UC Santa Barbara > History Department > Prof. Marcuse > Courses > Hist 133a Homepage > Fall 2006 syllabus

UCSB Hist 133A, Fall 2006
19th Century Germany
MWF 11-11:50, Girvetz 2128
marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/133a

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

Nineteenth Century Germany:
Nation-Building from Below and Above
Course Syllabus
(pdf print version)

Course Overview (back to top; jump down to schedule of lectures)

  • This lecture course examines central aspects of German history from the 1790s to the eve of World War I, including:
    • the impact of the French Revolution and Napoleon on the German states;
    • popular movements in early 19th century German lands;
    • the "pre-March" period (early industrialization) and the revolution of 1848;
    • the processes of unification and industrialization;
    • popular movements, including workers, women and national associations;;
    • the nature of the Bismarckian state, including foreign policy;
    • William II's "personal regime" after the fall of Bismarck;
    • social transformations at the end of the century;
    • the events that led up to the Great War (World War I).

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, discussion and information not available in the course readings.
    I will call roll until I learn your names. Participation counts for 10% 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 before the class in question begins.
  2. There will not be a formal midterm examination. Instead, you will be asked to write a short text (from a few lines to a page), sometimes at home, sometimes in class, on simple questions about the assigned readings, roughly once each week. These ten questions will be announced in advance. They are worth 30% (!) 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, 5-6 pages). This paper is based primarily on one book, but requires some research. (A blue Book Essay handout will provide details.)
    The proposal is due Friday, Oct. 20; the paper draft Wednesday, Nov. 8; and the final version Wednesday, December 6, always at the beginning of class.
    Together they count for 5+25+5=35% of the final grade.
  4. A take-home final examination will have 3 IDs and one essay question. It is worth 25%. A study guide will be distributed in advance.
    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, by Nov. 22, a corrected and augmented version for publication on the course web site. This web version must include a short "about the author," a 60-word abstract, and an annotated bibliography - linkography. The grade of these additional parts will count as the exam grade.
    Details will be available on a separate web option handout.
    These papers may be presented orally for up to 5 points extra credit.
Grading: Participation:
10 questions:
Proposal+draft+term paper:
Final exam / web option:
10%
30%
35% (5+25+5)
25%
Late policy: Work submitted after 11:00am on the due date will lose one point per day.

Required Books (also on reserve at the UCSB library) (back to top)Kitchen's textbook, cover

  • Textbook: Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000 (Blackwell, 2006). DD203.K58 2006, $40 new
    (note: this will also be the textbook for Hist 133B in Winter quarter)
    amazon $40 new
  • Hagen Schulze, The Course of German Nationalism From Frederick the Great to Bismarck, 1763-1867 [1985], (Cambridge U.P., 1991), 174pp., $20/29 used/new. DD204.S3413 1990 amazon $11 used, $29 new
  • Heinrich Mann, Man of Straw [Der Untertan, 1918] (Penguin, 1984, 1993), 300pp., buy used or photocopied. PT2625.A43 U513
    amazon $5-15 used; abebooks $4-9 used; $11.95 for a bound photocopy at the UCen bookstore (available Oct. 27)

Schedule of Lectures and Assignments (back to top)

Wk-L#

Date

Topic

Assignment

0

29 Sept

Course Introduction: A "special path" to nationhood?

Complete on-line survey

I-1
2
3

2 Oct.
4 Oct.
6 Oct.

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
Frederick the Great and Enlightened Despotism
German states and the French Revolution

Purchase course books (2)
Schulze pp. 35-55, S1
Kitchen chap. 2: 1800-1870

II-4
5
6

9 Oct.
11 Oct.
13 Oct.

Napoleon and the German States
Prussian Reforms and Wars of Liberation, 1807-1815
German Romanticism

Kitchen chap. 1: 1806-1812
Schulze S2-S7
Find book for paper proposal

III-7
8
9

16 Oct.
18 Oct.
20 Oct.

The Vienna Congress Reconstructs Europe
The German States in the 1820s
The "Pre-March" (Vormärz) Period

Kitchen chap. 3: 1815-1840
Schulze pp. 56-69, S8-S9
Book proposal due

IV-10
11
12

23 Oct.
25 Oct.
27 Oct.

The 1848 Revolutions
The Frankfurt Parliament
The Post-1848 Reaction

Kitchen chap. 4: 1848
Schulze pp. 5-31, 70-76, S10-S11

V-13
14
15

30 Oct.
1 Nov.
3 Nov.

Wilhelm I and the "New Era" in Prussia
The Origins of Social Democracy
Otto von Bismarck [& Unification, by L. Christian]

Kitchen chap. 5: 1850-66
Schulze pp. 77-101, S12-S13

VI-16
17
x

6 Nov.
8 Nov.
10 Nov.

Unification: "Small Germany" by War Monuments
National-Liberalism, the Kulturkampf
No class: Veterans Day Holiday

Kitchen chap. 6: 1866-1871
paper draft due

VII-18
19
20

13 Nov.
15 Nov.
17 Nov.

Women in the Kaiserreich
"Dropping the Pilot:" Wilhelm II
German Colonies in Africa

Kitchen chap. 7: 1870s-
Start Man of Straw
Kitchen pp. 173-180

VIII-21
22

20 Nov.
22 Nov.
24 Nov.

Wilhelmine Germany, start discussion of Man of Straw
Man of Straw, continued
no class: Thanksgiving break

Finish Man of Straw
web option drafts due
have a nice Thanksgiving!

IX-23
24
25

27 Nov.
29 Nov.
1 Dec.

The German Concept of Heimat (homeland)
Foreign Policy from Bismarck to the "New Course"
From the Schlieffen Plan to the "Blank Check"


Kitchen chap. 8 (10 pages)
Kitchen chap. 9: 1890-1914

X-26
27
28

4 Dec.
6 Dec.
8 Dec.

How special was Germany's path to nationhood?
Student presentations; final exam handout
Summary and Conclusions


ALL papers due
(digital version for web option)

exam

15 Dec.

Fri., 3pm: Final Exam due in my office, HSSB 4221

take-home exam


Plagiarismpresenting 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 ones who commit it most of all, by cheating them out of an education. I will report offenses to the appropriate university authorities for disciplinary action. For more details, see the Plagiarism page on my web site.

Students with disabilities. If you are a student with a disability and would like to discuss special academic accommodations, please contact me via e-mail or during my office hours..

syllabus prepared for web by H. Marcuse on Sept. 29, 2006, updated: 11/17/06
back to top; to UCSB Hist 133a homepage, to Courses Page; Prof. Marcuse's homepage