Divided Germany

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Course Outline: The total military and moral defeat of Hitler’s Empire in 1945 left Germany militarily and morally defeated. The two German states that were founded in 1949 – the capitalist liberal-democratic Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) – were built on the ruins of a genocidal dictatorship. This graduate seminar will examine how the two states negotiated their common past and constructed competing political and social orders in an era of Cold War bipolarity. After surveying the general trajectories of both states from the late 1940s until the 1980s, we will examine German-German history thematically to tease out comparisons and contrasts between both societies. The themes covered include, but are not limited to, experiences with Soviet and U.S. occupation; political leadership in East and West; competing memories of war and the founding myths of anti-fascism and anti-communism; the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall; negotiating diversity and difference in the wake of genocide; popular culture and consumption; gender and sexuality; the environmental history of both German states; surveillance regimes in East and West; protest movements and political opposition; and overcoming the ‘wall in the heads’ after unification. Students will gain a thorough understanding of West German history beyond the redemptive tale of a smooth transition to liberal-democracy after ‘zero hour’ and insights into how to evaluate the ‘second German dictatorship’. Throughout the semester we will pay special attention to the manifold and resilient entanglements between both states across the Cold War divide. While providing an in-depth look at a key chapter in German history, divided Germany will thus also serve as a case study for thinking about comparisons, transfers, and linkages ‘across the blocs’ more generally. Course Goals As a graduate seminar, the class aims to combine empirical reconstructions about a wide range of topics with methodological and conceptual discussions that should benefit you in your future study and research. As part of our weekly seminar we will discuss and practice how to evaluate and contextualize a broad range of primary sources. In addition, we will explore themes such as transnational – or rather trans-bloc – and comparative history writing, and probe the usefulness of categories such as gender, memory, generation, class, and ethnicity as tools with which to interpret the histories of both German states after 1945. While the course is focused on the two Germanies, approaching the subject from different historiographical perspectives will enable you to engage critically with some of the broader concepts used to study postwar Europe as a whole. You will be expected to present your arguments clearly in class presentations and in written form and to carry out and present original research. This will help you to develop your analytical abilities, your writing skills and your research and presentation skills. By the end of the semester you should be able to interpret and analyze German division through different conceptual lenses and to speak and write confidently about the comparisons, contrasts, and entanglements between the FRG and GDR.