Syllabus
- Introduction, program, presentations
- Structure of the Weimar republic, the rise of the NSDAP
- The so-called “Machtergreifung”, the establishment of the dictatorship
- The polycratic structure of the state, the emergence of a racial state, the Hitler-Myth
- National-socialist foreign policy (until 1938)
- Poliltics of autarky and re-armament programs (Adam Tooth and the Tim Mason- controversy)
- The war in Europe 1939-41 and the occupation policy (case studies)
- “Fall Barbarossa” - the war against the Soviet Union
- The Shoah: The “realization of the racial utopia” (Hans Mommsen)
- The end of the “Third Reich”
- Coming to terms with the past - the German example
- Final debate, conclusion,
Annotation
During the last decades National Socialism has become one of the best researched, but still highly controversial historical topics. As a complete presentation of all aspects is impossible, this course will focus on specific and selected issues (see list below).
It will concentrate on the form of the state (the so called polycratic chaos), as functionalists have described it, the emergence of a murderous racial state, the war of annihilation in the East, and the long and difficult German attempts to come to terms with the past. Knowledge of the German language is welcome but not necessary.