Course Syllabus
Competing Narratives: Modern European History |
 |
| Semester & Location: |
Fall 2018 - DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
History Core Course - 3 credits |
| Long Study Tour: |
Warsaw and Berlin |
| Major Discipline: |
History |
| Faculty Member: |
Thorsten Wagner |
| Program Coordinator: |
Sanne Rasmussen - sra@dis.dk |
| Time & Place: |
Mondays & Thursdays 8:30-9:50 in F24-402 |
Description of Course
Europe – the cradle of liberal democracy, civil rights, Western culture and secular civilization, but also fertile ground for colonialist expansion, racist violence, social engineering, and the brutal tyrannies of the 20th century. This course sets out to explore the staggering ambiguities of the European experience in the modern era.
Simultaneously, it is a study of how selective ways of remembering Europe’s past have shaped collective and individual identities, as we will be examining the complex web of competing historical narratives and studying concepts and discourses in the contemporary field of history and memory studies.
The course will begin with identifying the new, massive challenges that European societies were confronted with in the course of the 19th century, both in terms of the dynamic development of capitalist, industrializing economies, in turn generating new social classes, and in terms of new political concepts such as nationalism, socialism, and liberal democracy. A strong emphasis will be put on the changing and conflicting perceptions of this new reality and their expressions in art, science, literature, and religion: how did European citizens try to make sense of these changes, what were the frames of reference that defined meaning and purpose in the midst of rapid transformation and upheaval?
A significant part of the course will be dedicated to Germany as a case study of European modernity: Questioning the outdated notions of German exceptionalism, we will zoom in on how Germany became a key player in 20th-century Europe. The legacy of the previous century was ambivalent: In the 19th century, Germany had seen the rise of an ethno-centrist national identity, the failure of liberal-democratic movements, the birth of a strong organized labor movement, and, eventually the creation of a rapidly modernizing, unified nation-state of the Kaiserreich, combining dynamic modernism and backward autocracy.
Hungry for influence and recognition, the traditionalist elites of the German Empire contributed significantly to the outbreak of World War I. The Great War caused the collapse of the multinational, autocratic empires of Europe, and its end marked the birth of a Europe of nation-states. But the multiple crises of interwar Germany and the lack of a strong middle class dedicated to the new Weimar republic and its democratic political system paved the way for the Nazi takeover of power.
A second focus of the course is the era of European dictatorships and genocide. In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi and Soviet rule and the ensuing Second World War destroyed nation-states, caused the death of at least 15 million civilian Europeans and created the Bloodlands (Tim Snyder), a landscape of destruction and genocide in Central and Eastern Europe.
In a third and final step, the course will examine the process of rebuilding Europe after WWII. Again, a crucial factor was Germany, separated by the ominous Iron Curtain and the frontline of the Cold War. West Germany’s surprisingly speedy return to the family of civilized nations, facilitated by a remarkable recognition of historical responsibility for the murder of European Jews and the destruction of the continent, paved the way for a peaceful unification of both Germany and Europe after 1989. We will wrap up the course with a discussion of the state of Europe today, with Germany at its head, the old-new leader of the continent – respected by most, hated by some.
Course Objectives
- To acquire a general overview of the major themes and problems in European history of the 19th and 20th century: democratization, industrialization, social reform, nationalism, conflicting ethnic identities and border disputes, colonialism
- To zoom in on the case study of Modern German History with its transnational entanglement with the European context
- To explore the crucial and ongoing impact of competing memories and conflicting narratives on a continent devastated and ripped apart in war and genocide, but eventually united in the pursuit of peace and economic cooperation
Course Instructor
Thorsten Wagner
Mag.art. (Modern History, German Literature, and Political Science, Technische Universität Berlin, 1998). Danish Center for Holocaust- and Genocide Studies, 2001-2004. Educator at the Jewish Museum Berlin since 2001. Research fellow and lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin since 2007. Academic Director of FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics). With DIS since 2010.
Email: twa@dis.dk.
Readings
Bergen, Doris, War and Genocide. A Concise History of the Holocaust, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield 2009.
Fulbrook, Mary, A Concise History of Germany, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004.
Gassert, Philipp/Steinweis, Alan (eds.), Coping with the Past. West German Debates on Nazism and Generational Conflict, 1955-1975, New York/Oxford 2006.
Jarausch, Konrad H./Geyer, Michael, Shattered Past. Reconstructing German Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2003.
Jarausch, Konrad H./Lindenberger, Thomas (eds.), Conflicted Memories. Europeanizing Contemporary Histories. New York: Berghahn 2007.
Jensen, Uffa, “Into the Spiral of Problematic Perceptions: Modern Anti-Semitism and gebildetes Bürgertum in Nineteenth Century Germany.” In: German History 25 (2007), 348-371.
Judt, Tony, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. New York: Penguin Press 2006.
The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011.
Schildt, Axel/Siegfried, Detlef, (eds.) Between Marx and Coca-Cola. Youth Cultures in Changing European Societies, 1960-1980, New York: Berghahn Books 2005.
Snyder, Timothy, Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin, New York: Basic Books 2010.
Snyder, Timothy, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, New York: Tim Duggan Books 2017.
Welzer, Harald, Grandpa Wasn’t a Nazi: The Holocaust in Germany Family Remembrance, Washington, DC, 2005.
Core Course Week including Short Tour
The theme of the core course week is Border Regions. We will start with a two-day seminar in Copenhagen, before we go on a three-day study tour to Southern Jutland and Northern Germany with a continued focus on Denmark and its neighbors to deconstruct Danish national myths and how these historical interpretations shape current Danish memory and identity.
The Long Tour Destinations: Berlin and Warsaw
Like no other cities, Berlin and Warsaw epitomize the trajectory of Modern Europe: from the ambiguities and pitfalls of nationalism, through the catastrophic destruction and genocidal violence of WWII to the rebuilding of the continent as a diverse, yet unified entity. The two war-torn but revitalized capitals, bridging East and West, provide the perfect gateway for an exploration of the fascinating complexities of their nations’ past and present. They embody political and cultural centers with a rich and interconnected history; having found their ways out of the rubble of World War II, both cities are now key players in the Europe of the 21st century.
While Berlin seems self-evident as a destination for a course with focus on modern Germany, Warsaw is a most meaningful counterpart to the old-new German capital. We can’t even begin to fathom the European drama of the 20th century and the consequences of Nazism and Stalinism without zooming in on Central Eastern Europe – the “Bloodlands” (Timothy Snyder) between Germany and Russia.
Berlin and Warsaw both carry complex layers of meaning, having been positioned at the center of turbulent centuries of national history, and constitute polar opposites: While Berlin symbolizes Prussian, Imperial and Nazi hegemony, it also came to constitute the epicenter of Weimar modernity and the key battleground of the Cold War. Warsaw, for its part, epitomizes the century-long struggle for national independence, lost with the Polish Partitions in the late 18th century, temporarily re-established after WWI, and regained after 1989. This struggle for freedom was driven by an exclusionary, anti-Semitic and ethnocentric nationalism, undermining the rich multinational and multicultural diversity that had characterized the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for centuries. Before the Holocaust, more than a third of Warsaw’s population was Jewish.
Poland took the full brunt of aggression by Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. The brutality of a dual invasion and occupation reinforced the deep-seated traumas of the Polish nation. The ghetto in Warsaw and the nearby death camp of Treblinka became key sites of the Holocaust. No other European country had to suffer so massively from ethnic cleansing and mass murder, and no other nation fought so courageously for six full years against totalitarian domination. On the other hand, a painful process of revisiting WWII history has begun. Questions about Polish participation in violent acts against Jewish neighbors are undermining cherished but simplistic notions of victimization.
Both Germany’s mass murder of Jewish and Christian Poles and the expulsion of Germans from Poland and other parts of Central Eastern Europe after 1945 constitute defining moments for the intricate web of ambivalent historical experiences and traumatic memories in present-day Europe. Though these instances of violence obviously can’t be equated, they are key components of conflicting national narratives: Berlin and Warsaw are ideal case studies through which to explore the complex ambiguities of victimhood and violence. This complex relationship becomes even more evident with the collapse of Communism: the creation of Solidarnosc in Poland was one of the factors that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent demise of the Iron Curtain. Both cities, Warsaw and Berlin, symbolize most powerfully the rise of a Europe liberated from the shackles of dictatorship, facing the challenges of the 21st century.
Course Format
The course will meet 18 times during the semester and also involves two field studies. It is not a lecture class, but relies heavily on class discussion, informed by an in-depth, critical reading of the assigned texts. Students will be expected to bring the text (in a paper version) and reading notes as well as questions to class. It is crucial to analyze and criticize the argument put forth in the reading. Students need to be able to relate their points of view to an academic and research-based argument. An engaged, informed and active participation in class discussion is crucial.
Course Requirements
Reading Feedback
Students are required to write a short paragraph (60-80 words), reacting to the reading assigned for the following day. This could imply emphasizing a central theme, raising an important question implied in the reading, or asking for specific aspect to be clarified further. (Deadline is noon the day before class; the feedback will be posted on Canvas here: https://canvas.disabroad.org/courses/2400/discussion_topics)
Oral Presentation
Each student will be assigned a time to give a max. 10-minute oral presentation to the class on the basis of a text listed as recommended reading. The presentation should use a very concise PowerPoint slide show, with a maximum of 5 slides. The task is to present the essence of the additional reading to the fellow students, so the time limit will be enforced strictly.
Midterm Essay
The midterm essay will give students an opportunity to reflect on the major themes that have been covered in class until this point. Students will have 30 minutes in class to choose from three essay questions and to respond with a short essay, drawing on readings and class discussions.
Research Paper
Each student will produce a research project in the form of a topic paper that reflects the theme of the course. Throughout the semester, the students’ reflection process will become increasingly individualized as they find texts that fit into the research project that will be completed at the end of the semester as their topic paper. The paper is expected to be research-based, amount to 1600-1800 words, use Chicago style documentation (incl. footnotes at bottom of page and complete bibliography at end of paper) and have a clear focus on Modern European history.
As the first preparatory stage for this paper, you will write a 200-250 word project proposal (in prose; not counting the bibliography - due date TBA). The proposal describes the problem that will be discussed in the final paper and raises the key questions guiding the research process. In addition, a bibliography is to be attached, which lists (minimum) five peer-reviewed academic articles or book chapters taken from research-based academic publications that are not part of the required or recommended course reading. Websites, encyclopedia articles, fiction, newspaper articles, book reviews, essays, movies, etc. do not count. Please do not hesitate to make use of the DIS library for this portion of the paper: https://disabroad.org/copenhagen/student-resource/academic-resources/library-resources/
All assignments must be handed in on the due date BOTH in hard copy AND electronically (i.e. sent as an ordinary Word document attached to an email). Not meeting the requirements regarding word count, handing in assignments late, or failing to hand it in both forms will affect the grade substantially.
Grade Components
| Assignment |
Percent |
| Class participation |
25% |
|
Midterm essay |
25% |
|
Oral presentation and Power Point slides |
20% |
|
Final paper |
30% |
To be eligible for a passing grade in this class you must complete all of the assigned work..
Classroom Etiquette
The use of distracting devices (smartphones, iPads, laptops, etc.) is strictly prohibited during class. Failure to comply will adversely affect participation grades. Use of laptops for the purpose of note taking requires prior consultation with the professor. Students should refrain from all other computer activities, as they prove distracting to themselves and fellow students. Mobile phones and other electronic devices should of course be turned off and stored away.
List of Recommended Films
1) 1864
2) The White Ribbon
3) Heimat
4) The Tin Drum
5) Generation War
6) Conspiracy
7) Rosenstrasse
8) Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
9) Stauffenberg
10) The Downfall
11) A Woman in Berlin
12) Aftermath
13) The Reader
14) Ida
15) The Baader Meinhof Complex
16) Barbara
17) Goodbye Lenin
18) Lives of Others
19) The Nasty Girl
20) Hannah Arendt
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|