View readings by class session
Note: Wherever possible, the book citations below reflect the specific editions used in the course.
Books for Purchase
Fallada, Hans. Little Man, What Now? Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1983, c1933. ISBN: 0897330862. (Kleiner Mann, was nun?)
Allen, William S. The Nazi Seizure of Power. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1989. ISBN: 0140228780.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York, NY: Summit Books, 1986. ISBN: 0671605410.
Browning, Christopher. Ordinary Men. Reinbek bei Hamburg, Germany: Rowohlt, 1993. ISBN: 3498005693.
Fabri, Friedrich. "Bedarf Deutschland des Colonien?/Does Germany Need Colonies?" In Studies in German Thought and History. Edited and translated by E. C. M. Breuning, and M. E. Chamberlain. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1998, pp. 2-177, 179, and 181. ISBN: 0773483713.
Jünger, Ernst. Storms of Steel. Translated by B. Creighton. New York, NY: Howard Fertig, 1975, pp. 300-319. ISBN: 0865273103. (excerpt)
Remarque, Erich Maria. Chapter 4 in All Quiet on the Western Front. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1987. ISBN: 0449213943. (excerpt)
Fest, Joachim. The Face of the Third Reicht. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN: 030680915X. (excerpt)
Nenno, Nancy. "Femininity, the Primitive, and Modern Urban Space: Josephine Baker in Berlin." In Women in the Metropolis. Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture. Edited by Katharina Van Ankum. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997, pp. 145-161. ISBN: 0520204654.
Kershaw, Ian. The "Hitler Myth". New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0192802062.
Koonz, Claudia. Mothers in the Fatherlandt. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin, 1988. ISBN: 0312022565. (excerpt)
Peukert, Detlev. "The Genesis of the Final Solution from the Spirit of Science." In Nazism and German Society. Edited by David Crew. New York, NY: Routledge, 1994. ISBN: 0415082404.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Hitler and Nazi Germany: a History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. ISBN: 0139759964.
Readings by Class Session
Readings Table
| Week 1 |
| 1 |
Introduction to Class and Requirements: What is "Fascism"?, What is "Nazism"? |
|
| Week 2 |
| 2 |
- Imperial Germany and the First World War
- Discussion
- Fabri, Friedrich. Short excerpt from Does Germany Need Colonies?
|
|
| 3 |
Total War and Total (?) Defeat |
|
| Week 3 |
| 4 |
- Revolution and the Weimar Constitution
- Discussion
- Remarque, Jünger. "Letters from the Front and Home Front"
|
|
| 5 |
- The Treaty of Versailles
- Economic Shock
- Paramilitary Politics
|
|
| Week 4 |
| 6 |
Recovery, and Weimar Culture I: Art and the Avant-Garde (Visual Presentation) |
- Fest. The Face of the Third Reich. pp. 1-14 (Hitler), 15-26.
- Kershaw. Hitler Myth. pp. 14-24.
|
| 7 |
-
Weimar Culture II: The New Woman
-
Discussion
Berghaus, Gunter. "Girlkultur: Feminism, Americanism, and Popular Entertainment in Weimar Germany." Journal of Design History (1988).
Nenno, Nancy. "Feminity, the Primitive, and Modern Urban Space: Josephine Baker in Berlin."
|
|
| Week 5 |
| 8 |
Film: The Blue Angel (Die Blaue Engel) (1930, 107 min.) |
|
| 9 |
Countercurrents: Anti-Semitism, Völkisch nationalism (and the Origins of the Nazi Party) |
Fest. The Face of the Third Reich. pp. 15-26. (Hitler) |
| Week 6 |
| 10 |
Discussion
Fallada, Hans. Little Man, What Now?1933. |
|
| Week 7 |
| 11 |
The Great Depression and the Polarization of Politics |
|
| 12 |
Discussion
Allen, William S. The Nazi Seizure of Power. |
|
| Week 8 |
| 13 |
The Nazi Seizure of Power and Gleichschaltung |
Fest. The Face of the Third Reich. pp. 27-38. (Hitler) |
| 14 |
- National Socialist Propaganda and Aesthetics: The New Mass Media
- Film: Excerpts from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will and Olympia
- Discussion
The films of Leni Riefenstahl
Fest, Joachim. The Face of the Third Reich. (Goebbels)
|
|
| Week 9 |
| 15 |
Discussion
Allen. Nazi Seizure of Power. |
|
| 16 |
The Racial State |
- Nuremberg Laws (September 1935)
- Peukert, Detlev. "The Genesis of the 'Final Solution' from the Spirit of Science."
|
| Week 10 |
| 17 |
The Rise of the SS State, and Everyday Life under Nazism |
|
| 18 |
Outbreak of the Second World War |
Fest. pp. 62-67. (Hitler) |
| Week 11 |
| 19 |
The Course of the War, and the Eastern Front |
Begin reading Browning. Ordinary Men. |
| 20 |
- Origins of the "Final Solution" and the Machinery of Mass Murder
- Film Excerpt from Die Ewige Jüde
- Discussion
Report of Einsatzgruppe C (1941)
Minutes of the Wannsee Conference (1942)
|
|
| Week 12 |
| 21 |
- Discussion
Browning. Ordinary Men.
- Fest, Joachim. The Face of the Third Reich. (Höss)
|
|
| 22 |
Meeting with Instructor: Review of "Der Brand" (Strategic Bombing) |
Read Primo Levi. Survival in Auschwitz. |
| Week 13 |
| 23 |
- The Defeat of Germany and Götterdammerung
- Discussion
Allen. The Nazi Seizure of Power.
Fest, Joachim. The Face of the Third Reich.
|
|
| 24 |
"Zero Hour" and Denazification |
|
| Week 14 |
| 25 |
- Film: Germany Year Zero. (1947, 78 minutes)
- or Somewhere in Berlin (Irgendwo in Berlin) (1946, DEFA), 79 minutes.
|
|
| 26 |
- Discussion of Film
- The Legacy of Nazism in History, Memory and Myth
|
|
| Week 15 |
|
Final Exam |
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