The Fall of the Weimar Republic and the Rise of Hitler

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Why did one of the most cultivated European nations in a few years be transformed into probably the most murderous totalitarian system of history? Aim of the course is to study, first, several aspects of the Weimar republic that render the transition to National Socialism less enigmatic. We will read the Weimar constitution, study several of the works of the leading jurist Carl Schmitt, who both intelligently interpreted the constitution and later became a fanatic supporter of Nationalsocialism, and look at literary and filmic expressions of the slow dissolution of bourgeois morality. We will, secondly, read Joachim Fest's biography of Hitler, Hannah Arendt's classical study of totalitarianism, and Robert Paxton's Anatomy of Fascism, which offers a comparative perspective.Students will be encouraged to reflect on the question of whether a repetition of the events in 1933 is possible.