Assignment

I-1
2
3

5 Jan.
7 Jan.
9 Jan.

Introduction: "Dictatorship and Democracy"
Germany remembers its Nazi past
Film: This is Germany (US Army, 1945)

Reader 2&3: Duba, Rogers
Textbook chaps. 1, 14

II-4
5
6

12 Jan.
14 Jan.
16 Jan.

What is Germany?--Three Empires, Four Republics
Origins of political parties and the party system
The Experiences of Weimar and Nazi Germany

Textbook chap. 14
Txtbk pages; find books for papers
Textbook chaps. 2, 3, 4, start 5

III-x
7
8

19 Jan.
21 Jan.
23 Jan.

No class: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
The Experience of Defeat and 3 Founding Myths
4 Ds, 2 Rs, and 2 turn-arounds
            Book proposal due

start Böll, Billiards
Textbook chap. 5, pp. 120-134
Textbook 134-167; R 4&5

IV-9
10
11

26 Jan.
28 Jan.
30 Jan.

Continuities in the East: 1953 and after
Continuities in the West: 2 more Rs discussion of Böll
Uniting and Dividing Germany: 1952 to the Berlin Wall
Textbook ch. 7; R6: Eisenhower
finish Böll, Billiards
R7-9: Khrushchev, E.Germ, JFK

V-12
13
14

2 Feb.
4 Feb.
6 Feb.

Separate Lives: The 1960s
Film: The Promise, I
West German Foreign Relations in the 1960s and 70s
Textbook 197-207 and chap. 10

Textbook 207-220

VI-15
16
17

9 Feb.
11 Feb.
13 Feb.

Film: The Promise, II                       paper draft due
The Presence of the Nazi Past            Schlink handout
Confronting the Nazi Past          discussion of Schlink

Paper draft due at start of class
R10&11; start Schlink, Reader
finish Schlink;
wkend: start Schneider

VII-x
18
19

16 Feb.
18 Feb.
20 Feb.

No class: Presidents' Day
Socialist Republic vs. Capitalist Democracy
Dissent in the West                discussion of Schneider

cont. Schneider, Wall Jumper
Textbook chaps. 9 and 12
Txtbk 278-290; finish Schneider

VIII-20
21
22

23 Feb.
25 Feb.
27 Feb.

Dissent and the Stasi State in the East
Building a Mass Movement
The Opening of the Berlin Wall    web option due date
Textbook 265-278 and chap. 13
R12,13: Reagan, Philipsen
web option papers due

IX-23
24
25

1 Mar.
3 Mar.
5 Mar.

Democratic Socialism or Socialist Democracy?
Building Democracy after Dictatorship
Germany since Unification                   paper due date
R14-15: Borneman, Clinton
R16-17: Foreigners in Germany
ALL papers due (start of class!)

X-26
27
28

8 Mar.
10 Mar.
12 Mar.

Presentations of web projects
Presentations of web projects
Putting It All Together: Final Discussion


Textbook chap. 14, R18, 19

exam

18 Mar.

Thursday, 9-11am, Bldg 387, rm 103: Final Exam bring a large blue book

Plagiarism—presenting someone else's work as your own, or deliberately failing to credit or attribute the work of others on whom you draw (including materials found on the web)—is a serious academic offense, punishable by dismissal from the university. It hurts the one who commits it most of all, by cheating them out of an education. Offenses will be reported to the appropriate university authorities for disciplinary action.

syllabus prepared for web by H. Marcuse on Jan. 5, 2003, updated: 1/13/04, handout links 2/9/04, formatting 3/25/05; 1/1/08
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