Deutsches Geschictes Hausaufgaben

Post date: May 14, 2018 5:24:51 PM

By 1945, just about everybody who survived the war wanted to make sure no more world wars or genocides would ever happen again. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, scholars across a broad range of disciplines sought to create an accurate model that would explain why these events happened. If they had a good model, they could make forecasts and craft policies to help make future tragedies less likely or impossible.

The quest for a working recipe for "never again" has lead to two competing models of how it all happened, intentionalism v. structuralism

Intentionalism = the "men" made the times

Look for: unique events where the choices of individuals had a decisive impact on outcomes, charismatic leaders taking unprecedented actions motivated by original ideas

Structuralism or functionalism = the times made the "men."

Look for: similarities and symmetry between past events and rise of the Nazis, World War II, and the Holocaust, i.e. "Hitlers before Hitler," and evidence of direct or indirect influence, imitation and appropriation.

This opening unit of study will take you through some highlights of German history to help you decide which team you're on.

Night 0. Nazism in summary

Here's a short packet of primary sources that distills the ideology and ambitions of Hitler and his regime down to its essentials. It is crucial to master it so you can compare it to what we will study going forward. Similarities would support which model? And differences..?

Night 1. Ancient Germany

Read the chapter of Terry Jones' Barbarians entitled "The Germans."

Use the information in the packet and any other reliable source at your disposal to prepare for a debate of this question. Did the Nazis borrow more of their tactics from the ancient Germans or the ancient Romans? Have at least THREE ARGUMENTS prepared in your notes, ready for class.

You can also use the abc-clio website to get proof...

User Name: mediacenter

Password: barlow

Here's part of the film series covering the Germans from which Jones' book was inspired, covering Arminius, Trajan's wars against the Dacians, and Alaric. We'll see at least the first part of it in class:

Night 2: Topics in Late Antique and Early Medieval Germanic History

Hunt for evidence for intentionalism & structuralism in one of these articles!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodoric_the_Great

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lkerwanderung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Benedict

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Boniface

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

Night 3: Pogrom of 1096 or the Slaughter of the Rheinland Jews

This event is often cited by structurualists as the holocaust before the holocaust, but does a close MUSQed reading of all these primary materials support this conclusion? Come to class ready to support your position using the text. (That's code for finding quotes that you can use to support either the intentionalist or structuralist model of the Holocaust)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews-mainz.asp

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews.asp

Night 4: Late Medieval & Renaissance Germany

Again, pick three and find evidence for (and against) intentionalism & structuralism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Emperor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victual_Brothers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther

Short movie: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/westphalia-and-peace-of-augsburg-states-rise-to-sovereignty-and-decline-of-the-empire.html#lesson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_and_antisemitism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_years_war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_principle_of_inquisition_in_German_criminal_law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Ammann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer

Night 5: Frederick II of Prussia

Does Frederich the Great deserve his moniker? Or perhaps he was the Hitler before Hitler? Consider three issues in your answer. You can use abc-clio too!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_The_Greathttp://www.iht.com/articles/1991/08/15/grea.phpThis article documents how Frederick's legacy was recontextualized by subsequent leaders and regimes, including Hitler & the Nazis:http://ldfb.tripod.com/fred.htmlHere's Frederick's political book, The Anti-Machiavel, a fantastic primary source that is interesting to compare and contrast with Hitler's 25 Point Nazi Program, Mein Kampf and Zweites Buch. Was Frederick the Hitler before Hitler?http://www.oocities.org/danielmacryan/antimac.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-MachiavelMaybe play his Symphony #1 in G major the background while you read. He could compose music as well as he planned war:

And here's a fantastic 2010 BBC documentary about him by Cambridge Professor, Christopher Clark. We will watch it in class, pausing to discuss evidence for intentionalism & structuralism, so make sure you catch up on what you miss:

Night 6: Napoleon Bonaparte

Can't get enough of Citizen or Emperor Bonaparte? This takes you to the first of a recent four-part PBS documentary:

Here's a German documentary on Napoleon, with English subtitles of course. Interesting, but not required.