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HISTORY OF THE THIRD REICH HST 603|
(Winter Session 2007) Lectures: Section 011: Monday 11:00AM – 1:00PM (LG05) & Wed. 9:00-10:00AM (Business (Bay-Dundas St) 3129) Office Hours: JOR 501 T.B.A.; or by appointment Phone: 979-5000 ext. 6058
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Course Description:
More than sixty years after its destruction by the Allied armies, Hitler’s Germany still manages to arouse both controversy and curiosity. Was the Nazi state rooted in the German past, or rather the product of modern crises that could overwhelm any nation? This course combines a chronological, biographical and thematic approach to explaining the history of the Third Reich. The course covers Germany’s historical roots leading to the emergence of the National Socialist Party, the seizure of power by Hitler and his henchmen, the rise and fall of the Third Reich’s totalitarian-racial police state and Nazi criminality in diplomacy, warfare, occupation policy and genocide. (one semester, upper-level liberal study)
WARNING: : Lectures will sometimes feature graphic images that some may find disturbing.
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Tentative Lecture Subjects: History of the Third Reich – Introduction & Course Outline and Requirements – Rome and Germania – Armanius to Hermann: A Brief History of Germany, the Germans and the Myth of the Volk in the Third Reich – The Holy Roman Empire – Martin Luther – the Thirty Year War – the Treaty of Munster – the Rise of Prussia – Napoleon – Wars of Independence – “Father” Jahn as Germany’s first storm trooper – The Third Reich as counter-civilization Roots of the Third Reich 1871 – 1919 The Second Reich – War With France 1870-71 – Emancipation of the Jews – The German Military Establishment – World War One Adolf Hitler Part 1: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man – The November Revolution -Weimar Republic -Versailles Treaty – NSDAP Founding – The Twenty-Five Points Struggle for Power 1920 – 1932 “Seizure” of Power – 30 January 1933 – 1934 The Making of Hitler as Chancellor – who backed and bankrolled Hitler? Burning the Reichstag – The Fuhrer Principal – Emergency Decrees and the Enabling Act – the founding of the Gestapo – the “wild camps” – Night of the Long Knives – Seizing Power Henchmen Part 2: (Göring; Röhm; Frick) Nazi Consolidation of Power 1934 –1936 Foreign Policy: Nazi failure in Austria – Saar – Rhineland –– relations with Italy – the unmaking of Versailles – rebuilding the German war machine – skipping out on the reparation payments The Making of the Police State – SS RSHA – Dachau and concentration camp system – Purging the high command – Nazi Myth and Ritual Henchmen Part 3: (Himmler; Heydrich; Eicke) Revolutionary Germany: The Making of the Totalitarian Racial State 1933-1939 Transforming society: labour unions – women – ecology – sports – movies – homes – architecture – culture – technology – welfare. A brief history of antisemitism – Social Darwinism and new German nationalism – the racial laws – Kristallnacht – expropriation – the refugee problem – Henchmen Part 4: (Speer; Eichmann; von Schirach, Reifenstahl) Foreign Policy: From Appeasement to Blitzkrieg 1936-1941 Canada and The Third Reich – Prime Minister Mackenzie-King’s meeting with Hitler – Spanish Civil War – success in Austria – Sudetenland – “last territorial demands” – Czechoslovakia – Hitler-Stalin Pact 1939: the Polish Campaign – 1940: Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France – The Myth of the Blitzkrieg – The Battle of Britain – Henchmen Part 5: (von Ribbentrop; Streicher; the German Generals) Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression: War and the Seeds of Genocide 1933 – 1941 Eugenics – T-4 Medical Killing – German Occupation Policy in Poland – the Ghetto – Campaigns in the Balkans – North Africa – Henchmen Part 6: (Frank, Bormann, the Doctors) The Third Reich in Total War: 1941 – 1943 Operation Barbarossa – Moscow – Leningrad – General Mud & General Winter – counterattack – the second summer in Russia 1942 – Stalingrad – Totalenkrieg – the turning points – Kursk – Italy – Espionage – German Occupation Policy East vs West: Night & Fog – the Axis partners – the war at home The Final Solution 1941 – 1945 Genocide of Jews, Slavs, Poles and Gypsies – Einsatzgruppen mobile killing units and university degrees – Wansee Conference – mobile gas vans – the liquidation of the ghettos – Operation Reinhardt – the technique and operation of the gas chambers – slave labour – the kingdom of Auschwitz – endgame in Trieste The Decline Fall of The Third Reich 1944 – 1945 D-Day – France – Battle of the Bulge – Collapse in the East – Resistance to Hitler in Germany – Assassination Plots – the fall of Himmler and Göring – Warsaw – Budapest – Vienna – Berlin – the “secret” surrender in Italy – the suicides of Goebbels and Himmler – the death of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Third Reich Aftermath 1945 – 2005 The making of the word “genocide” – Nuremberg – War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity – The Ratlines – US Intelligence and the Nazis – the brothers John and Alan Dulles and IG. Farben – the Waffen-SS comes to Sudbury, Ontario – Neo-Nazism – Holocaust denial – the genocidal mentality – genocide today and lessons from the Third Reich Henchmen Part 8: (The Fugitives: Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele; Klaus Barbie) |
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SEMINARS: Four one-hour seminars will be scheduled during the semester. Discussion will be based on lecture and assigned reading materials. Participation is mandatory and worth 15% of the final grade based on attendance and quality of participation. The groups will meet on seminar days as follows: Weeks of: February 6; March 5; March 26 Monday: 3:00 PM; 4:00 PM; Wednesday: 10:00 AM; 11:00 AM; 2:00 PM; 3:00 PM Friday: 10:00 AM; 11:00 AM; 12:00 PM Seminar group assignment will be by ballot via e-mail. |
Course Texts: (available from the Ryerson bookstore or the used bookstore)
D.G. Williamson, The Third Reich (3rd Edition) (London & New York: Pearson Education, 2002.) ISBN 0582368839
Anthony Read, The Devil’s Disciples: Hitler’s Inner Circle, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003)
ISBN 0393326977
Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (2nd Edition) (New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.) ISBN 0-06-099506-8
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Marking Scheme and Assignment/Test Dates : |
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Term Test: Essay Proposal Essay Final Exam Seminar Participation |
15 % (Week of February 12 – in class. ) |
Assignments:
Essay: A topic of your choice pertaining to the Third Reich. Come see me if you need help or advise in choosing your topic.
There are two aspects of this essay:
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Prior to writing your essay, you will submit two copies of a one page outline that clearly defines your approach and a proposed annotated bibliography that describes your sources and their relevance to your essay. You will be marked on the basis of originality and specificity of your subject matter and the depth and currency of your sources. Due date for your proposal is Week of Feb 26 This is worth 10% of your grade.
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Write an essay of 2,500 words based on a topic of your choice pertaining to the history of the Third Reich. This is due Week of March 19 by end of class and is mandatory for all students. A copy of the essay is to be e-mailed to me. It is worth 30% of your final grade.
Submission of Essays:
Essays must be typed. If this is a problem, please speak to me. Students should hand essays in directly to an instructor. Late essays may be placed in the essay box on the fifth floor of Jorgenson Hall with my name clearly on them. Do not slide essays under my office door. Students are responsible for ensuring that their essays have been received. Please keep copies of your work.
Deadlines and Penalties
Late work will be penalized by the deduction of 2% per day, including weekends. Extensions may be granted on medical or compassionate grounds. Students requesting an extension should submit a written request to me before the deadline. If this is not possible, students should be prepared to provide appropriate documentation relating to the extension request (i.e. doctor’s note). No late work will be accepted after the last day of classes in the term.
References
Essays MUST contain proper references, either in the form of footnotes or end notes, which include in the first citation the author, place, and date of publication of the work cited, as well as the correct page number. As a general rule, references should be given for direct quotations, summaries or paraphrases of other people’s work or points of view, and for material that is not widely known or accepted. WHEN IN DOUBT, IT IS BETTER TO PROVIDE A REFERENCE. There are several acceptable citation formats, but please make sure you follow one! Improper citations will result in lost marks. For example, here is an acceptable foot/end note.
Jane Doe, The ABC’s of History (Toronto: 123 Publishers, 1997), pp. 20-23.
Bibliographies
Essays MUST provide bibliographies of all works consulted, whether or not they have been quoted directly. An inadequate bibliography (for assignments as long as those above) is one which contains less than four books or articles related to the topic, or books which are entirely general work or texts. Dictionaries, atlases and/or encyclopedias DO NOT count towards this minimum number of sources, and their inclusion should NOT be considered as constituting research. An example of a bibliographic citation is as follows:
Smith, John. History Rules (Toronto: 123 Publishers, 1997).
Deduction of Marks
The evaluation of your research, content, and argumentation is of primary concern in marking. Equally important is the syntax or structure of your work. Marks will be deducted from work containing excessive grammar/spelling mistakes, which is excessively long or inadequately short, or which fails to provide proper footnoting/bibliography. Be sure to edit and check your work carefully. Do not simply rely on your computer’s spelling or grammar check. Grounds for Failure
Essays which do not supply proper and adequate references and bibliographies will be failed. Any written work that quotes directly from other material without attribution, or which paraphrases extensive tracts from the works of others, is plagiarized. It will receive no marks and there will be no chance to resubmit. Please consult the Ryerson academic calendar for further information on plagiarism. If you have any questions or doubts about how to cite material, please feel free to contact me.
Academic Integrity
For additional help, Ryerson now offers the Academic Integrity Website at www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity. This offers students a variety of resources to assist in their research, writing, and presentation of all kinds of assignments. It also details all dimensions of Academic Misconduct and how to avoid it. It was put together by a team representing the Vice President Academic, faculty, the library, Digital Media Projects, and Student Services.
Course Evaluation:
You will have an opportunity to evaluate this course in class in the two hour block of your class in late March. Any changes to this will be announced in advance in class. A volunteer from the class will be asked to help administer the evaluation. All students are strongly encouraged to participate in the evaluation.