1.Unification.
The destruction of
the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon: the changes that resulted and the extent to
which the Battle of Leipzig (1813) represented a success for German national
feeling.
The reorganisation
of Germany at the Congress of Vienna: continuing obstacles to closer
unification.
Why the upheavals
of 1848 did not realise German nationalist objectives.
The significance
of Bismarck: his aims and the factors that made it possible to achieve them.
The road to
unification: the role of the wars with Denmark, Austria and France.
2.Imperial
Germany.
The nature of
Bismarck's Germany: he had created Kleindeutschland(Little Germany, i.e. without Austria),dominated by Prussia.
Germany in the
1870s: Bismarck's alliance with the National Liberals and his attack on the
Catholic Church.
The importance of
his alliance with Austria-Hungary of 1879: its implications for foreign and
domestic policy.
Germany in the
1880s: Bismarck courting of the conservatives and efforts to destroy socialism.
Germany under
Wilhelm II: the significance of his personality; how far was Imperial Germany a
constitutional state?
German foreign policy and the outbreak of the
First World War.
Defeat in war: the
'stab in the back' legend. The collapse of the monarchy.
3.Weimar
Germany.
The establishment
and the nature of the Republic.
The Peace of
Versailles: did it doom the Republic?
The internal
weaknesses of the Republic: irreconcilable forces on the right.
The economic
misfortunes of Weimar Germany: inflation in 1923; depression after 1929.
The foundation of
the Nazi party and the rise of Hitler to dominance within it.
The role of the
popular vote and of backstairs intrigue in Hitler's 'seizure of power' in 1933.
4.The
Third Reich.
The foundation of the Nazi
dictatorship and the cultivation of the Hitler myth.
Why did internal opposition
to Hitler always fail? Hitler's attempt to create a racial utopia:
policies to 'improve' the
Aryan race; the elimination of Jews and other 'inferior' races.
Hitler's foreign policy in
the 1930s: how far did foreign statesmen play into his hands?
The Second World War: why
did Hitler win early victories, but then suffer ultimate defeat?
5. From defat to reunification.
The consequences
of defeat: the expulsions of Germans from the east; the reduction of Germany;
the division of Germany.
The emergence of
West Germany as a significant power: development of a stable democracy; integration
into NATO and the 'economic miracle'; role in the EEC.
The fate of
Soviet-dominated East Germany: the rising of 1953; the problem of Berlin and
the erection of the Wall in 1961.
Ostpolitik fashioned by Willi Brandt:
the stress on German cultural unity as a substitute for impossible political
unity.
The destruction of
the Wall in 1989 and the emergence of a demand for political reunification:
Gorbachev's agreement with Helmut Kohl.
Reading:
J.Steinberg Bismarck: a life.
A. Bullock Hitler.
M.Fulbrook A
history of Germany, 1918-2020.
Neil MacGregorGermany: memories of a nation.
