Syllabus
Syllabus/Structure
1. Organisation and Introduction
2. The Terror State
3. The Mobilisation of the Spirit: „Enlightening the People“
4. Converting the Soul: Christians, Neo-Pagans, National Socialists
5. Winning the Young
6. Prosperity, Plunder, „Aryanisation“
7. Building a „Volksgemeinschaft“
8. Racial Utopia: The Germanic „Herrenrasse“ and the „Jewish Question“
9. The Road to War and „World Conquest“ I: Austria and Czechoslavakia 1938/1939
10. The Road to War and „World Conquest“ II: Poland 1939
11. Final Discussion
12. Topics for Essays
Annotation
The History of National Socialism: The Third Reich in Power (1933-1939)
In this seminar we are going to tackle the question how the National Socialists managed to build up the “Third Reich” after seizing power in Germany in January 1933. We will explore how they transformed (or tried to transform) state, society, economy, culture and even religion. Based on research literature, primary source material and with Hitler’s two main goals in mind -world conquest and murdering all Jews and “inferior” races- we will critically analyse the national and indeed international rise of National Socialism between 1933 and the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in September 1939.