Prof. Peter Morris-Keitel Fall
Semester 2007
101 Observatory
Tel. x71187
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3-4 p.m. and by
appointment
UNIV/GERM 261:
NAZI CULTURE
Wed. Aug. 22 Introduction
and Course Overview
Fri. Aug. 24 Fascism,
definition and history (1)
Read: Hitler. Mein Kampf. 1926, pp. 130-133. (handout)
Read/Blackboard: 1. Mary Fulbrook. History of Germany, 1918-2000.
The Divided Nation. Oxford:
Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2002, pp. 44-65.
2. Dave
Renton. Fascism. Theory and Practice.
London: Pluto, 1999, pp. 30-43.
Mon. Aug. 27 Fascism,
definition and history (2)
Read/Blackboard: 1. Mary
Fulbrook. History of Germany, 1918-2000. The
Divided Nation. Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd
ed. 2002, pp. 66-95.
2. Eric
Michaud. “The Artist-Führer: A Savior,” in: The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany. Stanford University Press, 2004, pp. 26-53.
Wed. Aug. 29 Discussion:
What is Fascism? National-Socialism? How does (Nazi) culture relate to
politics?
Read:
“Hitler Sets the Tone,” in: Mosse,
pp. 5-16.
Fri.
Aug. 31 Film:
Hitler, A Career (1984)
Mon. Sept. 3 Film:
Hitler, A Career
Wed. Sept. 5 Film:
Hitler, A Career
Fri. Sept.7 Discussion
of film
Mon. Sept. 10 Nazi
Racial Ideology (1)
Read:
“The Foundation: Racism,” in: Mosse, pp. 61-81.
Read/Blackboard:
Mary Fulbrook. History of Germany,
1918-2000. The
Divided Nation. Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd
ed. 2002, pp. 96-125.
Report:
Joseph Goebbels: _____________________
Wed. Sept. 12 Nazi
Racial Ideology (2)
Read:
“Hitler Sets the Tone,” in: Mosse,
pp. 81-91; Darré and Goebbels in: Mosse, pp. 147-159.
Read/Blackboard: George
L. Mosse. Toward the Final Solution. A His- tory
of European Racism. New York: Howard
Fertig, 1978, pp. 202-228.
Fri. Sept. 14 Cultural
Administration
Read/Blackboard: Alan E. Steinweis.
“Nazi Coordination of the Arts and
the Creation
of the Reich Chamber of Culture, 1933”, in: Art, Ideology,
and Economics in Nazi Germany. The Reich Chambers of Music,
Theater, and the Visual Arts. University
of North Carolina Press, 1999,
pp. 32-49.
Report:
Alfred Rosenberg: ___________________
Mon. Sept. 17 Film
(1): Propaganda
Read/Blackboard:
1. A. P. Foulkes. Literature and
Propaganda. London:
Methuen, 1983, pp. 1-7.
2. David
Welch. “Nazi Film Policy: Control, Ideology, and Propaganda”, in: Glenn R.
Cuomo (ed.): National Socialist Cultural Policy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995, pp. 95-120.
Wed. Sept. 19 Film:
Fritz Hippler’s The Eternal Jew/Der ewige Jude (1940), documentary
Fri. Sept. 21 Film
and Discussion
Read/Blackboard: Joan Clinefelter. “A Cinematic Construction of Nazi
Anti-Semitism: The Documentary Der ewige Jude”, in: Robert C. Reimer (ed.): Cultural History
Through a National Socialist Lens. Essays on the Cinema in the Third Reich. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2000, pp. 133-154.
Mon. Sept. 24 Discussion:
What are the roots of anti-Semitism and eugenics? What is Nazi
racial ideology?
Wed. Sept. 26 Music
in the Third Reich (1)
Read/Blackboard:
Albrecht Dümling. “The Target of
Racial Purity. The ‘Degenerate Music’ Exhibition in Düsseldorf, 1938”, in:
Richard A. Etlin (ed.): Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich. University of Chicago Press, 2002, pp. 43-72.
Report: Composers Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner:
_________________
Fri. Sept. 28 Music
in the Third Reich (2)
Report:
Conductors Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler:
__________________
Mon. Oct. 1 Youth
and Education
Read:
“The Key: Education of Youth,” in: Mosse, pp. 271-274, 281-283, 290-293, 294-304.
Read/Blackboard:
Michael Burleigh/Wolfgang Wippermann.
“Youth in the Third Reich”, in: The Racial State. Germany 1933-1945. Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 201-229.
Wed. Oct. 3 Jost
Hermand: A Hitler Youth in Poland. The Nazis’ Program for Evacuating
Children During World War II.
Northwestern University Press,
1997.
Report:
Heinrich Himmler: ____________________
Fri. Oct. 5 Hermand
Report:
Hermann Göring: ____________________
Mon. Oct. 8 Hermand
Report:
Reinhard Heydrich: ____________________
Wed. Oct. 10 Discussion:
Youth and the Future
Fri. Oct. 12 Mid-Term
Exam
Mon. Oct. 15 Fall
Break
Wed. Oct. 17 Visual
Arts and Architecture (1)
Read: Eberlein „German Art,“ in: Mosse, pp. 163-165.
Read/Blackboard: 1. Jonathan Petropoulos. “A Guide through the Visual
Arts Administration of the Third Reich”, in: Glenn R. Cuomo (ed.):
National Socialist Cultural Policy.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995,
pp. 121-153.
2.
Eric Michaud. “Exhibiting the Genius”, in: The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany. Stanford University Press, 2004, pp. 101-113.
Fri. Oct. 19 Visual
Arts and Architecture (2)
Read/Blackboard: Karen A. Fiss. “In Hitler’s Salon. The
German Pavilion
at the 1937 Paris Exhibition Internationale”, in: Richard A. Etlin (ed.):
Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich. University of Chicago
Press, 2002, pp. 316-342.
Report:
Albert Speer:_____________________
Report:
Degenerate Art:_____________________
Mon. Oct. 22 Visual
Arts and Architecture (3)
Report:
Arno Breker: ____________________
Wed. Oct 24 Women
and Fashion (1)
Read/Blackboard:
1. Jill Stephenson.
“Women, Motherhood and the Family in the Third Reich”, in: Michael Burleigh
(ed.): Confronting the Nazi Past. New Debates on Modern German History. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996, pp. 167-182.
2. Irene
Guenther. “Fashioning Women in the Third Reich”, in: Nazi Chic? Fashioning
Women in the Third Reich. Oxford:
Berg, 2004, pp. 91-99.
Report:
Leni Riefenstahl: ____________________
Fri. Oct 26 Women
and Fashion (2)
Read:
“The Bonds of Family, The Ideal of
Womanhood,“ in: Mosse, pp. 30-47.
Mon. Oct. 29 Discussion:
What was the role of women in Nazi Germany? Ideal and reality?
Wed. Oct. 31 Film
(2): Entertainment
Josef
von Baky’s Münchhausen (1943),
fantasy
Fri. Nov. 2 Josef
von Baky’s Münchhausen
Mon. Nov 5 Josef
von Baky’s Münchhausen and
Discussion
Wed. Nov. 7 Discussion:
Propaganda or entertainment?
Read/Blackboard: 1. Eric
Rentschler. “Introduction: The Power of Illusions”, in: The Ministry of
Illusion. Nazi Cinema and its Afterlife.
Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 1-24.
2. Linda
Schulte-Sasse. “Of Lies and Life: Münchhausen’s Narrative Arabesque”, in: Entertaining the Third
Reich. Illusions of Wholeness in Nazi Germany. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996, pp. 302-317.
Report:
Rudolf Heß: ____________________
Fri. Nov. 9 Literature
(1): The Novel
Read/Blackboard: 1. Jan-Pieter Barbian. “Literary Policy in the Third
Reich”, in: Glenn R. Cuomo (ed.): National Socialist Cultural Policy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995, pp. 155-196.
2. Frank
Trommler. “A Command Performance? The many Faces of Literature under Nazism”,
in: Jonathan Huener/Francis R. Nicosia (eds.): The Arts in Nazi Germany.
Continuity, Conformity, Change. New
York: Berghahn, 2006, pp. 111-133.
Read:
Gobbels’ Michael: A German Fate, in:
Mosse, pp. 104-112.
Mon. Nov. 12 Literature
(2): Poetry
Read:
“Toward a Total Culture,“ in: Mosse, pp. 141-146.
Read/Blackboard: Karl-Heinz
Schoeps. “National Socialist Poetry”, in: Literature and Film in the Third
Reich. Rochester, NY: Camden House,
2004, pp. 167-179.
Report:
Hanns Grimm, Ernst Jünger: ____________________
Wed. Nov. 14 Literature
(3): Theater
Read/Blackboard:
Bogusław Drewniak. “The Foundation of
Theater Policy in Nazi Germany”, in: Glenn R. Cuomo (ed.): National
Socialist Cultural Policy. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1995, pp. 67-94.
Fri. Nov. 16 Discussion:
Was there a distinctive Nazi/Fascist form of literature? How was it different?
Report:
Concentration camps: ___________________
Report:
Death camps: _____________________
Mon. Nov. 19 Report:
World War II (preparation, strategies, defeat)
___________________
Hitler Satires and Critics
Report: John Heartfield: ___________________
Wed.
Nov. 21 & Fri. Nov. 23: Thanksgiving Break
Mon. Nov. 26 Charles
Chaplin: The Great Dictator (1940)
Wed. Nov. 28 Chaplin
Fri. Nov 30 Chaplin
and discussion
Mon. Dec. 3 Final
Discussion
Grading: In order to pass
this course you have to fulfill the following requirements:
Every two classes missed
will result in a lowering of the final grade by 1/3 of a grade.
a. Class Participation 25%
b. Report 25%
PowerPoint Presentation
incl. 1-2 page handout
(fact sheet) for everyone
d. Mid-Term Exam 25%
e. Final Exam 25%
Note: All written work (including bibliography) has to be
handed in [at the beginning of class or a specified time] on the date due. The
final grade for each work will be lowered one full letter grade for every day
the work is late.
Electronic submission of written
work will not be accepted.
Useful Encyclopedias, on
Reserve for this Course in the Library:
Robert S. Wistrich (ed.). Who’s
Who in Nazi Germany. New York: Routledge,
1995.
DD 256.5 .W564 1995 REF
Ronald M. Smelser/ Rainer Zitelmann (eds.). The Nazi Elite. NYU Press,
1993.
DD 244.B7313 1993
Useful Websites on the
Internet:
This website presents English
translations of speeches and writings by Nazi leaders, documents concerning
anti-Semitism, visual materials, propaganda, etc.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm
This website presents English
translations of documents prepared for the Nuremberg Trials in 1946-47. See
esp. documents 2001 [Enabling Act], as well as 1662 and 1816 concerning Jewish
property after “Kristallnacht”/Pogrom night (November 1938).
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/document/nca_vol4/v4menu.htm
This website presents a
summary overview and bibliography about Hitler, beginning in the 1920s.
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/hitler/hitler.htm
These websites have
information and stills about the film The Eternal Jew/Der ewige Jude and images from the book.
http://www.holocaust-history.org/der-ewige-jude/stills.shtml
http://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/diebow.htm
Preparing the readings and
preparing for discussions:
Discussions are opportunities
to elaborate on issues that arise from the readings. The readings include
background information, historical documents, and recent essays on new ways of
understanding Nazi culture. It is expected that you have prepared the assigned
readings before class.
Preparing the reading means
that you are adequately prepared for discussion. This enables you to discuss
the readings with confidence. Critical reading involves several steps and
skills. It means that you analyze and think about the text while you are
reading and after you read. It
means marking the text with underlining, margin comments, question marks, and
other marks that help you remember your thoughts. Skilled readers write out
their associations and opinions. Such notes also help to remember and develop
insights and observations. They also may be helpful in your preparations for
the mid-term and the final exams.
1. Read everything at
least twice. During your first
reading, underline words or phrases that appear to be important and
interesting. Such underlines can be important in developing claims and
arguments.
2. When you have finished a
chapter or essay read your comments and underlines. Try to see the connections
and the author’s intentions. Note parallels and contradictions. Write out
your thoughts on this second reading. These
observations may be quite different from those of the first reading. You may
want to write out passages that help you find specific instances when you
discuss or write about the text later.
3. Review and organize
your notes and thoughts according to
analytical categories you determine as you go along. You can cut and paste your
notes into various sections, each headed with a keyword or phrase. Such labels
for ideas and topics help you find important issues or points for discussions.
It also helps you focus on concepts, arguments, and aims of the text.
Do not wait until the last
minute to prepare the readings. Thinking is a process which may take as much
time as the reading itself.