UCSB Hist 133C, Winter 2006
Germany since 1945
marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/133c

Prof. Marcuse
HSSB 4221, 893-2635
marcuse@history.ucsb.edu

This final exam is a word-limited take-home, due in my office, 4221 HSSB, at the end of the regular exam time: Thu, March 23, 2004, 3pm. If I am not there (I am on call for jury duty), or if you submit earlier, slide your exam under my door, do NOT leave it in the envelope.
All answers must be typed, and a word count inserted in brackets at the end of each ID and of the essay (see example at end of this paragraph). In microsoft word, highlight each ID or essay answer, then use the Tools-Word Count command. The exam is worth 25% of the final grade. [109 words]

1. Identify and define the significance (3 @ 15 points each=45% of the exam grade)
   Identify and define the significance of three of the following six terms. Your identification should include an approximate date, which should situate the event correctly in relation to other important events. Take special care to explain why the term is significant in the context of post-1945 German history. (Without the significance for post-45: 10 pts max.)
   Each ID should be about 200-250 words long; 300 absolute maximum.
   

   mastery of the past	Kurt Schumacher	renazification
   myth of victimization	Afro-Germans	October 9, 1989

2. Essay question: Answer one of the following questions. (55% of the exam)
   The essay should be about 1000-1200 words long; 1500 absolute maximum.

1. Both the Cold War and various legacies of Nazism shaped the history of Germany since 1945. For four events from at least three different decades (from the 1940s to the 1990s), explain the role that each of those two factors played in that event. Be sure to consider both the more obvious political effects, and more subtle, longer-term consequences such as people's perceptions of and relationship to the political system. Draw three of your four events from different course readings (Hügel-Marshall, Hilton, Philipsen, Hensel) and films (Promise, Good-Bye Lenin).
    
2. A number of developments led up to and shaped the revolutionary "turn" in East German history in 1989-90. Describe the five you consider most important, explain what role they played, and argue why you consider them to be the most significant in causing the demise of the GDR. Note: it might be necessary to explain why additional, similar events beyond those five are not as important.