Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture from 1890 to the Present

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify concepts and data relevant to the task in hand
• Formulate and clarify critical questions
• Apply knowledge and understanding and analysis critically to different topics
• Select, synthesise and focus information from a range of sources

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Communicate effectively and confidently in English
• Exercise independence and initiative
• Use ICT to produce documents and other material using a computer
• Use libraries, archives, learning resources and ICT to access relevant information

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Techniques for analysing a variety of cultural artefacts
• The variety of ways in which modernity affected the inhabitants of Vienna and Berlin in the early twentieth century
• The main developments within the urban life of Vienna and Berlin during the long twentieth century

The module will broadly be divided into two parts: “Cityscapes” and “The shadow of the past” which roughly correspond historically to the early years of the 20th century and the later post-war era. Under each of these subheadings specific issues relating to society, politics and culture in Vienna and Berlin will be discussed in two to three sessions each.

Topics covered may include the following:

• The emergence of Berlin and Vienna as modern metropolises
• Modernist culture in Berlin and Vienna
• Jewish life in Vienna
• The post-war division of Berlin and its aftermath
• The legacy of the Holocaust in post-war Vienna and Berlin

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• lectures
• seminars
• independent study
• group discussion
• one-to-one tutorials

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Judith E. Berman (2006). Holocaust Agendas, Conspiracies and Industries? Issues and Debates in Holocaust Memorialization. London: Valentine Mitchell.

Paul Cooke (2005). Representing East Germany since Unification: from Colonization to Nostalgia. Oxford: Berg.

Steven Beller (1989). Vienna and the Jews, 1867-1938: A Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Iain Boyd-Whyte and David Frisby (eds) (2012). Metropolis Berlin: 1880-1940. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

Andrea Reiter (2013). Contemporary Jewish Writing: Austria after Waldheim. New York: Routledge.

Bill Niven and Chloe Paver (eds) (2010). Memorialization in Germany since 1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nick Hodgin (2011). Screening the East: Heimat, Memory and Nostalgia in German Film since 1989. New York and Oxford: Berghahn.

Brian Ladd (1997). Ghosts of Berlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Günther Bischof (1997). Austrian Historical Memory and National Identity. New Brunswick: Transaction.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External