Berlin: Capital of Modernity

Semester and Year	SU 2012
Course Number	TRAVL-UG9500
Section	001
Instructor	Karen Hornick
Days
Time
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Course meets in Berlin, June 23 - July 14

Description

Some of the most thrilling, momentous, and terrible events of the 1900’s occurred in Berlin, Germany. Today, Berlin's streets, buildings, and cultural monuments offer tales of warning and inspiration to the present century about the folly of nationalist ambition; inspiring sagas of intellectual and physical courage; cold testimonials of crime and retribution; lyrical ballads of brutal honesty; personal records of hope and despair. This three-week course set in the heart of that city will take in many of the sights and sounds of old and contemporary Berlin, but our course will focus on the involvement of twentieth-century politicians and activists, artists and architects, bohemians and intellectuals with the causes, experience, and far-reaching consequences of World War II. Our period of study begins just after World War I and focuses first on the turbulent politics and culture of Weimar Berlin in the 1920's. Then we consider the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930's when Hitler declared Berlin his capital, and the seige on Berlin of 1945 that ended Hitler's Reich once and for all. We look next at life in Berlin during the Cold War years and pay particular attention to the impact of the Wall (built in 1961) on the imaginations and realities of Berlin's citizens, and finally we assess our experiences of this reunited city as the the astonishing building boom that followed the fall of the Wall in 1989 slows down and the city faces its future as an EU capital. Classes, taught in English, meet four days a week in a seminar room, but the course also includes a number of required field trips that encompass the rich resources of the city’s museums, neighborhoods, historical sites, memorials and cultural monuments. Students will be given ample opportunity to explore Berlin and develop their own individual projects. Survival German language courses will be offered.

Course Type

Travel Courses (TRAVL-UG)