Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students
Will be able to analyze and evaluate conflicting historical interpretations of Modern German History
Will have acquired basic knowledge and understanding of some of the key historiographical debates about the Weimar Republic
Will have familiarized themselves with some of the most important concepts and methodological approaches to the history of art, politics and culture
Will have a fuller understanding of the rich secondary literature on the period.
Will have improved their ability to interpret primary sources
Will be able to relate the history of Weimar Germany to challenges facing contemporary democracies
Indicative Module Content:
Weekly topic list:
Week 1: creating the Republic 1: the end of the war and the revolution of 1918-19
Week 2: creating the Republic 2: 1919 the National Assembly and the Weimar Constitution
Week 3: Creating the Republic 3: international relations/foreign policy in 1919; the Versailles Treaty and the long end of the First World War
Week 4: the world upturned 1: from the Kapp Putsch to the Rathenau murder (1920-1922) – focus on political crises, political violence, revolutionary aftershocks, the murders of Erzberger/Rathenau, the Organization Consul, the law for the protection of the Republic
Week 5: the world upturned 2: 1923 (1) The French occupation of the Ruhr and the acceleration of economic crisis / end of money
Week 6: the world upturned (3): 1923 Bavaria versus Germany: separatist politics and the Beer Hall Putsch.
Week 7: the Republic stabilized 1. Weimar politics after 1923 – the Republic’s ‘Golden years’, the politics of Gustav Stresemann.
Week 8: the Republic stabilized 2: The Presidential election of 1925.
Week 9: the Republic stabilized 3: anti-Republican thought during the years of stability: Hans Grimm and a People without space (Volk ohne Raum first published in 1926)
Week 10: The end of the Weimar experiment 1. The breakdown of the Weimar coalition: the 1929 economic crisis, the end of the Muller government, the start of the Bruning Chancellorship.
Week 11: The end of the Weimar experiment 2: The end of the Bruning Chancellorship, the course of the Papen and Schleicher governments – street fighting, foreign policy, currency policy.
Week 12: Weimar after Weimar – the long life of ‘Germany’s first democracy.’ ‘Weimar’ as a site of memory and a source of political mobilization in the Third Reich, East and West-Germany, and Weimar today – a lesson against populism.