Modern Germany.

Catalog description

This course addresses politics and the social and cultural movements that shaped German history. In the last one hundred years, Germany has decisively shaped the world we live in, The country's history is framed by two unifications; Bismarck's unification in 1871 and the reunification of Germany in 1989 after the forty year-long Cold War split. The time between these dates was like a terrible roller coaster. Twice Germany tried to become a world leader and dominate large areas of land and people, Both times it failed but not without first bringing war and destruction to tens of millions of people. Good times included the rapid industrialization in the last decades of the nineteenth century, the "roaring twenties" in the metropolis Berlin, the miraculous economic recovery after 1945, and the euphoric atmosphere after the fall of the Berlin Wall. How can we explain these events and developments? Who are the Germans?