Announcements (old announcements move to bottom, where there are also visitor statistics)

• March 31, 2007: This Winter 2006 133c homepage is now decommissioned. Please see the Spring 2007 webpage for current information, or:
  July 11, 2008: permanent link to the most recent course homepage.
• March 22, 2007: The waitlist now has 8 students on it. The course is closed, so you need to e-mail me if you want to be added.
• Feb. 24, 2007: Enrollment for this spring is limited to 40 and has been closed, so no one will be able to register (only to drop), until the first day of class. As of today there are 3 people on the waiting list, and 2 spaces have already opened up. E-mail me to get on the list.
  • The course themes for Spring 2007 will be: "The Stasi and the Greens," with emphases on the surveillance state and the environmental movement.
  • The course books will be:
    

    Mary Fulbrook: History of Germany, 1918-2000 amazon $30 used, $39 new 1st ed. ok: amazon $5 used, $30 new	Bernhard Schlink: The Reader amazon $4 used, $11 new	Timothy Garton Ash: The File: A Personal History amazon $10 used, $12 new ($6 hardcov.)	Course Reader:

• Oct. 1, 2006: I will be teaching this course again in Spring 2007 (April-June 2007).
• Mar. 29, 2006:
  • Here is the distribution of grades for the 2006 course according to the raw point scores (see note on grading, below):

  # students	87-89pts=B+   6	77-78pts=C+   2	62-67pts=D   2
  93-100pts=A    6	83-86pts=B     2	71-76pts=C     3	F    1
  90-91pts=A-    2	79-82pts=B-    5	68-70pts=C-   1	incomplete:     1	total:  31

  • I have converted and uploaded all 17 papers from the web option. Please check your paper on the Book Essay page for errors, missing pieces, and broken links. Let me know if it needs more work and I'll try to find some time to fix things!
  • To all of you whom I don't see: have a good spring break!
    Any leftover work will be available for pick-up next quarter.
    My office hours in spring will be W & Th, 1-2pm.

Jana Hensel:
After the Wall: Confessions
amazon $5 used, $16 new

• Textbook: Mary Fulbrook, The Divided Nation: A History of Germany, 1918-1990 (1992). [$5/30 at amazon] DD240.F85 1992 [full text on-line through UCSB library]
  • Excellent textbook starting in 1918 but focusing on the post-1945 period.
• Ika Hügel-Marshall, Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany (Continuum, 2002) [$10/3 at amazon] HQ1625.H84 A3 2001
  • Memoir of the daughter of a Black US GI and a young German woman, born in 1947, about what it was like growing up in West Germany during the 1950s.
• Christopher Hilton, The Wall: The People's Story (Sutton, 2003) [$13/7 at amazon] DD881 .H57 2001
  • A research journalist recounts the history of the Berlin wall intertwined with stories about how ordinary people experienced it.
• Jana Hensel, After The Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood and the Life that Came Next (Public Affairs, 2004) [$16/5 from amazon]
  • Age 13 when the wall came down, this student recounts her experience of reunification with West Germany.

Course Description 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 only a few points about material from that course. Thus I try to emphasize themes and skills that will hopefully 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.

Some useful sites and interesting links (back to top)

• German News--daily translations of news shorts from Germany that you can have e-mailed to yourself
  (The Germany Embassy in Washington's This Week in Germany is similar, but weekly.)
• German-English dictionaries: LEO and TU-Chemnitz; babelfish gives rough translations
• The German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin has lots of mages and documents in its collection.
• East German propaganda documents, at an excellent site created in 1999 by Randall Bytwerk at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, author of Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic (2004; $17 at amazon).
• Germany-Info.org, maintained by the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., has fact sheets, a timeline, a historical overview (3 parts about 1945-present on right), and some historical features, such as on unification.
  Not to miss: the newsletter archive, cultural archive, archives of speeches since 1996-- it's endless!
• The US Embassy in Germany has a "History of German-American Relations" site with great documents from 1683 to the present, easily navigable with great e-texts (some are in my Hist 133c course reader) and links.
• Nicely illustrated short lecture series by Adolph Hoffman, a German instructor at Santa Rosa Jr. College, on "Berlin and the Two Germanies, 1945-1989."
• The US State Department has documents from the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) about Germany and Berlin online (1964-1968 link).

Materials from Prof. Marcuse's 1998, 2000 and 2004 Hist 133c courses (back to top)

• Fall  1998:     homepage; syllabus
• Winter 2000: homepage; syllabus
• Winter 2004: homepage; syllabus; exam study guide; student book review index page
• Winter 2006: syllabus;

Grading policies (back to top)

Grading can serve many purposes. Among them are: motivating students to engage with the material (by providing feedback and rewarding effort), assessing how well students have done the assigned work, and ranking students relative to each other.
I personally dislike assigning grades. I'm interested in what you have to say, and want you to put in the effort to develop interesting thoughts and express them well. I hope you will be motivated to learn enough factual material to have a solid basis from which you can develop your thoughts. If you need the prospect of a better grade to do the learning and thinking, fine. For various reasons, I have to grade to assess your work anyway (if I write letters of recommendation, for instance, I need some data on relative strengths and weaknesses, and effort expended). The grade distributions I give my courses are also monitored by the department and the University. (see grade distributions for some of my other lecture courses: 33d-02, 33d-03)
My bottom line: I want the grades I give to be a FAIR reflection of the effort (attendance, doing assignments, meeting deadlines) and learning (content of submitted work) you show, and to give a rough indication of where you stand on those factors relative to others in the class.

• Mar. 23, 2004: Here is the distribution of grades for the 2004 course according to the raw point score without the participation grade (95 possible points [well 101, if you count the double extra credit for the outside events]):

  # students	86-85pts=B+     2	75-71pts=C+   4	D   0
  94-90pts=A    5	84-80pts=B      10	70-62pts=C     2	D-  0	graduate student: 1
  89-87pts=A-   5	79-76pts=B-      4	pts=C-   0	F    0	total:   33

• Interested in grade inflation since the 1970s, all across the USA?
  Check out this website: www.gradeinflation.com. On the second-to-last graph, the one with the scattered points, you'll find UCSB below the blue line at the 10-year time span. The researcher got data from UCSB's Office of Budget and Planning showing that our campus GPA went from 2.84 in 1994 to 2.93 in 1999.

If you are think your grade does not reflect your work and effort:

• First, please note that I grade YOUR WORK, not you.
• If you feel that the grade you received on your paper or exam does not correspond to the quality of work that you submitted, or the effort you put into it, you have two options:
  1. Print out, complete, and submit the following Grade Change Application Form ;-),
     OR:
  2. Write a page (or paragraph, whatever it takes) explaining WHY you think your work is better than the grade assigned to it. Please refer to the appropriate assignment sheet (for book essays and web projects), and make sure you did the assignment.
     • Then resubmit the work in question with your explanation, and I will regrade it and get back to you.
     • Be sure to put some contact address on your explanation sheet, so that I can be in touch with you.
     • Note that I reserve the right to lower your grade, if I feel that is warranted by closer examination

Picking up your work

I keep all student work for at least one quarter after the course is over. If you would like to pick up your work, please come to my office. During my office hours is usually best for me, but if you would like your work left in an envelope in the envelope outside my door, or to arrange a different pick-up time, send me an e-mail or leave a note.

Old Announcements (back to top)

• Jan. 5, 2004: The readings for Jan. 7 are also available on-line: poem "The Master Race"; H-German discussion comparing Iraq in 2003 and Germany in 1945
• Apr. 2, 2004: The German film Goodbye Lenin just opened in Santa Barbara. It is a wonderful comedy that turns the fall of the Berlin wall on its head (the Westerners flood eastward!). A must-see for students in this course--you'll recognize much of the documentary footage we saw. Here are some links: Internet Movie Data Base plot summary; trailer (on apple website); German homepage
• Sept. 29, 2004: I found an interesting teaching site developed since 1999 by a German teacher teaching at an elite school in Korea, "WHKMLA," hosted by the Center for Instructional Media in Germany. It is in English, and especially the links seem to be unique (they go beyond the usual).
• Nov. 11, 2004: Was Ronald Reagan the "real" cause of the fall of the Berlin Wall? In an op-ed piece in the LA Times "It was Reagan who tore down that wall," conservative historian Dinesh D'Souza argues he was. My and other letters to the editor argue he wasn't.
  So: What evidence does D'Souza present to make his case? What did cause the fall of the wall?
• July 27, 2005: Deutsche Welle's Dummy's Guide to German Elections is quite good.
• July 19, 2005: Nicely illustrated blog entry by Norman Birnbaum summarizing the summer 2005 political situation in Germany. Gives concise background information.
• Oct. 26, 2005: This class will be offered MWF 11-12 this coming Winter quarter. Interested students are encouraged to attend the Nov. 14 talk by Ika Hügel-Marshall: "Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany," followed by a discussion. 1001 Life Sciences Building.
  Ika Hügel-Marshall's translator, Dagmar Schultz, is also the co-producer of a 28-minute film, "Hope in my heart: The May Ayim Story", which is a documentary on the life and untimely death of Afro-German poet May Ayim. The film will be screened following Ika Hügel-Marshall's lecture. Dagmar Schultz will introduce the film and be available for the discussion afterwards.
• Nov. 18, 2005: Course books for Winter 2006 will be [prices are $new/used] (see also Thumbnail image links, below):
  • Mary Fulbrook, Divided Nation: Germany 1918-1990 (Oxford, 1992) [$34/2 at amazon] UCSB: DD240.F85 1992
    • 12/11/05: The 2002 Blackwell edition, History of Germany 1918-2000: The Divided Nation ($35/24 at amazon) is acceptable as well. The text is identical except for 3 1/2 pages of new epilog at the end of chap. 13 (345 old=279-282 new), and the final paragraph of chap. 14 has been replaced and expanded (p. 368f old=301f new). (The bibliography has been updated as well.)
    • The 1992 edition is available for on-line checkout at the UCSB library. BEFORE YOU CLICK: copy "Fulbrook divided nation" to paste into the keyword search box. That gives you 5 hits including the 2002 updated edition; the electronic version is no. 4). The title link takes you to netlibrary, where you give yourself a login and password. If you just "browse" it (you can type in page numbers in the upper right), others can use it at the same time; if you "check it out," no one else can access it.
  • Ika Hügel-Marshall, Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany (Continuum, 2002) [$10/3 at amazon] HQ1625.H84 A3 2001
  • Christopher Hilton, The Wall: The People's Story (Sutton, 2003) [$13/7 at amazon] DD881 .H57 2001
  • Jana Hensel, After The Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood and the Life that Came Next (Public Affairs, 2004) [$16/5 from amazon]
• Dec. 12, 2005: I'm just beginning to construct the website with current information. For now, to find out more about the course, visit the 2004 133c website, with the 2004 133c syllabus.
• Dec. 26, 2005: I'm doing some work updating this page:
  • Book links updated
  • Munich page--on just-released film by Steven Spielberg about the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre aftermath (it's not really about Germany, although the triggering event was there)
  • BBC on-line quiz: What do you know about present-day Germany? (Dec. 2002).
    In German: siehe auch the Dec. 2005 Spiegel article "Die Hitler-Obsession," with a link to a German version of the quiz.
• Jan. 9, 2006: There will not be a reader this year. I've found most of the sources on-line, and will scan the few other essays for printing or reading on the web. (see the 2004 hyperlinked reader)
• Jan. 17, 2006:
  • The 2006 syllabus is now available on-line (with the corrected Hügel-Marshall reading assignment for Jan. 27-Feb. 1).
  • L1: Introduction, and a preliminary version of L2: What is Germany? are also available.
    L3: 1945 Film is pretty much complete.
  • On Wednesday after class I will give add codes to the students on the waiting list.
  • The two evening films will be shown on the Wednesdays Feb. 15 and March 15. More students said they could make the 6-8pm time slot than 7-9pm. However, the registrar says only Broida (284 seats) is available earlier, so I will ask whether we can't take the later time slot and get a more suitable room. [Promise 1 hr 55 mins; Lenin 2hrs. 1 min.]
  • Additional paragraphs from textbook (also from the assigned chap. 14)
• Jan. 19, 2006: Friday 1/20 we will have midterm Q1, which will be about German political parties.
  • You should review the following textbook pages (Fulbrook 1992 edition): 23, 33, 46f, 55-7, 67, 137f, 170, 180f, 212ff, 247, 254, 282, 337f.
  • I'd suggest making a list of the acronyms of the political parties (esp. the post-1945 parties!) and what they stand for, and maybe draw a diagram showing whether they are on the political left, in the center, or on the political right.
  • You can also look up the various parties on the web (SPD, CDU, FDP, SED, KPD, Greens, Center, DDP, and so on). Many websites  are in German, but here is one with descriptions in English:
  • GermanCulture.com.ua political parties page has links to its own pages with English descriptions of the currently active German political parties. Its Weimar Republic page includes brief characterizations of some of the historical parties.
    According to site host Tatyana Gordeeva, this content moved from about.com to the current Ukrainian-hosted location in Dec. 2001.
• Jan. 25, 2006: today will have Q2, based on textbook chapter 6. While you're reading you may want to focus especially on the Potsdam conference, denazification, and the reasons for the division of Germany. If you have questions about the book essay, today is the day to ask them!
  • The Book Essay handout is now available.
• Jan. 19, 2006 (updated 1/28/06): Rooms for evening film screenings (campus map)
  • Wed., Feb. 15, 7-9pm: North Hall 1006. The Promise (1995, 1 hr. 55 mins.).
    Alternative date: 2/16, 6:30pm in HSSB 4020
  • Wed., Mar. 15, 7-9pm: North Hall 1109. Goodbye Lenin (2004, 2 hrs, 1 min)
    Alternative date: 3/16, 6:30pm in HSSB 4020
• Jan. 26, 2006: Book essay: Books about Nazi Germany; very short or very long books.
  1. Several people have asked about books about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust for the book essay. In general, this is not ok. However, there are ways to link those books to post-1945 Germany so that they would be acceptable. One way would be to examine how the book was received in Germany when it was published. Another is to do a "web project"--a commented guide to reviews of and websites about the book or its author. If you are interested in doing this, ask me about it in class.
  • Two webpages I recommend for guidelines about evaluating web sites are:
    UC Berkeley library: Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask (detailed how-to guidelines and explanations)
  • New Mexico State library's "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources" page has 5 Evaluation Criteria (checklist with brief rationale).
  2. Some topics are only treated in very short or very long books. If you choose a short book, I will expect much more outside research (reviews, about the author, other treatments of the topic, perhaps on the web). If you choose a very long or difficult book, I won't expect too much more than an accurate summary description of the book and its thesis (i.e., you don't have to analyze as much).
• Jan. 27, 2006: I'm working on the lecture outlines: L5-Political Parties, L6-Weimar and Nazi Germany are just about done.
• Jan. 28, 2006: I forgot to announce on Friday that you should start reading Growing up Black in Germanythis weekend and finish it by Wednesday. It's not a long book, but you should probably start it this weekend. Also lecture outlines L7-Defeat and Its Legacies, and L8-Four Ds are available.
• Jan. 30, 2006: Rescheduling. I've decided that it would be better to postpone the discussion of Invisible Woman: Growing up Black in Germany until Friday. We will also do Q3, based on that book, on Friday. I've also updated the CourseLinks page with suggested books for the essay.
• Jan. 30, 2006: going through your book proposals, I find that 6 students have chosen to do the Stasi, based on the same two books (Funder and Koehler). I'd like to propose some alternatives that you can look into:
  • Timothy Garton Ash, The File (amazon)
  • Mike Dennis, Norman Laporte, The Stasi: Myth and Reality (amazon)
  • Dirk Philipsen, Voices from East Germany's Revolutionary Autumn of 1989 (amazon)
  • Peter Marcuse, A Personal and Political Journal of a Year in East Germany, 1989-1990 (amazon)
  • Robert Darnton, Berlin Journal, 1989-1990
  • Jonathan Grix. The Role of the Masses in the Collapse of the GDR (amazon)
  • A. James McAdams, Judging the Past in Unified Germany (amazon)
• Feb. 6, 2006: Q4 will be on Wed., 2/8, about the state structures described in textbook chapter 10.
• Feb. 9, 2006: notes for L9-10: Causes of Division, Blockade and 1953, now available. For next week:
  • Monday: discussion of Hilton up to p. 240 (Q5)
  • Wednesday, 7-9pm:  film "The Promise," NORTH HALL 1006
    Thursday, 6:30-8:30pm, HSSB 4020: "The Promise" (imdb page)
  • Friday: paper drafts due, Q6 on The Promise
    also: possible visit by Prof. Mahlendorf, who fled to W. Germany at the end of the war.
• Feb. 12, 2006: I haven't had enough time to get very far with putting up the rest of the lecture notes yet, but I want to be sure that everyone knows that you need to have read Hilton, The Wall: The People's Story pp. 1-240 by Monday. In class I noted that the end of chap. 3 (pp. 77-82) make a crucial point. We will have Q5 on Monday.
• Feb. 13, 2006: On Wednesday, 2/15, Prof. Ursula Mahlendorf will come to our class to read portions of her memoir that she is still writing, and to answer questions and discuss issues that arise. Here are the chapters she will read from, which are also the texts for the extra credit assignment due Wednesday:
  • [for background, see this introduction (2 single-spaced pages)]
  • Memoir chapter 8: The Russian Invasion (18 pages)
  • Memoir chapter 9: Silesia becomes Polish (19 pages)
  • Extra credit: Read chapters 8 and 9, and type 4 questions you would like to ask Prof. Mahlendorf. You should ask some of these, and hand them in at the end of class (typed only). Worth the same as a "Q": up to 4 points.
• Feb. 14, 2006:
  • Please note that you must turn in your prospectus with the book reviews stapled to your paper draft on Friday. The paper draft should indeed be the "full" version of what you will submit.
  • I've uploaded lecture notes for L11: West in 1950s, L12: Berlin Wall, L13+14: Diverging Societies, and (very rudimentary--just the powerpoint text) L15: Foreign Relations.
• Feb. 21, 2006: I'm trying something new--doing my usual midterm course evaluation on-line.
  • Please take the Hist 133c midterm evaluation survey. [3/3/06: results reported in L21]
  • There are 10 radio button questions, 1 required text box, and 3 optional text boxes.
    [note 3/3/06: put all optional at end--otherwise empty cells in .csv export file]
  • The survey results page can be accessed publicly. (I've never done this before, so I don't know what it will look like...) [note 2/27: output is a real pain. I'm still tweaking it in excel.]
  • Please do this asap--I would really appreciate hearing from the whole class by Thursday, Feb. 23. Thank you!
• Feb. 27, 2006: The reading for Wed., Mar. 1, is available as scanned images; more easily printable OCR text will be available soon.
  • Dirk Philipsen, "The Troubled Emergence of an Idea" (1993), scans of pages 35-55. (easier for on-screen reading, but won't print well)
  • If you want to print it, use this OCR text of pp. 35-55. (my browser prints it on 17 pages)
  • NOTE: Q8 on Wednesday will be based on this reading.
  • note 3/3/06: 10/16 students read the OCR text (4 printed it); 2 read the images online.
• March 5, 2006: We had an important lecture on Friday (3/3), and only half the class was there.
  • Thus there will be Q9 on Monday (3/6), about Fulbrook pp. 267-78 and chapter 13.
  • I've added up Q1-8 scores. To check my addition, if you still have your papers, you can tell me what total you get. Count a "+" as +0.5, and a "-" as -0.5. Write this on Q9 or Q10. If there is a discrepancy I'll check my addition and possibly ask you to resubmit. Range: 17 to 36, with outliers of 12 and 39.
  • I've started catching up on the web site: Web Option handout, 1989 handout,
• March 12, 2006: We will have Q10 tomorrow (Monday), on Jana Hensel's After the Wall.
  Note: add up all of your previous Q scores plus the extra credit on Prof. Mahlendorf, and write the result on your Q10. That will enable me to check my recordkeeping and addition.
  • Don't forget the evening film screening this Wed., Mar. 15, 7-9pm: North Hall 1109: Goodbye Lenin (2004, 2 hrs, 1 min). Alternate date: 3/16, 6:30pm in HSSB 4020.
  • An extra credit "Q11," given at the screening, can be submitted on Friday.
• March 15, 2006: I've made a page of lecture notes for L24-26 on the Process of Unification, including Mr. Fawcett's lecture. The notes are a rump that don't connect to other notes yet. I hope to get to these by next Monday, so they'll be available for the final exam.
  • Final announcements: Before Friday's lecture I will try to grade all papers and upload at least preliminary versions of the web option papers I've received, so that I can return your papers.
  • There will be no final exam study guide--I simply don't have time before Friday. You can see the 2004 study guide and exam for an idea of how the exam will work. As announced on the syllabus, there will be 3 of 9 IDs and 1 of 2 essay questions. It will be a word-limited take-home, due next Thursday during the exam period (noon-3pm). I will try to publish it by next Tuesday, 3/21, 6pm.
• March 16, 2006: As I announced in class, I will make the take-home final available by noon on Wed. 3/22, but possibly on the web as early as Tuesday evening. It is due at the absolute latest on Thursday at 3pm in my office, HSSB 4221. It is word-limited and should be typed. For details see the March 15 announcement.
• March 17, 2006 (last class day):

  Actual demontage of Lenin statue in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1991. (The images in the Good-Bye Lenin film were created digitally.) Auf Wiedersehen! [note Dec. 2014: thanks to the reader who alerted me to the fact that this photo is NOT from Bucharest!]

  Very good turnouts at both showings of Good Bye Lenin--I'm pleased, and I hope you enjoyed the film. Two choices for the extra credit ("Q11"), which must be submitted right at the beginning of class (no opportunity to do it in class):
  • for 4 points max: Reflect on how Alex's lying for the good of his mother was like the GDR leadership's lying to its populace (or not). OR
  • for 3 points max: Write a paragraph or two about a scene in the film that you found significant, and why.
• March 21, 2006, 11:30pm: The 2006 final exam is now available. I will leave hard copies outside my office door by 12:30pm Wednesday. The typed exam is due by 3pm Thursday.
• March 23, 2006: I will be in my office today, Thursday, noon-3pm to accept the final exams and return your papers.
  • A note on the final: I used to give a slightly longer exam (3 IDs, one source interpretation, one essay question) during a TWO HOUR period as an in-class exam. Thus you should be able to complete the final exam in 2 hours, even including the typing time.
  • To all of you whom I don't see: have a good spring break!
    Any leftover work will be available for pick-up next quarter.
    My office hours in spring 2006 will be W & Th, 1-2pm.
  • draft of web papers index page