Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Course Description

This course will explore the complex historical, moral, and political realities and legacies of war, dictatorship, and Holocaust for Germany before and after 1945. We will address questions of guilt and responsibility, victimhood and agency and the ways these terms have been understood over time. Some important questions we will explore are: How did the physical, moral, political, and ethical destruction of the war and Holocaust influence Germany's reconstruction in the postwar context? How did contemporaries, historians, politicians, artists etc. participate in these processes? How have these discussions changed in recent years as most eyewitnesses are dying and new generations develop their own interpretations? Some of the debates that surround these questions are: Who has the right to remember and be remembered? Who can claim to be a victim, in other words: were Germans victims - or perpetrators – or both? Can a new German state be "normal" and overcome its historical baggage? What's the difference between guilt and responsibility and how does it affect future generations? How have discussions changed over the past decades?

Student Outcomes

  • Analytical skills (identifying and framing arguments, other scholars and your own)
  • Writing skills (clarity, concision, accuracy, and attribution)
  • Oral communication skills
  • Breadth of geographic and chronological knowledge (tracing connections between places and forging thematic comparisons across regions and eras)

Download

Share

COinS