Students examine the German experience of warfare on the level of individual women, men, and children who lived through conflict as combatants, civilians, and bystanders. Personal experiences and perspectives are explored by means of the visual arts, film, literary fiction, memoirs, music, poetry, and personal correspondence. The chronological mold is broken by offering students a range of stopping points along the historical timeline that do not conform to linear sequencing, but instead prioritize the subjects’ intimate, personal experiences of warfare and its consequences. Here the term “German” is broadened to include the German historical imagination’s understanding of the concept when contemplating warfare. Thus students do not merely study those periods of war that one would expect to see in this course—the First and Second World Wars—they might also examine narratives from the victory of the Germanic tribes against the Roman legions in the Battle of Teutoburger Forest, the tribulations and deprivations of the Thirty Years War, and the Wars of Liberation fought against Napoleon. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be placed upon the individual’s experience of warfare and the illumination of periods of German history that might not be well known to the modern student of German.

Course Requirements:

Student grades will be based upon attendance, class participation, and four to five short essays

Class Format:

This course is spoken in the German language