UCSB Hist 133 B, Winter 2007 (homepage)
German History, 1900-1945

Prof. Marcuse (homepage)
marcuse@history.ucsb.edu

I. Announcements

• Corrected electronic versions of all papers due by Mon., 3/19, 5pm, in my office.
  Web option papers are complete only after proofreading and confirmation.
• Please name the file as follows:
  AuthorlastnameYearYourFirstnameYourlastname073.doc and AuthorlastnameWhatpic.jpg
  Example: Bessel1992HaroldMarcuse073.doc; BesselBookcover.jpg (note: .rtf and .gif/.png ok)
• Put ALL TEXT ELEMENTS (about the author, abstract, essay, annotated bibliography) into the ONE text file
• Semi-web option: If you received an A or A- on your paper, you can write an author blurb and abstract instead of doing the exam IDs. Please submit them in the same electronic file as your corrected paper.
• Word-limited take-home due by Thu, 3/22, 3pm, in my office. Typed, with word count inserted at the end of each ID and the essay. (Highlight the text and use Tools > Word Count.) [34 words]=example for this bullet
  • ID word limit: 350 (450 maximum) words each
  • Essay word limit: 1500, 2000 absolute maximum

II. Course evaluations--please use comment space on back (back to top)

• Show of hands: how many are participating in "UCSB reads"? (more info)
  (Elizabeth Kolbert's book Field Notes from a Catastrophe--$11 at amazon with long review)
  • [only 3 students raised their hands, many had never heard of it]

III. Student presentations (back to top)

• Andrew Milman on Nazi Art (book by Peter Adam, 1992)
• Chris Young on the German High Command (book by Geoffrey Megargee, 2000)
• Loni Russell on the children of former Nazis (book by Peter Sichrovsky, 1989)

IV. Terms (exam IDs: identify and define the significance of 3, worth 15 points each; 350-450 words) (back to top)

V. Questions (Exam essay)
(answer one of the following for 55% of the exam grade; ca. 1500 words, 2000 max) (back to top)

1. Discuss the characteristics of the modern German state in the early 20th century, especially with regard to the causes of World War I.
2. Discuss the events that brought World War I to an end, including how they affected the stability of the postwar state (the Weimar Republic). What role did economic factors play?
3. Discuss German electoral politics in the 1920s and early 1930s. Name and characterize the major political parties and leading politicians. What role did the Reich President play?
4. Trace the key events in Hitler's accession to power, with specific dates, and stating why each of them was important.
5. Outline the development of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp system, explaining what its chief functions were during which periods of time in and which regions. Include the role that the so-called euthanasia program played in that development. Give specific examples.
6. Discuss the evolution of persecution of "non-Aryan" and social outsider groups in Nazi Germany. What were the major laws and events in this development? How did the treatment of the various groups differ from one another?
7. Outline Hitler's major foreign policy goals, summarizing the chronology of events that reversed the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and began World War II, and the major turning points of the war. For each, explain why it was significant.
8. Discuss the variety of responses to Nazi repression and persecution. How did which groups collaborate or resist? What motivated them? Include groups both within Germany and in German-occupied countries.