Dr. B. Becker, HKU, SoH, Department of History, CC, Run Run Shaw Tower, 10/F,
Room 1038, email: becker@hku.hk
Course Outline for:
HIST 2125 Hitler’s Germany
Fall Semester 2012
Monday 11.30-12.20 (CPD-4.17) and Thursday 11.30–12.20 (CPD-4.16)
1. Course description
2. Course tutor
3. Course website
4. Assessment ratio
5. Lectures
6. Tutorials
7. Tutorial assignment
8. Research tutorial
9. Research paper
10. Teaching schedule
11. Course Learning Outcomes
1. Course description
Adolf Hitler was an extreme nationalist who wanted a reawakened, racially united
Germany to expand eastward at the expense of the Slavs. After finally seizing power in
1933, he installed a totalitarian state wiping out all democratic institutions. The Nazi
persecution of the Jews and occupation, exploitation and domination of much of
continental Europe in World War II became one of the blackest chapters in the history of
Europe. In our course we will not concentrate on Hitler alone but study the outcome of
World War I and the revolution of 1918-19 on the mentality of the German people,
consider the problems of the fledgling Weimar Republic, and discuss the era of fascism
in Germany and Italy, the nazification of culture and society, the Holocaust, and German
aggression against Europe in World War II.
2. Course tutor:
Dr. B. Becker, Email: becker@hku.hk
3. Course website: http://www.history.hku.hk/undergraduate/hist2125course.html
4. Assessment ratio
Assessment: 100% coursework.
2
The course is assessed entirely based on your coursework. There is no formal
examination. To complete the course you must attend lectures and tutorials, submit one
tutorial assignment and one research paper, contribute to the tutorials, and – if wanted –
sit the final test. The assessment ratio is as follows:
Tutorial contributions – 25 %
Tutorial assignment – 15 %
Research paper – 60 %
5. Lectures
There will be weekly lectures (2 hours each week); for the topics see chapter 10 of this
outline. The Power Point Presentations used in lectures are usually available 1 day in
advance, on the course website for printing and/or downloading.
6. Tutorials
Each student is required to enrol in ONE of these tutorial groups and stay in this group
until the end of the semester’s teaching period. There will be 5 tutorial rounds, conducted
in the following groups. You can enrol only for one group in which you are expected to
stay for the entire semester:
1) Group 1: Mo 2.30-3.20 p.m.: 8 Oct (CPD-1.22), 15 Oct (CPD-4.16), 22 Oct
(CPD-1.22), 5 Nov (CPD-1.22), 12 Nov (CPD-1.22), 19 Nov (CPD-1.22).
2) Group 2: Thu 3.30-4.20 p.m.: 11 Oct (CPD-3.19), 18 Oct (CPD-3.19), 25 Oct
(CPD-3.19), 8 Nov (CPD-3.19), 15 Nov (CPD-3.19), 22 Nov (CPD-3.19).
3) Group 3: Thu 5.30-6.20 p.m.: 11 Oct (CPD-2.45), 18 Oct (CPD-2.45), 25 Oct
(CPD-2.40), 8 Nov (CPD-2.40), 15 Nov (CPD-2.45), 22 Nov (CPD-2.40).
Enrolment in the respective tutorials, which has 10 places each as maximum, is
conducted via the Tutorial Enrolment website, on a first come first serve basis.
In the tutorials, we will extensively and intensively deal with written primary and
secondary sources. The document/s will be handed to you in advance to leave enough
time for careful preparation. You are expected to read the text/s thoroughly BEFORE
attending a tutorial in order to be able to summarize and analyse it/them in the group. For
the preparation of primary sources, it is recommend to follow the attached sheet ‘How to
Approach Documents’ and to consult textbooks, encyclopaedias, etc. to get a clearer
understanding of the content. Students should be aware that careful preparation for a
tutorial is already a vital part of historical study. When you search for information,
related to the documents, you are already working as a historian. Tutorials will help you
to get a deeper understanding of historical research that is always closely related to the
thorough study of primary and secondary sources. Tutorials are also a vital experience in
developing transferable skills. During the tutorials, you will have the chance to improve
your ability to communicate effectively and analyse problems critically. Students should
try to get involved in the discussion so often as possible.
Assessment: The quality of your oral contributions in tutorials makes 25 % of the final
grade.
Please note: Your attendance in tutorials is compulsory and will be checked each time. If
you are unable to turn up for any reason, send me an email message in advance or
afterwards to explain your reasons for not coming. If you are absent without any notice,
3
you will get the grade ‘F’ for the missed tutorial what will be counted to your grade for
tutorial contributions.
7. Tutorial assignment
The tutorial assignment is an analysis of a selected primary source related to your tutorial
group. The document will be provided to you in your tutorial group in the week before
Reading Week. You are strongly recommended to follow the ‘How to approach
documents’ sheet when writing your analysis, of ca. 600-800 words. The assignment will
be graded, commented, and given back to you as soon as possible. The tutorial
assignment grade will make 15 % of the final grade.
8. Research tutorial
There will be one research tutorial (1 hour) conducted in the same groups as the tutorials.
In the research tutorial, students have the opportunity to present their project plan (incl.:
working title, abstract, bibliography) for their research papers. Students can also propose
alternative topics and discuss all related questions with me. Due to the open academic
atmosphere, there is no need to propose a topic before the tutorial is conducted, and there
is absolutely no need to seek my agreement on any topic in advance. However, if students
want to start working earlier on their research paper, they can send an email to me
containing all relevant information (see above) and seek my temporary approval. – In the
research tutorial, either your proposal will be approved and you can start working on it,
or you will be asked to change to another topic and seek for later approval via email.
Assessment: There is no assessment in the research tutorial.
Please note: Your attendance in the research tutorial is compulsory and will be checked.
If you are unable to turn up for whatever reason, please me an email message in advance
or immediately afterwards.
9. Research paper
Students are required to write one research paper in the form of an academic essay. The
regulations are as follows:
1) The topic of your research paper is, in general, free of choice. However, it should
be limited to a short period and be concentrated on one or two single historical
events. Too broad topics will not be accepted. Your proposal is to be presented in
the Research Tutorial (see chapter 8).
2) The research paper should be based on a thorough research of primary and
secondary sources from documentary readers, textbooks, academic journals, etc.
Websites should only be used when no other information is available. All sources
must be correctly quoted, and their origin must be clearly given in the footnotes.
For comprehensive information on all formal aspects of essay writing, etc.,
please refer to the electronic booklet ‘Doing History’ on the course website.
3) The paper MUST have a proper structure:
(a) A cover page with your full name and address, university number, mobile
phone and/or home telephone number, email address (!), course title and
name of lecturer, title of the paper, date of handing in, amount of words (!)
(b) A list of contents with the respective page numbers
(c) An introduction
4
(d) The main chapters
(e) A summary OR a conclusion
(f) A bibliography listing FIRST the book/s that contains the primary
source/s, and SECOND at least six (6) secondary readings (general or
special textbooks, academic articles, handbook and dictionary entries,
visited websites).
4) The essay should have at least 2,000 words in length but may not have more than
2,500 words. You may count the entire text but NOT the footnotes, the cover
page, the annex, and the bibliography. You may work on the project individually
or, if preferred, in a team. When you decide to work in a team, EACH contributor
has to fulfil the required word amount of 2,000 – 2,500 words.
5) The paper should be submitted, until 20 December 2012 (Thu), 5 p.m. latest, as
soft copy to turnitin.com, for plagiarism checking (more information later).
Assessment: The quality of your research paper makes 60 % of the final grade.
Please note: Papers send by email, pushed under my office’s door, fixed outside my
office in any way, or submitted in any other way than described above will NOT be
accepted. Papers submitted AFTER the given deadline but before 21 December 2012
(Fr), 5 p.m., will be penalised and automatically be downgraded for 3 points. Papers,
handed in after this ultimate deadline are deemed to fail (‘F’).
10. Teaching Schedule
Week 1:
17 September 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 1: Introduction into the course
20 September 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 2: Early years of Adolf Hitler, 1889-1923
Week 2:
24 September (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 3: Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) and Zweites Buch (Second Book)
27 September 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 4: Italian Fascism
Reminder: 3-5 October 2012, 9.30 a.m. - 5 p.m., CC B1063: Tutorials Enrolments!
Week 3:
1 October: General Holiday
4 October 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 5: NSDAP and End of the Weimar Republic, 1929-32
Week 4:
5
8 October 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 6: Seizure and Consolidation of Nazi Power, 1933
11 October 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 7: Hitler and the Führer State
Week 5:
15 October 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 8: Antisemitism and Persecution of German Jews, 1933-38
18 October 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 9: NSDAP and Nuremberg Party Rallies
Week 6:
22 October 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 10: Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend)
25 October 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 11: Heil and Nazi Speech
Week 7: Reading Week: Class suspension
Week 8:
5 November 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 12: Economic and Social Politics, 1933-39
8 November 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 13: Press, Radio, and Propaganda
Week 9:
12 November 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 14: Foreign Politics: Revisionism, 1933-38
15 November 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 15: Foreign Politics and War: Expansion, 1938-42
Week 10:
19 November 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 16: The Nazi Police and Terror System
22 November 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 17: SS and Holocaust: Murdering the Jews
Week 11:
26 November 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 15: German Resistance against Hitler
6
29 November 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 16: Luftwaffe and ‘Wonder Weapons’
Week 12:
3 December 2012 (Mo), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.17
Lecture 17: The Strains of Total War, 1943-45
6 December 2012 (Thu), 11.30-12.20, CPD-4.16
Lecture 18: The Downfall of the Third Reich
After the end of the teaching term:
20 December 2012 (Thu), until 5 p.m.: Submission of research papers
11. Course Learning Outcomes
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES MATRIX
[ show course learning outcomes | hide course learning outcomes ]
1) First Course Outcome
Outcome
Having taken this course, students will be
able to:
Critically engage with and evaluate
Hitler's impact on modern German
history, methods of historical enquiry and
diverse interpretations of German history
from the 1920s to 1945
Programme Level Outcomes
- Research, analyse and think critically,
through the study of past societies.
Teaching & Learning Activities
Assessment
Students will be taught to achieve this
specific outcome through the following
learning activities:
Students will be assessed on their
achievement of this specific outcome through
the following assessment tasks:
Critically discussing primary and
secondary sources in small-group
tutorials
Oral contributions in discussions during
tutorials
Faculty Level Outcomes
- Demonstrate strong analytical ability
through critical engagement with the
discourses of the humanities
- Engage creatively with historical facts,
methods of historical enquiry and diverse
interpretations of past events.
University Educational Aims
- Pursuit of academic/professional
excellence, critical intellectual inquiry,
creativity and life-long learning
- Tackling novel situations and ill-defined
problems and creative thinking
- Address historical problems critically
and creatively by researching and
analysing traces of the past.
- Use skills of independent thinking and
judgement to study change over time.
- Rethink established knowledge through
research and analysis using historical
evidence.
2) Second Course Outcome
Outcome
Having taken this course, students will be
able to:
Interpret and analyse selected primary
sources from the Weimar Republic and
Third Reich periods of modern German
history
Programme Level Outcomes
- Research, analyse and think critically,
through the study of past societies.
- Engage creatively with historical facts,
methods of historical enquiry and diverse
interpretations of past events.
Teaching & Learning Activities
Assessment
Students will be taught to achieve this
specific outcome through the following
learning activities:
Students will be assessed on their
achievement of this specific outcome through
the following assessment tasks:
Independent research on selected
primary sources
Written assignment analysing selected
primary sources
Faculty Level Outcomes
- Demonstrate strong analytical ability
through critical engagement with the
discourses of the humanities
University Educational Aims
- Pursuit of academic/professional
excellence, critical intellectual inquiry,
creativity and life-long learning
- Tackling novel situations and ill-defined
problems and creative thinking
7
- Address historical problems critically
and creatively by researching and
analysing traces of the past.
- Use skills of independent thinking and
judgement to study change over time.
- Rethink established knowledge through
research and analysis using historical
evidence.
3) Third Course Outcome
Outcome
Having taken this course, students will be
able to:
Critically engage with and evaluate a
selected topic from the Weimar Republic
and Third Reich periods of modern
German history
Programme Level Outcomes
- Research, analyse and think critically,
through the study of past societies.
- Engage creatively with historical facts,
methods of historical enquiry and diverse
interpretations of past events.
- Address historical problems critically
and creatively by researching and
analysing traces of the past.
- Use skills of independent thinking and
judgement to study change over time.
- Rethink established knowledge through
research and analysis using historical
evidence.
Teaching & Learning Activities
Assessment
Students will be taught to achieve this
specific outcome through the following
learning activities:
Students will be assessed on their
achievement of this specific outcome through
the following assessment tasks:
Discussion in a research tutorial
Written assignment in form of a research
paper
Faculty Level Outcomes
- Demonstrate strong analytical ability
through critical engagement with the
discourses of the humanities
University Educational Aims
- Pursuit of academic/professional
excellence, critical intellectual inquiry,
creativity and life-long learning
- Tackling novel situations and ill-defined
problems and creative thinking