University of Florida Department of History

 

HIS 4956, Section 2064

Fall Semester 2009

The Sites of German History in Munich

Professor Geoffrey J. Giles

 

Munich has the reputation of being the secret “cultural capital” of Germany.  It has also been the setting of some of the most significant events in modern German history.  In addition, it lends itself as an ideal location for a mini-course, because the historic center is more compact and manageable on foot than cities like Berlin.

The instructor, Professor Giles, has spent over a year living in Munich and conducting research as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, and is thus well prepared to give lectures on the history of the city, and guided commentaries during the field trips. 

 

Credit:  2 hours to count as H or I, and toward requirements for the History major or minor

Prerequisites: None

 

Readings

Required:

Dietrich Orlow, A History of Modern Germany, 1871 to Present (New York: Prentice Hall, 2009)

 

Recommended books specifically about Munich or Bavaria:

James Harris, The People Speak!: Anti-Semitism and Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century Bavaria (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994)

Maria Makela, The Munich Secession: Art and Artists in Turn-of-the-Century Munich (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990)

David Clay Large, Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich (New York: Norton, 1997)

Peter Jelavich, Munich and  Theatrical Modernism: Politics, Playwriting and Performance, 1890-1914 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985)

Gavriel Rosenfeld, Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the Third Reich (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)

 

Assignments

Students will be required to keep a journal during the stay in Munich, writing some 200-250 words per day, including some informed assessment and reflection about the place of the sites visited in the history of Germany.  The journal should be typed up before being handed in.

 

In addition, a 2,000-word research paper will be required, on a topic to be agreed between the student and the instructor, following individual mentoring.  The topic should be fixed well before departure for Munich, in order to allow some advance reading and research, and the completed paper handed in no later than one week after the return from Munich.  Ideally a draft of the paper should be completed before leaving for Germany, and material gathered during the program added after returning to the US.

 

Possible essay topics might include, but are not limited to:

  • The 1848 Revolution in Bavaria
  • The Role of Bavaria in the Foundation of the German Empire
  • Richard Wagner’s Relationship to Bavaria and King Ludwig II
  • Anti-Semitism in Bavaria
  • Public Health in Bavaria
  • The Munich Secession Movement
  • The 1919 Revolution in Munich
  • The Dachau Concentration Camp

I am willing to consider other topics more broadly concerned with Germany as a whole.  This is a research paper, and must be based on at least four scholarly sources, including at least two books, and at least one scholarly article.

Due date for papers: Wednesday, 9 December 2009

 

Grading

Journal                                                        40%

Research paper                                            50%

Academic quality of overall participation       10%

 

Tentative Program Outline (will be updated closer to departure)

Subject to change, especially weather-related

 

November

Sa 21               Glyptothek (possibly also Staatliche Antikensammlung)

                        Königsplatz and Richard-Wagner-Strasse

 

Su 22               Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein

 

M 23                Historical Walking Tour I (Munich’s historical center)

                        p.m. Residenz

 

T 24                 Historical Walking Tour II (Political tensions in Weimar Germany)

                        p.m. Alte Pinakothek

                        6-8 p.m.  Führerbau (Hitler’s headquarters)

 

W25                Historical Walking Tour III (Art, religion, and Nazis)

                        p.m. City Museum & Jewish Museum

 

Th 26              Dachau

                        Late afternoon: possibility of other museums on your own

(Thursday = late opening of certain museums)

 

F 27                 Historical Walking Tour IV (Intellectual Munich, and anti-Hitler resistance)

                        p.m. Free for museums of your choice—Suggestions:

·         BMW Museum

·         Pinakothek der Moderne

·         Villa Stuck

·         Lenbach House

·         Nymphenburg Palace

 

Sa 28               Salzburg, with Christmas Market

 

Su 29               Nuremberg, with old town, and Nuremberg Rally grounds and museum

 

M 30                Free day for shopping and sights

                        Most museums closed on Mondays, but the following are open:

·         Deutsches Museum

·         Neue Pinakothek

 

T 1                   Return to Gainesville