Lehrveranstaltungen im Sommersemester 2023

This course examines the short and long-term consequence of the Great War in a European and global contexts. Students will read book and articles and will discuss such important issues as: the collapse of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German empires; the Russian Revolution; peace-making in Paris; the reorganization of East-Central Europe; civil wars and ethnic conflict after WWI; “the culture of defeat – revanchism, antisemitism and the rise of the radical and fascist Right; the Spanish flue; social and psychological problems associated the demobilization of soldiers; military medicine; the fate of wounded war veteran and soldiers’ welfare after WWI; female suffrage and the life of women during and after WWI; inflation, reparation and the stat of the world economy between 1919 and 1945; military technology and modern warfare after 1914; the fate of empires and the start of decolonization; classical modernism, avant-garde art and politics; . The third and final part looks at memory and commemorations in films, literatures and monuments.

Language: bilingual, German/English

This course surveys economic, cultural and political developments in the multi-ethnic, liberal, and, in the last stages of its history, increasingly democratic Austro-Hungarian Empire. The course compares modernization in Austria-Hungary with economic and social developments elsewhere in Europe and discusses whether imperial setting and ethnic and religious diversity hindered or promoted urbanization and industrialization in East Central Europe. The course pays special attention to: the rise of the bourgeoisie and the working class and their struggle for equality and political representation; the political mobilization of lower-middle class groups, such as shopkeepers, artisans and peasants, and the formations and early successes of Christian Socialist and anti-Semitic parties. The course will examine high culture (architecture, painting; classical music; literature, etc) and popular culture (newspapers, sports, mass entertainment) both as a product of ethnic diversity and a weapon in the hands of the nationalist elites used to undermine the Empire and as a means to lower tension between ethnic and religious groups. Finally, the course examines the foreign policy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; its role as a bridge between the West and East (Germany and Russia) and between North and South (Europe and the Ottoman Empire); both as a stabilizing factor in international relations and a barrier to self-determination and national independence. Whether the Dual Monarchy was doomed to fail, and it essentially self-destructed, or whether it was destroyed by outside powers, by making one of the worse mistakes in international politics in the twentieth century is the subject of this course.

Language: bilingual, German/English

This global history course examines revolution as a social and political event, and its role in shaping the history of the modern world from the Mexican and the Russian Revolutions in the early twentieth century to the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s; the Cuban Revolution and decolonization in Africa and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s; the Nicaraguan and Islamic revolutions in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Arab Spring in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The course examines the various theories about the origins, meaning and consequences of revolutions: whether revolutions represents a schism, a mutation or a regression in history. It scrutinizes the international contexts in which revolutions occur: the spread of ideologies and political practices, the movements of revolutionaries, and the involvement of outside state or private actors in igniting and supporting armed rebellions. The course looks at the social, economic and cultural factors which make revolutions possible. It considers the role of rhetoric, ideology and propaganda as a source of revolutionary upheavals and one of the keys to their success. The course emphasizes schisms as a typical characteristic of the revolution; yet it also examines the survival of older structures, political practices and mentalities. We pay special attention to the ethnic, race, gender and class dimensions of revolutions. Finally, the course examines the process of legitimization and memory formations: the role of historians, public intellectuals and politicians as well as institutions such as schools and museums, schools, memorials, etc in defining and celebrating some events as revolutions.

Language: bilingual: German/English

In der Geschichte der Sowjetunion ist die „Tauwetter-Periode“ (1956-1964) mit der Liberalisierung des politischen Systems verbunden, die auch größere Freiheit im Kulturbereich mit sich brachte. Seit den 1960er Jahren wurde der Film zu zugänglichsten und beliebtesten Kunstarten, die nicht nur der politischen Ausbildung diente und Orientierung im Leben gab, sondern auch ein Unterhaltungsmittel war. Obwohl der Sozialistische Realismus auch in den folgenden Jahrzehnten als offizielle Kulturdoktrin galt, bekamen lebensnahe und aufrichtige Sujets im Film immer wichtigeren Platz.

Das Seminar setzt sich zum Ziel, den populären Spielfilm als Quelle zur Alltags- und Sozialgeschichte der Sowjetunion zu analysieren, Besonderheiten der sowjetischen Filmpolitik zu untersuchen sowie die Werte der sowjetischen Gesellschaft, das Leben und Probleme des „einfachen Menschen“ im gewöhnlichen Alltag kennenzulernen. Es werden z. B. solche Fragen thematisiert, wie die Männer- und Frauenbilder, die Ausbildung und Arbeit, die Vorstellungen über das ideale Modell von Familie und zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen.

In diesem Kontext ist es auch interessant, wie sich die staatliche Kulturpolitik in der UdSSR von der Ära Chruschtschow bis zur Perestroika veränderte und welche Auswirkungen sie auf das Filmwesen hatte.

 Die Republik Polen war als erster Staat vom Zweiten Weltkrieg betroffen und wurde zunächst durch das Deutsche Reich und kurz darauf auch durch die Sowjetunion angegriffen und geteilt. Die Folge war eine deutsche Besatzungsherrschaft, die sich ab 1941 auch auf die ostpolnischen Gebiete ausweitete und bis zum Jahresanfang 1945 andauerte. In diesen mehr als fünf Jahren war die polnische Bevölkerung massiven Repressionen ausgesetzt und erlitt rund 6 Millionen zivile Todesopfer in der Bevölkerung.

Neben der militärischen Invasion Polens setzt die Übung sich thematisch mit verschiedenen Aspekten der Besatzungsherrschaft auseinander. Darunter fallen verschiedene Aspekte, wie der polnische Untergrundstaat und die Heimatarmee, der Warschauer Aufstand 1944, aber auch das Massaker von Katyn und der Holocaust. Ergänzt wird die Gesamtthematik durch erinnerungspolitische Diskurse der Gegenwart und Spielfilme aus der jüngeren Vergangenheit, die sich mit der Zeit von 1939-1945 auseinandersetzen.

The course offers a global perspective on the history of refugees and people in exile from Eastern Europe starting from the First World War until end of the Second World War. It will be organized chronologically focusing on the most severe refugee crises in the region with special attention to the following aspects: 1) the experiences and changing identities of displaced people in various political and cultural contexts around the world, 2) the evolution of international humanitarianism in relation to refugees and displaced persons, 3) development of mechanisms international protection of refugees, 4) the impact of legal discussions on refugees on the development of human rights law, 5) biographies of distinguished international lawyers, politicians, and artists, whose works and activity were shaped by their experiences as refugees.