History 341           Germany Since Bismarck                Schedule            Fall 2026

Please read the assignments in advance of the day they are listed. 

"TEXT" indicates our online compact "textbook," by the German Historical Institute: https://germanhistorydocs.org/

August 25--Introduction--Deutschland Über Was?? 
    The German World: German Confederation, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Alto Adige region in Italy, etc.
for class:
Deutschland Lied
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschlandlied


Aug 27--German "Constitutions": The Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, and Other German matters since the Peace of Westphalia
Read these two brief info sheets from my Hist 143 course:
Short article which tells us something about German culture:
https://www.britannica.com/news/231186/b9baab5541937841e591349955796f23
Some basic knowledge about the Habsburgs
A HABSBURG PRIMER
Quick rundown on the nineteenth century as a whole:
THE SHORT NINETEENTH CENTURY:  LIBERALISM.  REFORM,  and NATIONALISM

Optional: Moltke on new weapons, 1861
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/from-vormaerz-to-prussian-dominance-1815-1866/helmuth-von-moltke-memorandum-on-the-effect-of-improvements-in-firearms-on-battlefield-tactics-1861

Sep 1--Unification I: From Napoleon to the 1860s
Read the Text from the German History online--just the intro this time
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/from-vormaerz-to-prussian-dominance-1815-1866

And watch this excellent podcast on Bismarck, by two historians of Germany. It is about 45 minutes long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eXaqIMUU5g

Sep 3--Unification II:  Bismarck to the Franco-Prussian War and the Kaiserreich, 1871-1900
From Text, read this Introduction to the section. Hit "read more" and then read down only to "Historiographical Debate and Open Questions"
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/introduction

and also from Text, read this bit on the Ems Telegram or Ems Dispatch. Please read both the Abstract and the two sources linked:
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/original-and-edited-versions-of-the-ems-dispatch-july-13-1870

Sep 8--German Kaisereich and Austrian Empire 1867-1914: Domestic Policy and International Affairs

Read this good Encyclopedia Brittanica entry on Germany after unification. Read only down to subsection "World War I."
https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/Germany-from-1871-to-1918

and read from the Text the single section: "6. Military, International Relations, Colonialism"
 https://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/chapter.cfm?subsection_id=71

Sep 10--Effi Briest and the Stresses of Modernization
First half of class: discussion of Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest, and a 4X reading quiz. We will be looking for clues to women in late nineteenth-century Prussia, social attitudes, and more. Second half of class, the new Germany and social history
read all of Effi Briest

Sep 15--The Coming of War

Read from my book The Great War, the chapter on the origins of World War I.
(I will send you a pdf)
 
We will read together the following in class. Please bring a copy with you
the actual correspondence between Wilhelm and Nicholas here:
https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Willy-Nicky_Telegrams

Sep 17--Germany's Great War
Please read all of these carefully. Most of the readings are very brief, but there are quite a few. Try to keep the sources straight so we can discuss them individually as well as overall.
Watch another Reichs and Republics podcast, this one on the Turnip Winter, 1916/17.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDbpGwY4xrw

Read "War Losses (Austria-Hungary)"  International Encyclopedia of the First World War
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_austria-hungary

AND read and look at http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2011/02/art-of-first-world-war.html;  look carefully at the artworks and text. Please try to remember some names, above all Beckmann, Kirchner, Kokoschka, and Dix. This article includes war artists from several countries, but please concentrate on the Germans.

    Soldiers' Letters: Stages of Morale
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/wilhelmine-germany-and-the-first-world-war-1890-1918/soldiers-describe-combat-ii-sophus-lange-1914-1915
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/wilhelmine-germany-and-the-first-world-war-1890-1918/letters-from-a-farmer-to-his-wife-october-1914
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/wilhelmine-germany-and-the-first-world-war-1890-1918/soldiers-describe-combat-i-eduard-schmieder-1914-1915
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/wilhelmine-germany-and-the-first-world-war-1890-1918/soldiers-describe-combat-v-peter-hammerer-1916

Sep 22--Collapse, Revolution, Peace

make sure to includ the ride to Compiegne blod

Read three entries from my Paris Peace Conference blog
  http://parispeace1919.blogspot.com/2009/01/german-revolution-german-politics.html
    http://parispeace1919.blogspot.com/2009/06/framework-of-events-mayjune-at-paris.html
        http://parispeace1919.blogspot.com/2009/01/top-ten-events-in-tumultuous-history-of.html

Sep 24--The Weimar Republic: Hyperinflation, Violence, and Other Matters
TEXT--TBA

Sep 29-Two Germans: Erich Ludendorff and Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
powerpoint
Read the first chapter ("Life") of Sebastian Haffner's superb short biography of Hitler, The Meaning of Hitler:
    This is on the great internet site Archive.org. If you have not already signed up (free), then do so, and you can "borrow" the book to read online. Or sign up first, and then hit the link below.
https://archive.org/details/meaningofhitlerb0000seba/page/24/mode/2up

October 1--NO CLASS--use the time to write your first paper.
Paper I--due on Monday, Oct. 5 at 11:59pm, via Turnitin.com

Oct 6--The Death of Weimar: Depression and Radicalization
read short lecture by historian Gerhard Rempel:
http://www.johndclare.net/Rempel_Nazi27.htm
And this lengthy article by John Simkins giving a substantial bio of Ernst Röhm, leader of the Sturmabteilungen (SA)
https://spartacus-educational.com/GERroehm.htm
 
Reading on the Cabinet of Barons--TBA

Goebbels on propaganda, 1931 (at Randall Bytwerk's site)
http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/wille.htm Wikipedia: The Potempa Murder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potempa_Murder_of_1932
   
No need to read this but we will go over it in class: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Germany#Weimar_Republic_elections
    also read the short OSS interview with Arnold Brecht:
    http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/oss-sb-brecht.html


Oct 8--The Führer in Power
IV, VII, VII, IX, X, XI
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=2489


Oct 13--Midterm


Oct 15--Germany and the Coming of World War II: German Economic Preparation, the Army, Diplomacy
readings TBA

Oct 20--Outbreak: From The Polish Invasion to the Russian War
Watch this video through the discussion of Operation Barbarossa (that is, up to about 43 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAHJ0omYo7U

Oct 22--"Wollt Ihr den Totalen Krieg?": Total War
Watch the rest of the above documentary--from about 43 minutes to the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAHJ0omYo7U

And reading on German resistance to Hitler, TBA

And read (via JSTOR, through Abell Library)
"The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945, and the German Response: Dilemmas of Judgment"
Earl R. Beck
German Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Oct., 1982), pp. 325-337 (Find this on JSTOR)

Read this short bio of Albert Speer
https://spartacus-educational.com/GERspeer.htm or rep

Oct 27--The Holocaust I

Text: choose 10 of the primary source materials on this page to read/look at and be able to talk about some of them in class
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/nazi-germany-1933-1945/the-holocaust
    From the History Place site, "Holocaust Timeline" (No need to memorize, but read it carefully)
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html
Oct 29--The Holocaust II:  Q&A on the War and the Final Solution, plus discussion of Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men. Reading quiz 4x

Nov 3--From War to No War: Surrender, Occupation, and Some Costs of War
German Resistance to Hitler

De Zayas, A Terrible Revenge excerpts TBA
 AND Richard Wiggers's article on Allied food policy.

Nov 5 --Teufelsbergen! Germany as Rubble Heaps
WatchYoutube color footage of Berlin bombing destruction, 1945
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2FuoFHkIc


Nov 10--Economic Miracle. 

A quick look at the Nuremberg Trials and others
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/occupation-and-the-emergence-of-two-states-1945-1961/some-of-the-accused-in-the-nuremberg-trial-of-the-major-war-criminals-1946

Read the excellent short encyclopedia entry by David Henderson in the Encyclopedia of Economics
    http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GermanEconomicMiracle.html
    and the Wikipedia entries on Adenauer and Erhard:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Adenauer
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Erhard

Nov 12--East and West: The Bonn Republic 
Spend an hour browsing, looking at pictures, and reading on the website "Berlin Wall Online"

TEXT--"Two Germanies (1961-1989)" Read the Introduction text only.  Pictures and maps if you like.
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=367
And look carefully at this website:
http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/index.html
Also read:  the Wikipedia entry  on Franz Josef Strauss:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Strauß
and Willi Brandt
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Brandt


Nov 17--East and West: The German Democratic Republic
For class, read Stasiland. Discussion and 4x reading quiz
Also read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Demokratische_Republik


Nov 19--The Last Phase of the Cold War and the Run-up to the Fall of the Wall
Read also this article on Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" Speech.
And watch the speech---youtube link TBA

the Wikipedia entries on Helmut Kohl


THANKSGIVING WEEK
Dec 1--Die Wende: The Fall of the Wall and Unification
TEXT--"One Germany in Europe (1989-2009)"-- Read Introduction text, sections 1 through 3, with images, and maps. Read the documents only if you want to.
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/section.cfm?section_id=16
???????check

Dec 3---Recent Germany and Its Culture
Memories of the war--don't talk about it, my witinesses from the war. war and memory.  that book the third reich of dreams. discovery of Nazis, like my upper siles a guy etc. AND on the the other hand the denial of Soviet crimes, vertreibun getc.
Angela Merkel.