History 167B:             Fall 2007 

Margaret Lavinia Anderson             T-Thu: 9:30-11:00

2315 Dwinelle                    160 Dwinelle

Office hrs: Tues: 11-12; Wed. 3-4, and by appt.      mlavinia@berkeley.edu

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SECOND REICH

This course spans the period from 1740 (the accession of Frederick the Great) to the end of World War I

and is an essential foundation for understanding Germany's catastrophic history in the first half of the 20th Century -- but also, its successes in the second half.

In the early 18th century, the term "Germany" covered a loose collection of polities ranging from city-states, to 

middle sized kingdoms, to the huge multinational empire ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. Culturally just emerging from the margins of Europe, economically a backwater, the region had been easy prey to the appetites of the Great Powers, especially France. By 1871, war -- especially those under Otto von Bismarck, known as "the Iron Chancellor" -- had enabled one German kingdom, Prussia, to conquer or dominate most of its German neighbors. The resulting German Empire (the "Second Reich") was an economic dynamo, commanded the most powerful army in Europe, and boasted the most educated population and one of the most creative elites in the world, making it a model for other emerging and ambitious states, such as Japan. 

Bismarck's empire, committed to the principle of ethnic homogeneity ("nationality") in the heart of Central Europe, left Prussia's old rival, the multi-ethnic (= "multi-national") empire of the Habsburgs (popularly referred to as "Austria"), a state with a similarly creative elite, an only slightly less dynamic economy, and a large German population of its own, more and more an anomaly in the new Europe. Yet the two empires -- German and Austrian -- were bound at the hip: by history, by culture, and after 1879, by a military alliance. The instability in the European state-system, coupled with the increasing virulence of nationalism, helped plummet Europe into total war in 1914--a war in which Europe's first genocide (of the Armenians) took place under the eyes of Germany's military leaders. At the end of WWI,  both the German Reich, which had managed to maintain military supremacy in the field for four long years, collapsed.

Our central theme is the creation, expansion, and collapse of the German Empire, a collapse that brought down the Habsburg Empire with it. But this course will also explore the rise of the largest capitalist economy and the most powerful Socialist movement in Europe; anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, and the genocidal dynamic of "small wars" (i.e., colonial warfare); and the lives of ordinary citizens of both empires (through autobiography and a novel). We will also sample German Romanticism (through fiction and painting) and Vienna Modernism (through architecture and art).  Behind all of these developments lurks the question of "national identity," a question that posed severe political and cultural problems for a region in which states and "nations" had never coincided, and in which a variety of identities could claim with equal right to be "German."  

Requirements: a mid-term (Oct. 4) (15%) and final exam (40%); two short papers (5 double-spaced pages) (15% each); and attendance and vigorous participation in discussions (15%). 

Paper topics are drawn from the assigned reading and require no additional research. The papers are due in class on the day that particular reading is discussed. You may decide yourself on which of the suggested topics to write and (consequently) on which discussion-dates to submit your papers, to suit your own schedule. Since good historians not only understand what they learn, but are also be able to communicate it, each paper will receive two grades, of equal weight: one for analysis, the other for presentation (organization, clarity, grammar, spelling, and punctuation: all the things that together we call "good writing"). I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the excellent, very brief, set of rules for good writing found William Strunk and E.B. White, Elements of Style, available in paper in most bookstores and in the library.

Documents and shorter readings are in a READER, at Copy Central, 2560 Bancroft Way. 

The following paperbacks are for sale in local bookstores and are also be on RESERVE in Moffit. 

William Carr, A History of Germany 1815-1990 (4th ed. 1990) (course textbook)

NOTE: If you cannot find the 4th edition (used is fine), the 5th will do, although it is more expensive.

The assigned pages pertain to the 4th ed., but it will easy to locate the assignments in the 5th.

Gerhard Ritter, Frederick the Great: A Profile (1936)

David Wetzel, Duel of Giants. Bismarck, Napoleon III, & the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War (2002).

Joseph Roth, The Radetzsky March (1932) (novel)

Laurence Lafore, The Long Fuse. An Interpretation of the Origins of World War I (1971, 1997)

     SCHEDULE OF CLASSES & READINGS

WEEK 1:

Tues. Aug 28 Introduction: the German Question

Thurs. Aug 30 The Setting: The "First Reich" (Holy Roman Empire) 

Reading: 

Reader:  James J. Sheehan, German History 1770-1866 (1989), selections on  Austria, Prussia, and 18th Century Culture (39 pp.)

Gerhard Ritter, Frederick the Great: A Profile (1936),  chs. 1-4 (61 pp.) Paperback

WEEK 2:

Tues. Sep 4 The Prussian Tradition

Thurs. Sep 6 Enlightenment in Politics? Frederick the Great

Reading:

Reader: Chief Bailiff Fromme, "An Inspection Tour with Frederick II" (1779)  (19 pp.)

Gerhard Ritter, Frederick the Great. A Profile, chs. 5, 6, 7 (32 pp.)  Paperback

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Love and Marriage between Jewish women and Prussian men during the 

Enlightenment: 

Deborah Hertz, "Salons and Intermarriage," Central European History, 

16/4 (Dec. 1983): 303-346. 

Susanne Hillman, "The Conversions of Dorothea Mendelssohn: Conviction 

or Convenience? German Studies Review XXIX/1 (Feb. 2006): 127-44.

WEEK 3:                                                                                                                                                          

Tues. Sep 11 FIRST DISCUSSION:   Frederick II & Enlightened Absolutism

Reading: 

Reader: Lt. Ernst Friedrich Rudolf von Barsewisch, "The Battle of Hochkirch of  1758"  (7 pp.) 

Gerhard Ritter, Frederick the Great: A Profile, chs. 8 and 10 (36 pp.)

PAPER TOPICS: Choose one or (if you want to integrate) both.

Frederick II believed his policies reflected the rational pursuit of the interests of his state ("reason of 

state"). Was he right? 

Why was it historically misleading for later German nationalists to see Frederick II and his policies 

as precursors for a German nation-state?

Thurs. Sep 13 The Impact of Napoleon & Romanticism

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further::

Germany under the impact of Revolutionary and Napoleon wars: 

James J. Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866, chs. 4 & 5

On the general whose “treason” saved Prussia during the final conflict

with Napoleon: Peter Paret, Yorck and the era of Prussian 

Reform, 1807-1815 (1966). 

WEEK 4:

Tues.   Sep 18    SLIDE LECTURE:   Romanticism: C.D. Friedrich & Others. 

Thurs.   Sep 20    SECOND DISCUSSION:    The Essence of Romanticism?

Reading:

In Course Reader:

Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811):  "The Marquise of O" (46 pp.) and "The Beggarwoman of  Locarno"  (3 pp.) 

E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822):  "The Sandman" (38 pp.)  

George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology. Intellectual Origins of the Third

Reich (1964), "Introduction,"  and ch. 1 "From Romanticism to the Volk" (30 pp.)

PAPER TOPIC: 

Analyze "The Sandman" (and if you want, one or two of Kleist stories as well) as an example of Romanticism. 

WEEK 5:

Tues. Sep 25  The Age of Metternich:   1814 - 1848

Thurs. Sep 27 The Revolutions of 1848 

Reading:

William Carr, A History of Germany, Ch. 1, "Restoration Germany," Ch. 2, "The Revolution of

1848,"  1-51.

In Course Reader:  Prince Metternich,  "The Karlsbad Decrees" (1 p.)

Begin Mack Walker, German Home Towns: Community, State and General Estate (1976),

           selections in your reader (see below), which we will be discussing on Oct. 2.

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx. His Life & Environment (1978). Brief.

Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851 (1994). 

WEEK 6:

Tues. Oct 2 THIRD DISCUSSION:      Self-Government, German Style 

Reading:

In Course Reader: Finish Mack Walker, German Home Towns: Community, State and 

General Estate 1648-1871 (1971). Ch.1 "The Incubator," from 1-33; part of ch. 2 "The Civic Community," 34-35, 56-62;  ch. 3 "Guilds," 73-99, 102-107; ch. 4 "Walls, Webs, and Citizens," 109-22, 133-35, 140; ch. 11 "1848," 356-86, 388-91; article on German guilds from NY Times Feb. 1999.  (118pp.)

"With German Craft Rules, It's Hard Just to Get Work," NY Times. Feb. 1999. 1 col.

PAPER TOPIC: 

You consider yourself a lover of freedom and you have just been elected to the Frankfurt Parliament. You are either a lawyer for your hometown and its citizens or you are liberal lawyer or bureaucrat from some capital city who thinks that the hometowns represent precisely what is wrong with Germany.  Tell us what you like or don't like about the legislation passed by the Frankfurt Parliament, making the most convincing case for your position that you can. Remember, the best lawyers are always those who are aware of the arguments their opponents can marshal against them. 

Thurs. Oct  4 MID-TERM EXAM! 

WEEK 7:

Tues. Oct  9 The Rise of Bismarck to 1866 

Thurs. Oct  11 Completion of Unification and Structure of the Empire

Reading:

Overview: William Carr, A History of Germany, Ch. 3 "Germany in the 1850s," 61-82, and Ch. 4 "The

Unification of Germany," 83-118. (56 pp.)

Begin David Wetzel, Duel of Giants. Bismarck, Napoleon III, & the Origins of the Franco-Prussian

War (2002). 

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Erich Eyck, Bismarck and the Development of Germany (1950)

       Geoffrey Wawro The Franco-Prussian War (2003)

WEEK 8:

Tues. Oct 16 FOURTH DISCUSSION:  Blood and Iron: Causes of the Franco-Prussian War

Reading:

David Wetzel, Duel of Giants. Bismarck, Napoleon III, & the Origins of the Franco-Prussian

War (2002), finish.

Bismarck, "The Ems Dispatch," from his Reflections and Reminiscences (1898) (3 pp.) 

PAPER TOPIC:  

Did Bismarck have a plan for war against France?  How accurate was Bismarck's assessment of his leading French antagonists (esp. Gramont and Napoleon III)? Who (or what) was responsible for the Franco-Prussian War?

Thurs. Oct 18 Outsiders I:   Culture War against the Catholics (the Kulturkampf)

Reading:

William Carr, A History of Germany,  ch. 5 "The Development of the German Empire,  1871-

1890," 119-45 (26 pp.)

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Margaret Lavinia Anderson, “Voter, Junker, Landrat, Priest: The Old

Authorities & the New Franchise in Imperial Germany,” 

American Historical Review 98/5 (Dec. 1993): 1448-74. 

David Blackbourn, "Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian

Germany," in Geoff Eley, ed., Society, Culture, and State in

Germany 1870-1930 (1996), 189-221.

Helmut Walser Smith, German Nationalism and Religious Conflict.

Culture, Ideology, Politics, 1870-1914 (1995)

WEEK 9:

Tues. Oct  23 Outsiders II:    Class War against the Social Democrats

Thurs. Oct  25 FIFTH DISCUSSION: German Workingmen -- and women!

Reading: 

In Course Reader:  

Background:  Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Practicing Democracy. Elections and Political Culture in 

Imperial Germany (2000), excerpts from ch. 9 "Going by the Rules." (19 pp.)

Interview with Bismarck on State Socialism, January 1881, by Moritz Busch, journalist and B's unofficial press secretary (2 pp.)Autobiographies from Alfred Kelly, ed., The German Worker (1987) (64 pp.)

••"A City Man on a Farm" (1896)

••"Moritz Bromme, Woodworker and Metalworker" (1905)

••"A Barmaid" (ca. 1900) 

PAPER TOPIC: Reading Primary Sources Against the Grain

Every source, whether historical or from our own day, is written from a particular perspective. Even eye-witnesses see their own truth, and the historian, as a critical reader, must be alert to the bias of 

eyewitnesses. The point of this exercise is to give you practice in looking for the other truths that may lie between the lines. Choose one of these autobiographies and use its materials to construct, as 

carefully and as sympathetically as possible, a different story, different because from the perspective of a figure not of your source itself, but of someone he or she discusses:

••a member of the farm family in Mecklenburg that employed the City Man

••the wife of Moritz Bromme

••an employer of the Barmaid  

The best accounts will be those that pay closest attention to the text of the actual document, but by reading between the lines as well as using the information it conveys, constructing a different perspective. (One way to do this is first to imagine yourself a lawyer from the other side, looking at the evidence on behalf of a different client.)

Supplementary viewing for those who want to explore further:

Pelle the Conqueror (film 1988), by Bille August. Moving tale

        of childhood of the rural poor in the late 19th century.

        Though set in Denmark, the landscape, architecture,

        solidarities (and non-solidarities), and esp. relations between         "masters" and workers pertained throughout northern Germany.

          A good companion to Otto's "City Man on a Farm."

WEEK 10:

Tues. Oct  30 Outsiders III:     The Jews of Central Europe and Antisemitism  

Thurs.  Nov   1 SIXTH DISCUSSION: A Murder Case & and a Case of Genocide

Reading:  

In Course Reader:  

••Abraham Mendelssohn, "Why I Have Raised You As a Christian: A Letter 

to His Daughter Fanny" 1 p.)

••Bismarck, conversation on Germany's Jews, 1892 (2 pp.

••Helmut Walser Smith, "Konitz, 1900: Ritual Murder and Antisemitic

Violence" (29 pp.)  

                    ••Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction. Military Culture and the Practices of War in 

Imperial Germany (2005), chs. 1 and 2 on the 1904 destruction of the Herero

in German South West Africa (today's Namibia) (62 pp.)

PAPER TOPIC:       Reading Secondary Sources Against the Grain

Imagine that you are a liberal German Jew, writing some time after the turn of the century. The events in Konitz have been widely reported in the foreign press and you are asked by the New York Tribune to write an article commenting on the Konitz events and on the state of antisemitism in Germany. You argue (contrary to Smith) that the significance of the Konitz case has been exaggerated. Basing your account largely on Smith's information, but on anything else you may have learned from this course, what arguments would  you make?  

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron. Bismarck, Bleichröder & the Building of

the German Empire (1978), chs. 17-19, & epilogue

Fritz Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair (1961), pts. 1 & 2.

Sybille Bedford, A Legacy (1956). Brilliant autobiographical

novel of the transformation of Germany after unification, 

seen through the intertwined stories of a South German  

Catholic and a Berlin Jewish family.

Helmut W. Smith, “The Logic of Colonial Violence: Germany in Southwest

Africa (1904-1907); the US in the Philippines (1899-1902),” in

German and American Nationalism, ed. By H. Lehmann & H.

Wellenreuther (1999), 205-31.

WEEK 11:

       Tues.     Nov  6 Race in a Multi-ethnic Empire

Thurs.   Nov  8    SLIDE LECTURE: Viennese Culture between Tradition & Modernism. 

Reading: 

William Carr, A History of Germany, Ch. 6, "Bismarck’s Foreign Policy, 1871-1890," 146-62. (16 pp.)Reader: István Deák, Beyond Nationalism. A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps (1992), excerpts from "Introduction," "Life in the Regiment,"  "From Payday to Payday," "Latter Day Knights," "Marriage, Family, Sexual Ethics, and Crime" (33 pp.)

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Carl Schorske, Fin de Siècle Vienna (1979). Essays on culture.

“Politics in a New Key” is on nationalism & antisemitism.

George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology. Intellectual Origins

of the Third Reich (1964). You've already read Intro & ch. 1.

WEEK 12:

Tues.   Nov 13   Wilhelmine Germany: A "Special Path"? (Sonderweg)

Thurs. Nov 15     Origins of World War I: Long Term

Reading: 

William Carr,  A History of Germany, chs. 7 (pp. 163-186) Begin:  Joseph Roth, Radetzsky March (1932) (novel).  Reading beyond p. 171 is not required. 

WEEK 13:

Tues.            Nov 20 Origins of World War I: Encirclement, Balkan Crisis, Countdown

Reading:    

Josef Roth, Radetzsky March (1932)  chs. 1-11 (to p. 171).  Reading beyond p. 171 is not required. PAPER TOPICS: Choose one. 

How does Roth use the army as a symbol and embodiment of the Habsburg empire? Should we be

suspicious of his picture?  Does it fit with Deák's picture of the Habsburg Army as "Beyond Nationalism"?

Take one or two characters from The Radetzky March and discuss what they tell us about “nationalism” 

(or lack of it) in the late Habsburg empire. Feel free to integrate your understanding of the characters 

with other information and insights that you have gained during the semester.

Supplementary reading for those who want to explore further:

Finish Joseph Roth, Radetzky March (1932). 

Thurs.  Nov 22 Thanksgiving!

WEEK 14: 

Tues. Nov. 27  EIGHTH DISCUSSION: What "Caused" World War I ?

Reading:

William Carr, A History of Germany, chs. 8 (187-221) Laurence Lafore, The Long Fuse: An Interpretation of the Origins of World War I (1972)

Supplementary reading (and viewing) for those who want to explore further:

Paul W. Schroeder, “The Risks of Victory. An Historian’s 

Provocation,” in The National Interest (Winter 2001/02):

22-36. A fascinating comparison of 9/11 to Sarajevo by

a master diplomatic historian.

Colonel Redl (1984)  Film by István Szabó. A dark counterpart to 

Radetzky March. Many of the same themes, now connected to espionage.

PAPER TOPIC: 

What is Lafore's "interpretation" (argument) about the origins of  WWI? (Hint: what was 

"the long fuse"?)

Thurs. Nov. 29 A German Way of War? Atrocities and Military Dictatorship

Reading: 

William Carr, A History of Germany, ch. 9 "Germany at War, 1914-1918," 212-35. (23 pp.)   

WEEK 15:

Tues. Dec 4         NINTH DISCUSSION:    A German Way of War?

Reading: 

In Course Reader: Documents from World War I  (17 pp.) >>>

••4 August, 1914. Origin of the Term 'A Scrap of  Paper." The report of Sir Edward Goschen (British 

ambassador to Berlin) on his conversation with Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg, July 4, 1914

••Bethmann Hollweg's Defense to the Reichstag of the  Invasion of Belgium 

••German Military Proclamation of Hostage System in Belgium;

••The  Sinking of the Lusitania

••The Execution of Nurse Edith Cavell

•• the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  

PAPER TOPIC: 

Using some or all of the documents from this week's assignments, do you conclude that the German government and its instruments abandoned civilized norms in 1914, either in its decision to wage war and/or in the way it conducted war?

Thurs. Dec. 6   Dying by The Sword.  The Fall of the Hohenzollern & Habsburg Empires:  

From Second Reich to Third? 

NO ASSIGNED READING.

Supplementary reading for those who want more:

L.C.F. Turner, “The Significance of the Schlieffen Plan,”  The War Plans

of the Great Power, ed., Paul M. Kennedy (1979), 199-221.

 Roger Chickering, Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918. 

J. Horne & A. Kramer, German Atrocities 1914. A History of Denial (2001)