Neo-Nazism in Germany Why are we talking about neo-Nazism? Because we have to. In August, 2017, with the alt-right and white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, it became clear that Nazism has not gone away, it has just morphed into a new form for a new age. For

Curiosity This module is called "Curiosity."  Why? One of the changes that has come to the Vergangenheitsbewältigung process in Germany is a greater openness to the Nazi past as history. By this I mean that while the process of coming to terms with the past in the

ProfComment: Vergangenheitsbewältigung Well, that's a big word. It means "mastering the past" or "coming to terms with the past." And since the Second World War, German society has been doing just that, coming to terms with the legacy of Nazism. As you can imagine, the end of the

Jewish Resistance The Third Reich identified a number of people, or groups of people, as enemies. Nikolaus Wachsmann wrote in an essay called "The Politics of Exclusion" that there were three main enemies who were subject to the policy of exclusion from the state: political opposition; social

Irmgard Keun At the end of the Weimar Republic the writing of Irmgard Keun gained a fair amount of attention. Her novels about the lives of young women trying to make a go of it in the wild Berlin of the 1920s heralded an authentic new

Approved Art The Great German Art Exhibition was an annual affair intended to promote German art to the public. Read this speech by Hitler given at the opening of the first exhibition:  Hitler speech at opening of the Great German Art Exhibition Now, look at some of the

Burning Books The Holocaust Encyclopedia puts it well: "The burning of books under the Nazi regime on May 10, 1933, is perhaps the most famous book burning in history." The first two articles below explain how the event came to be and what happened. The third article broadens

Culture in the Third Reich: Disseminating the Nazi Worldview Read this overview from the Holocaust Encyclopedia: Culture in the Third Reich Your task: what strikes you as the most important takeaway from the article? Propaganda One of the most distinctive features of the Third Reich was its use of propaganda. During the

Hitler's LIfe This reading is from the Encyclopedia Britannica. It's written by some important biographers of Hitler, among them Alan Bulock and John Lukacs. It provides a good overview of the main aspects of Hitler's life and especially his political and social influence. Adolf Hitler from Encyclopedia Britannica.  Your task: at

Brief History of the Third Reich This article from Encyclopedia Britannica provides a comprehensive overview of Germany between 1918 (the end of the First World War) and 1945 (the end of the Second World War). The Third Reich lasted from 1933 to 1945, but the Nazi party had