UCSB Hist 133 B, Winter 2007
German History, 1900-1945
TTh 11-12:15, HSSB 4020
marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/133b

Prof. Marcuse (homepage)
HSSB 4221, 893-2635
marcuse@history.ucsb.edu
Office hours: Tue 12:30-2:30pm

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

This course is designed for students with a general knowledge of European history in the 20th century.

We will investigate the main events in German history from the origins of World War I to the legacies of World War II. These include:

• the revolution and counterrevolution that ended the First World War;
• the crisis, stable and depression phases of the Weimar Republic;
• Hitler's ascent to power;
• life in Nazi Germany, and
• key features of World War II and the Holocaust.

Your Contribution (Course 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 elsewhere. I will call roll until I learn your names. 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 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 (300 words) on simple questions about the assigned readings, roughly once each week. These eight questions will be announced in advance. They are worth 30% of the final grade.
   Make-up questions are only possible for absences excused prior to the start of class.
3. A list of several essay topic ideas for a book essay, the essay itself (1800 words, 5-6 pages), and a revised version. This essay is based primarily on one book, which I will recommend based on your topic ideas, or which you may select yourself. (A blue book essay handout will provide details.)
   The list of ideas is due Thursday, Feb. 8; the essay itself Thursday, March 1; and the revised version Tuesday, March 13, always at the beginning of class. Together they count for 5+30+5=40% of your final grade. However, note the different deadlines for the no final exam option in #5.
4. A take-home final examination will have 3 IDs chosen from 9, and one essay question. It is worth 25%. A study guide may be distributed in advance.
5. No-exam option: Students who submit their topic ideas by Feb. 1 and their book essay by Feb. 22, if they receive a B+ or better on that essay, may opt out of taking the final exam. If you qualify for and choose this option, you must submit, by March 6, a corrected and augmented version for publication on the course web site. This web version must include a short "about the author" paragraph, a 60-word abstract, and an annotated bibliography-linkography. The author blurb and abstract are worth 5% of your total grade, the annotated references 20% (!). Details will be available on a separate web option handout. Revised versions of the 3 supplements are due Mar. 15.
6. Students with outstanding book essays will may present their papers orally for extra credit.

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

• Textbook: Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000 (Blackwell, 2006). DD203.K58 2006, $40 new
  (note: this can be used as the textbook for Hist 133C in Spring quarter)
  amazon $40 new
• Essay Collection : Richard Bessel (ed.), Life in the Third Reich, (Oxford, 1987, 2001), $13. UCSB: DD256.5 .L52 1987
  amazon $3 used, $13 new
• Photocopied Reader : available week of January 29. for a bound photocopy at a copyshop (available Oct. 27)

Week 1

Jan. 9

Jan. 11

Introduction

Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, 1890-1914

Kitchen, chap. 9

Week 2

Jan. 16

Jan. 18

World War I, 1914-1918

Revolution and Counterrevolution, 1918-1919

Kitchen, chap. 10

Week 3

Jan. 23

Jan. 25

The Weimar Republic, 1919-1923

The Weimar Republic, 1924-1929

Kitchen, chap. 11

Week 4

Jan. 30

Feb. 1

Hitler and the Nazi Ascent to Power, 1929-1933

The Nazi Takeover and Life in the Early 1930s

Kitchen, chap. 12
Bessel (ed.) , 1-56
(web: topic ideas due)

Week 5

Feb. 6

Feb. 8

Life Worthy and Unworthy of Living

The Concentration Camp System

Reader: Nazi doctors

topic idea lists due

Week 6

Feb. 13

Feb. 15

Kristallnacht, November 1938

Making War for Lebensraum, 1939-1941

Bessel, 57-96; Kitchen, 284-298

Kitchen, 298-315

Week 7

Feb. 20

Feb. 22

War of Genocide, 1941-1943

Responses to War and Genocide

Reader: Battalion 101
Reader: Nazi ghettos in Poland
(web: book essays due)

Week 8

Feb. 27

Mar. 1

Auschwitz

The Final Phase of World War II, 1944-45

Reader: Auschwitz

book essays due

Week 9

Mar. 6

Mar. 8

Human Behavior in Extreme Conditions

Legacies of the Holocaust

(web option supplements due)

Bessel (ed.), 97-110

Week 10

Mar.13

Mar.15

Student presentations

Concluding lecture

revised essays due (e-mail)
final exam study guide
(corrected web essays+supplements)

Mar.22

Thurs., 3pm : Final Examination due, HSSB 4221