History 427/527 Winter Term, 2006 / Tuesdays and Thursdays 10-11:20 / Condon
260
Prof. John McCole / Office: McKenzie 303 / mccole@uoregon.edu / 346-5906
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3-5 and by appointment
GERMAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY FROM NIETZSCHE TO THE PRESENT
Course Description
This course examines some of the major issues and figures in German intellectual
life beginning around 1870, at the time of German national unification, and
continuing through to the present. During this time, Germany has gone through a remarkable
and often catastrophic series of rupture. The imperial nation-state created
by national unification in 1871 was destroyed by the First World War and transformed
into a democratic, parliamentary republic; this “Weimar Republic” was
in turn overthrown by the brutally oppressive, genocidal Nazi regime; in the
wake of the Holocaust and a second World War, two German states, east and west,
epitomized the divisions of the Cold War. Now, in our own time, a reunified Germany
has become a key part of a larger, emerging Europe. We will look
at how German intellectuals have responded to these events by exploring a series
of key episodes in cultural criticism, social theory, aesthetic rebellion,
Jewish renewal, psychoanalysis, radical conservatism, modernist design reform,
forced
intellectual emigration, the Frankfurt school, and debates on guilt, public
memory, and national identity.
As we move through the term, I will provide an outline of major developments
in German history during this period, and we will be reading a very brief history
of the period. However, this course is not primarily a survey of
that history. Rather,
my goal is to engage you in the ideas and the debates, through close reading
and discussion of the authors' works.
How the Course Will Work
The course will combine lecture and discussion: as a rule, lectures will
be held on Tuesdays and the first part of Thursday, with questions always welcome. The
second part of Thursday's class will be reserved for discussion and/or viewing
of visual materials. The course will work only if you come to class every
Thursday prepared to discuss the readings.
Level and Prerequisites
This course is intended primarily for juniors, seniors, and graduate students
from a wide variety of majors. Some previous knowledge is expected, but
it need not be in German history. It may come from any of a wide variety
of fields, including modern European history, the history of modern literature,
political theory, social theory, or philosophy.
Required Work (for undergraduates)
Midterm exam 30%
Essay (8-10 pages) 30%
Final exam 30%
Participation 10%
Graduate students: please see me
Essay Assignment
The essay will be an 8-10 page paper on a topic chosen from among a list of
possibilities that I will distribute in advance. It will ask you to revisit
and rethink an issue we have addressed in the course. Your sources will
be the readings assigned for the course. That is, it is not a research
paper that requires outside reading; rather, it is a “think piece” that
asks you to return, read more closely, and reflect on an issue that has concerned
you.
Exam Dates and Due Dates
Midterm exam: Thursday, February 9, in class
Essay: Thursday, March 9 (but please note: you may turn it in earlier
at any time)
Final exam: Tuesday, March 21, 8-10 a.m.
**Note: I cannot grant requests for early final exams. Please
plan accordingly.**
Academic Honesty
In submitting any work for this course-just as for any course you take at the
University of Oregon-you are promising that that work is your own and that
you produced it for this course. If you are in any doubt about when or
how to give credit to sources that you consult, please ask me.
Texts
All readings for the course will be available on reserve at Knight Library. Some
will be available via electronic reserve as well. The following are available
for purchase at the University Bookstore:
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
Richard Wolin, ed., The Heidegger Controversy
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (Stanford
ed.)
Course Schedule
Week 1: Introduction: Modern
German Intellectuals and Society (January 10, 12)
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 105-131
Fritz Ringer, The Decline of the German Mandarins (hard copy on reserve):
“Introduction: The Mandarin
Type,” 1-13
“The Origins of the Educated
Middle
Class,” 14-25
“The Mandarin Tradition in Retrospect,” 81-127
Carl Schorske, “The Ringstrasse,” pp. 24-62 only, in Schorske, Fin-de-Siècle
Vienna(hard copy on reserve)
Week 2: The German Empire
and Visions of Regeneration: Nietzsche (January 17, 19)
Mary
Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 131-137
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music
Week 3: Wilhelmine Germany
and Mandarin Sociology: Simmel
and Weber (January 24, 26)
Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 137-145
Georg Simmel, “Fashion” (on
e-reserve and hard copy reserve in Georg Simmel on
Individuality and Social Forms)
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, excerpts
online: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WEBER/toc.html
click here for this week's reading questions
Week 4: Rebels with Many
Causes (January 31, February 2)
Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 145-154
Martin Buber, “The
Spirit of the Orient and Judaism” (on e-reserve and hard copy reserve
in Buber, On Judaism)
Carl Schorske, “Politics
in a New Key,” in Schorske, Fin-de-Siècle
Vienna (hard copy on reserve)
Week 5: The Great War,
Psychoanalysis, and Society: Freud (February 7, 9)
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
Thursday, February 9: mid-term
exam (in class) click here for the midterm review guide
Week 6: The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of “Classical Modernity” (February
14, 16)
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 155-178
Kaes, Jay, and Dimendberg, The Weimar Republic Sourcebook: (on e-reserve and hard copy reserve)
“Revolution from the Right,” 330-354
“Designing the New World: Modern Architecture
and the
Bauhaus,” 429-453
Week 7: National Socialism
and the Radical Conservatives: Jünger
and Heidegger (February 21, 23)
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 178-195
Richard Wolin, ed., The Heidegger Controversy:
Ernst Jünger, “Total Mobilization”
Martin Heidegger, "The Self-Assertion of
the University (1933)
"
Political Texts, 1933-1934"
"
Overcoming Metaphysics (1936-1946)" (excerpts)
"
'Only a God Can Save Us': Der Spiegel's Interview with Martin
Heidegger (1966)”
Week 8: Exiles: The “Frankfurt” School, Walter
Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt (February 28, March 2)
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 196-204
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, “The
Culture Industry: Enlightenment
as Mass Deception,” in Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic
of
Enlightenment
Walter Benjamin, “The
Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” (on
e-reserve and hard copy reserve)
Week 9: Coming to Terms with Catastrophe: Reconstructions
after Nazism, War, and
Holocaust (March 7, 9)
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 204-218
Horkheimer and Adorno, “The Concept of Enlightenment,” in Dialectic
of
Enlightenment
Karl Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt (excerpts; on reserve)
***Reminder: your essay is due on or before Thursday, March 9 ***
Week 10: Before and After the Wall: Unification and National
Identity (March 14, 16)
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, 218-248
Karl-Heinz Bohrer, “Why We Are Not a Nation-And Why We Should Become
One”
Jürgen Habermas, “Yet Again: German Identity”
(Bohrer and Habermas on reserve in Harold James and Marla Stone,
eds., When the Wall Came Down)
Final Exam: Tuesday, March 21, 8-10 a.m.