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FUBiS Term III: The Third Reich: Seduction and Terror
(Course # 2.5)
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Type: |
A Track |
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Instructor(s): |
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Language: |
English |
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Contact hours: |
48 (6 contact hours per day) |
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Credit Points: |
4 Credit Points |
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Capacity: |
18 |
Course description
The National Socialist dictatorship was a singular disaster in German and European history. The major question which we will try to answer in this course is: How could it have happened? In the early twentieth century Germany was one of the most advanced societies in Europe in terms of industrial development, state formation, the rule of law, cultural flowering and scientific advancement. German culture as evidenced by poets such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, German science by Robert Koch and Albert Einstein enjoyed world-wide acclaim. Germany's level of general education was quite high and its university system reaped more Nobel prizes than almost any other country. Yet, from 1933 to 1945 Germany lapsed into barbarism. Democratic institutions were swept away by totalitarian dictatorship, the rule of law by arbitrary fiat, wanton injustice and, finally, genocide. In the Holocaust millions of men, women and children were murdered, primarily, but by no means exclusively, European Jews. How could this have happened? What were the origins of the rise of Hitler? How did this obscure corporal from the First World War take power in Germany? What was the power structure of Nazi Germany? What ideology motivated the Nazis? How did Hitler take Germany and Europe to war? How did the Holocaust unfold and with what consequences? How did the Third Reich finally meet its end and what was its legacy?
This course will allow you to develop some answers to these key questions. In section A we will discuss the complex historical origins of the Nazi movement and the Third Reich, looking at the authoritarian nation state that was the Kaiserreich, at the impact of World War One on German society and politics, at the rise of Hitler and the National Socialist seizure of power. In section B we will discuss the nature of the totalitarian regime in Nazi Germany, at its power structure, its ideological imperatives, its system of organized police terror and its concentration camps. In section C we will examine the road to war, examining the motives and techniques exhibited by Hitler in his determination to unleash another world war. In section D we will examine the war itself as the context for the Holocaust, looking at linkages between the battlefield, the home front, the occupation and the extermination camps. In section E we will look at the consequences of 12 years of Hitlerian rule--for Germany, Europe and the world. What is the legacy of this terrible period of history?
Requirements and Grading:
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Attendance in class and careful reading of the assigned course materials
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two written tests: one at the beginning, the other at the end of the course
Excursions:
We will be taking excursions to several historical sites and memorial centers, including the "Topography of Terror" (former SS and Gestapo headquarters), the House of the Wannsee Conference and Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Student profile
We will examine the rise of Adolf Hitler to power; the nature of the Nazi regime; the road to war; and World War Two and the Holocaust. Class excursions will include former Gestapo headquarters, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg, the Wannsee Villa, where the Holocaust was organized, the monument to the Resistance and the monument to the murdered Jews of Europe. We welcome students from all disciplines who hope to gain an understanding of one of the most lethal regimes in modern history.
