Imbrigotta, GER 304, Spring 2014
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German 304: German Cultural History and Politics, 1871-Today
Prof. Kristopher Imbrigotta
Department of German Studies
German 304 is designed to immerse students in the past while exposing you the
vocabulary of cultural history and politics from unification (approx. 1871) to today. After
our semester together, terms such as “Kniefall,” “Zweitstimme,” and “Antifaschistischer
Schutzwall” will roll off your tongue! Students will know the difference between the
CSU, FDP, and the Greens and understand the historical significance of the Bundestag
and Bundesrat. Manfred Mai’s Deutsche Geschichte provides a historical narrative in
accessible German prose. Excerpts from letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts bring us
the immediate impressions of women and men who were eyewitnesses to these events.
Films like Riefenstahl’s Olympia and Schlöndorff/von Trotta’s Die verlorene Ehre der
Katharina Blum aestheticize the ideologies of the Right and the Left, while cultural
snapshots like Haneke’s Das weiße Band and Bob Fosse’s 1972 American film Cabaret
seek to recreate the values and mentalities of Wilhelmine Germany and the tumultuous
end of the Weimar Republic, respectively. This course takes a “cultural studies” approach
and will incorporate materials from many diverse sources, genres, and time periods in
modern German history, including primary sources such as diaries and letters, and
historical texts, as well as literature, drama, film, news clips, painting, posters, political
pamphlets, and music. Students will form working groups (Arbeitsgruppen) for a longterm project that will take the form of in-class political debates on hot-button topics of
current interest in Germany. In addition, each student will lead in-class discussion twice
(for texts, films, people, events, etc.), compose two short response papers, and write a
midterm and final exam. The largest single grade in this course will be for active
participation in class! Please prepare the course materials carefully so that you can
provide thoughtful talking points and questions during class discussions.