HIS 319 - History of Germany (3)

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or permission.

This course will cover the complex history of Germany from its ancient origins in resistance to Roman imperial expansion, to its fragmented medieval and early modern realities and through efforts to achieve national unification in the nineteenth century. After unification was achieved under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, Germany played a leading role in what were effectively three destructive world wars. It suffered through renewed division during the Cold War. Since 1990, a re-unified Germany has emerged as a leader of a 21st Century version (the European Union) of the European unity that ancient Germans ferociously resisted. While now a globalized, prosperous, highly tolerant, modern democracy and Europe’s leading economy, Germany still contends with the complex legacies of its often troubled and violent history that include such contradictory figures as Arminius, Beethoven, Goethe, Bismarck, Wilhem II, Hitler, Adenauer, and Angela Merkel.