Unit information: The German Question 1943-1990 (Level C Special Topic) in 2008/09

Unit name	The German Question 1943-1990 (Level C Special Topic)
Unit code	HIST14020
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

From 1943 the Allies began to consider how Germany's legitimate claims in the international political system might be reconciled with their own grand designs for the postwar scenario, giving rise to the so-called 'German Question'. The German Question would be partly settled through the construction of a democratic state in West Germany and its 'bandwagoning' into the Western economic and security structures as well as the integration of the East German state into the Soviet bloc. This course examines the evolution of the German Question between 1943 and 1990 and its implications for the Cold War international order. We will focus on Western-Soviet policy towards Germany since 1943 and analyse how the United States, the Soviet Union and the main European powers managed the evolution of the German Question from the turn of the tide against Nazi Germany in World War Two until the reunification of the country in 1990.

Teaching Information

10 x 2 hour seminars

Assessment Information

1 x 2 hour exam

Reading and References

INTRODCUTORY READING:

• Alter, P., The German Question and Europe (2000)

• Bookbinder P., Weimar Germany (1996)

• Kershaw, I., The Nazi Dictatorship (1985), esp. chs. 1-2 & 7-8.

• Beschloss, M., The Conquerors (2002)

• Smyser, W R, From Yalta to Berlin: the Cold War Struggle over Germany (1999)

• Eisenberg, C. W., Drawing the line : the American decision to divide Germany, 1944-1949 (1996)

• Fulbrook, M., Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR 1949-1989 (1995)

• Maier, C., Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (1997)

• Shumaker, D., Gorbachev and the German Question (1996)

• Gedmin, J., The Hidden Hand: Gorbachev and the Collapse of East Germany (1992)

• Rice, C. and Zelikow, P., Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995)

• Schoenbaum D. and Pond E., The German Question (1996)

• Glaessner, G. J. (ed.), The German Revolution of 1989: Causes and Consequences (1992)

• Neckermann, P., The Unification of Germany, or, The Anatomy of a Peaceful Revolution (1991)

• Hancock, M. D. (ed.), German Unification: Process and Outcomes (1994).