Although the German state did not exist until 1870 when Bismarck unified the various German states under Prussian leadership, we begin our study of “Germany History” in 1500 as it was then that people began to refer routinely to the Holy Roman Empire as the German Nation. This is also when a common form of the language emerged. Equally important, this was the time when humanists began to write about a place called “Germany” inhabited by people called “Germans.”
Using Germany in the World: A Global History, 1500-2000 by David Blackbourn, we will approach our subject by looking at Germany in a global context. Far from being a landlocked country interested in its own affairs, we will see Germans as involved in the expanding worlds of Europe. We will find German soldiers, ship gunners, merchants, surgeons, and scientists on the ships of European exploration. Germans helped shape the Atlantic world. However, with no German state, there was no German Empire, and we will see how this fact influenced how Germans viewed themselves and their culture. By looking at German history from a global view, we will see familiar events, such as the Reformation, in a new light. Likewise we will study the rise of German nationalism, as a failure in 1848 and finally a success in 1870, as part of a worldwide nation building during a large shift that reset the global order in the last half of the 19th century.
Join us for lively discussions as we look at German history with fresh eyes and a new view.
PART I Germans in a Changing World
1. New Worlds: Sailors, Conquistadores and Legends
2. Germany and the 17th Century Crisis
3. Germans in the 18th Century World of European Empires
PART II Germany and the Birth of the Modern
4. Germany in the Age of Revolutions
5. German Roles in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
6. Germans in the World of Literature
PART III Germans and the German Nation in a Globalizing World
7. A Nation Among Others: Imagining the Nation
8. On the Move: German Colonies and Moving in the World Economy
9. Global Traffic and the Claims of German Culture
PART IV The “German Century” Confounded
10. World War I and Weimar
11. The Rise of National Socialism and German dictatorship
12. War and the Nazi World Order
PART V AFTER NATIONALISM
13. Germany in Defeat, Division and Rebuilding: The Two Germanys and the Cold War
14. From Reunification to Today
Core Book:
Germany in the World: A Global History, 1500-2000 by David Blackbourn, 2023.
Additional Reading (Optional):
Germany: A Nation in its Time: Before, During and After Nationalism, 1500-2000 by Helmut W. Smith, 2020.