Download Consent and Coercion: The History of Nazi Germany

Instructor:
Julia Timpe
Term / Time
Location:
Office Hours:
E-mail: [email protected]
Consent and Coercion:
The History of Nazi Germany
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course explores the history of Nazi Germany, with a particular focus on spaces and themes of the
social, the cultural and the everyday. The course’s core concern is practices of consent and coercion in
Nazi state and society. We will focus on perpetrators and victims, fellow-travelers and the beneficiaries
of the regime. The course engages thematically with the lives of youth, women, German workers and of
those considered outsiders by the regime, and will look at Nazi ideology and historical developments
leading to and during World War II and the Holocaust.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:
This course aims to familiarize students with the complex historiography of Nazi Germany and
introduce them to its major debates and trends. In addition, this course aims to teach students how to
critically engage with this scholarly literature as well as how to craft well-supported arguments based on
analyses of primary sources.
Students will leave this class with a firm understanding of the political, social and cultural
history of Nazi Germany and will be able to explain the regime’s reliance on the entangled practices that
fostered consent and coercion. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to analyze
historical documents and connect them to varied interpretations given by scholars on Nazi Germany. In
their writing, students should demonstrate their ability to craft clear arguments based on the critical
reading of primary and secondary sources. In the end, students will have designed and conducted
research projects on a topic related to Nazi Germany.
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Course Requirements and Grading:
Class Participation: 15%
Midterm: 20%
Primary Source Paper: 10% each
Book Review: 15%
Final/ Research Paper: 30%
Readings, Discussions, Class Participation:
Students are expected to attend all class meetings and to complete the readings. Furthermore, active
participation in group assignments during class time is an essential part of the course. Participation is
worth 15% of each student’s final grade.
Written Assignments
[All page numbers refer to texts that are double-spaced, standard margins, 12-point font]
a) Midterm
The Midterm will be on the material previously assigned and discussed in the course and will
deal with historical dates, terms and persons discussed in these readings.
The goal of this midterm is to assess whether students are being provided with a firm
understanding of the history of Nazi Germany as stated in the course’s objectives.
b) Primary Source Response paper
Twice during the semester, students will choose one primary source from those assigned in
class and write a reading response paper (three to five pages) that summarizes the source and
highlights its problems and possibilities concerning the study of Nazi Germany. This paper is
due on the day the source will be discussed in class. Students must have handed in their first
primary source paper by week 7. Each primary source response paper is worth 10% of the
student’s final grade.
The goal of this assignment is to develop and assess students’ ability to critically analyze
historical primary sources. Students are asked to wait to begin their second paper until they
have received feedback on their first response paper; this enables them torespond to any
general recommendations for and critiques of their first paper.
c.) Book review/ Movie review
Students will select one text to review (from those marked with * in the list of readings). The
review paper will be three to five pages long. Students should include a brief summary and,
most importantly, a critique of the book’s content and argument.
Alternatively, a student can choose a movie to review (from the list of movies). The movie
review paper will be three to five pages long. The analysis of the movie should be
complemented by at least one scholarly article/ book on a topic related to that of the movie.
The review paper is due on Nov., and is worth 15% of the student’s final grade.
The goal of this assignment is to develop and assess students’ ability to critically engage with
scholarly literature or movies on Nazi Germany. Together with the primary response paper,
this assignment will prepare students methodologically for the writing of a research paper.
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d.) Final/ Research Paper
In this final paper, which is based on secondary literature, students will be asked to write
about a selected and approved topic related to the history of Nazi Germany. Students must
hand in an outline/ brief written proposal after Thanksgiving break and meet with me during
office hours to discuss it. In addition, students will present their topic briefly in the last class
meeting. The finished paper will be ten to fifteen pages long and should include a
bibliography of at least four titles (secondary literature.) The paper is due at the end of
reading week, and is worth 30% of the student’s final grade.
The goal of this assignment is to turn students from recipients into producers of historical
knowledge about Nazi Germany. This assignment develops and assesses students’ abilities to
critically engage with topics about Nazi Germany, based on an analysis and critique of
primary and secondary literature, and to discuss their findings in an argumentative manner.
Assigned Books [to be purchased]:
*Götz Aly, Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State*
*Omer Bartov, Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich*
*Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland*
Doris Bergen, War&Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust
Mary Fulbrook, A History of German, 1918- 2008: The Divided Nation
*Robert Gellately, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany*
Neil Gregor, ed., Nazism
Timothy Mason, Social Policy in the Third Reich
Roderick Stackelberg/ Sally Anne Winkle, eds., The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts
[in the following referred to as SB]
Further primary and secondary sources can be found on the website for this course (mycourses; see
details in schedule.)
List of Movies Recommend for Review Papers:
[movies made available for streaming on library/ course website]
Aimee&Jaguar
Rosenstrasse
Defiance
Sophie Scholl
Downfall
The Reader
Europa, Europa
Tin Drum
Life is Beautiful
Triumph of Will
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LECTURE AND ASSIGNED READING SCHEDULE
Week #1
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
Sept. 81:
Introduction
 Primary Sources #1:
o #1A Nazi Party Program (SB, 64f.)
Week #2
HITLER’S COMING TO POWER
Required Readings:
 Fulbrook, A History of Germany, 1-55
 Gregor, Nazism, 59-94
 Primary Sources #2:
o #2A Excerpts from Goebbels Diary (SB, 119f.)
o #2B Hitler Speech from January 1933 (Download from Course Website)
o # 2C William Shirer, Berlin Diary [excerpts] (SB, 177f.)
Sept. 13:
The End of Weimar and Hitler’s Rise to Power
Sept. 15:
Nazi Ideology and Hitler Myth
Week #3
GLEICHSCHALTUNG/ SYNCHRONIZATION
Required Reading:
 Fulbrook, A History of Germany, 1918-2008, 56-80
 Primary Sources #3:
o #3A Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State,
28 February 1922 (SB, 133f.)
o #3B NSDAP Order for the Gleichschaltung of the Free Labor Unions, 21 April
1933 (SB, 153f.)
o #3C The Nature and Function of Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (SB, 162f.)
o #3D Erich Kempka’s Eyewitness Description of "Operation Hummingbird" on
June 30, 1934 (Retrospective Account, 1954) (Download from Course
Website)
Sept. 20:
Nazi Organizations
Sept. 22:
Nazi Art and Architecture
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In this sample syllabus, I have used the dates of Brown’s Fall Semester 2011.
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Week #4
“VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT”
Required Reading:
 David Welch, “Nazi Propaganda and the Volksgemeinschaft: Constructing a
People’s Community,” Journal of Contemporary History 39, no. 2 (April 2004):
213-238. (Download from Course Website)
 Mason, Social Policy in the Third Reich [excerpts, page number TBA]
 Primary Sources #4: (Download from Course Website)
o #4A [Visual Sources on Strength through Joy; Download from Course
Website]
Sept. 27:
Nazi Social Policy
Sept. 29:
Case Study: The Nazi Leisure Organization “Strength through Joy”
Week #5
NAZI PROPAGANDA & TREATMENT OF OUTSIDERS
Required Reading:
 Gellately, Backing Hitler, 1-121.
 Primary Source #5
o #5A Joseph Goebbels, “Two Speeches on the Tasks of the Reich Ministry for
Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda,” March 15 / March 25, 1933
(Download from Course Website)
Oct. 4:
Nazi Persecution of Political Opponents and those “Alien to the Community”
Oct. 6:
Nazi Propaganda
Week #6
YOUTH
Required Reading:
 Koonz, Nazi Conscience, 131-161(Download from Course Website)
 Primary Sources #6 (Download from Course Website)
o #6A: Law on the Hitler Youth (SB, 204)
o #6B: Guidelines on Teaching History (Download from Course Website)
o # 6C: SD Report on the Attitude of Young People towards the Nazi Party,
August 12, 1943 (Download from Course Website)
Oct. 11:
MIDTERM EXAM
Oct. 13:
Hitler Youth, the League of German Maidens and Edelweisspiraten
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Week #7
WOMEN & WORKING CLASS
Required Reading:
 Gregor, Nazism, 255-258; 273-275; 297-305.
 Timothy Mason, “The Workers‘ Opposition in Nazi Germany,” History
Workshop 11 (1981): 120-37.(Download from Course Website)
 Alf Lüdtke, “The Appeal of Exterminating ‘Others’: German Workers and the
Limits of Resistance,” The Journal of Modern History 64 (December 1, 1992):
46-67.(Download from Course Website

Oct. 18:
Primary Sources # 7: (Download from Course Website)
o #7A Adolf Hitler, Speech to the National Socialist Women’s Organization (SB,
182 f.)
o #7B Emilie Müller-Zadow, “Mothers who give us the future,” (SB, 184f.)
o #7C Sopade Report on the Mood among Workers , September 1938 (Download
from My Course Website
Mothers in the Fatherland
 LAST DATE TO TURN IN FIRST PRIMARY RESPONSE PAPER!
Oct. 20:
Working Class Opposition?
Week #8
THE RACIAL STATE
Required Reading:
 Gregor, Nazism 191- 210
 Gellately, Backing Hitler, 121-151
 Primary Sources #8
o #8A Victor Klemperer, I will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 19331941 (excerpts) (Download from Course Website)
o #8B Reich Citizenship Law, 15 September 1935 (SB, 187f.).
o #8C First Regulation of the Reich Citizenship Law, 14 November 1935 (SB,
188f.
o #8D Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, 15 September 1935
(SB, 190 f.)
Oct. 25:
State Power in Nazi Germany
Oct. 27:
Pre-War Persecution of Jews
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Week #9
ECONOMY/ WAR
Required Reading:
 Aly, Hitler’s Beneficiaries
Nov. 1:
Road to War: Nazi Foreign Policy
Nov. 3:
Road to War II: Economic Policy
Week #10
WAR/ HOLOCAUST
Required Reading:
 Bartov, Hitler’s Army
 Primary Sources #10
o #10A William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary [excerpts] (SB, 260f.)
o #10B Directive for Operation Barbarossa, 18 December 1940 (SB, 274f)
 BOOK/MOVIE REVIEW PAPER DUE!
Nov. 8:
Blitzkrieg and Operation Baberossa
Nov. 10:
Racial War
Week #11
HOLOCAUST
Required Reading:
 Bergen, War & Genocide, 101-221
 Primary Sources #11
o #11A Hitler’s Authorization of the Curing of the Incurably Ill (SB, 332)
o 11B Minutes of the Wannsee Conference (SB, 346)
Nov. 15:
Life and Death in Nazi Ghettos and Concentration Camps
Nov. 17:
Film showing in class: SHOAH (excerpts)
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Week #12
HOLOCAUST
Required Reading:


Browning, Ordinary Men
Primary Sources #12
o # 11A Himmler Speech at Posen (Download from Course Website)
Nov. 22
The Perpetrators of the Holocaust
Nov. 24:
Thanksgiving—No class
Week #13
HOMEFRONT

Nov. 29:
Hans Mommsen, “German Society and the Resistance against Hitler” (Download
from Course Website)
 Gregor, Nazism, 310-317
 Primary Sources #13
o #13A The Second Leaflet, Fall 1942 (SB, 304f.)
o #13 B The Third Leaflet, Fall 1942 (SB, 305 f.)
o #13C Resistance Leaflet, January 1943 (SB, 310f.)
Forced Labor
 PROPOSAL FOR RESEARCH PAPER DUE TODAY!
Dec. 1:
Resistance or Consent?
Week #14
DOWNFALL/ COMING TO TERMS
Required Reading:
 Gregor, Nazism 334 -359
 Primary Source # 14
o # 14AMathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg’s Letter Describing the Aftermath of the
Hamburg Firestorm, August 24, 1943 (Download from Course Website)
o # 14 B Analysis of Denazification Categories in the Western Occupation
Zones, 1949-1950 (Download from Course Website)
Dec. 6:
Allied Bombings, Escape, Breakdown
 LAST DATE TO TURN IN SECOND PRIMARY RESPONSE PAPER!
Dec 8
Coming to Terms
FINAL PAPER DUE, MIDNIGHT, DEC. 16.
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