2017-2018 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2017-2018 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 2210 - Rise, Fall and Rebirth: Germany in the 20th Century


Germany has stood at the center of world events throughout the twentieth century; its crises have profoundly impacted Europe and the United States for over the past hundred years. Germans helping plunge Europe into Worl War I, were responsible for the Second World War, and perpetrated the Holocaust. Beginning with the transformation of 19th century Germany into an industrial world power with a thriving, liberal middle-class, we will examine Germans’ role in World War One, the Weimar Republic, and during National Socialism and the Holocaust. We will pay particular attention to the “catastrophe” that was German history from 1914-1945, asking whether Germany developed along a special path (Sonderweg), what made possible the rise of Hitler, yet remaining open to the possibilities of the Weimar Republic. We will then explore the division of communist East and capitalist West Germany and the fall of the Iron Curtain, and ask how Germans successfully transitioned from autocracy to democracy after 1945. After 1945, West Germany, a NATO memeber, developed into one of the strongest economies in the world, while East Germany, part of the Warsaw Pact, became one of the most repressive regimes in Europe. Today, Germany’s stability is at the heart of a new post-Cold War Europe and the driving force behind the European Union.

Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP (summer only)

Anticipated Terms Offered: varied