Postwar: Europe on the Move and on the Screen

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When the World War II ended, Europe was a continent of displaced peoples. It was a continent on the move: returning POWs, emigrating Displaced Persons, refugees, and arriving occupation soldiers. The postwar period is sometimes dubbed a history of the unwinding of populations, the return or resettlement following the logic of nation states. Yet the assumption that, once that was done and the Cold War started, populations stayed put until 1989 is misleading. Successive attempted revolutions in the east begot more political refugees. Decolonization and industrialization resulted in the immigration and recruitment of non-native European populations, as well as the return of European colonial settlers. In addition, Europeans moved to the cities, turning the continent from one in which almost half the population lived in the countryside in 1950 into a predominantly urbanized one within the span of 30 years. Political crisis abroad, Europeanization, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and globalization lead to more mobility still. The so-called migration crisis of 2015 is thus but one of a series of migratory events and by far not the largest. This lecture will introduce students to the history of Europe, both east and west, since 1945. The movements of peoples and borders will provide students with insight into political, cultural, and social developments of the continent following the defeat of the Third Reich. In addition, the course will introduce students to European postwar movies as both a cultural form and a historical source. Each lecture will be followed by a discussion of the movie, for which students are expected to prepare a discussion question. In the middle and at the end of the semester, in small groups, students will have the opportunity to research a topic of their choice in greater detail and present it in class. THE CURRICULUM 84 Drug War in the Americas