Index.htm

After centuries of political fragmentation, many Germans believed in 1871 that Bismarck had achieved their old dream of a united and powerful German empire. German society remained deeply divided, however, by conflicts between social classes, between men and women, between religious denominations, and between regions. In this class we will analyze the tension between the dream of national unity and the realities of social division from the revolution of 1848 until the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990. Our topics will include the birth of Marxism, Bismarck and the wars of national unification, the growth of the labor movement and origins of modern feminism, the relationship between domestic and foreign policy in 1914, the relationship between economics and politics in the Weimar Republic, the Nazi seizure of power, the campaign by the Third Reich to stifle all dissent, the Second World War and the Holocaust, the consolidation of democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany, the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, and the successes and frustrations of national reunification. The range of topics covered is suggested in the image gallery below (click on thumbnails to enlarge, or click on the Syllabus link above for more information).