This optional module introduces students to the history of German colonialism and imperialism. It will provide students with an understanding of the particular character of the German colonial project in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, while also taking into account the role of Germans in settler colonialism and of German business in the economics of the Western project more broadly. It will contextualise this history in relation to Germany’s role as coloniser in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in the Second World, and will engage with scholarly debates on the continuities and discontinuities between Germany’s continental imperialism and its maritime colonialism.

Alongside this historical perspective, the module will engage with the culture of colonialism, showing how the development of colonial fantasies in the German-speaking world pre-dated colonisation itself, and how colonial ambitions were sustained by cultural production (in particular, in film and fiction) from the 1880s until the end of the Second World War.

1. Understand Germany’s relationship to the project of Western colonialism and imperialism;
2. Critically engage with current debates on the different forms of colonialism and imperialism carried out by Germans and on the inter-relationship between varieties of colonialism and imperialism in German history;
3. Display a deep understanding of the role of cultural production (particularly literature and film) in motivating, sustaining and challenging the ideology of colonialism and imperialism.

This module is taught by Professor David Clarke as a series of ‘flipped’ interactive lectures, based on key readings provided to students in advance. These will be supplemented by student-led discussions addressing relevant case studies. The course is organised into 10 weekly 2-hour sessions over 1 semester.

Academic Skills

Critical thinking: Debating and discussing complex and contentious issues helps students to examine their own thinking processes and approaches to the content and their own learning.

(Assessed)

Problem Solving: The essay and examination questions require students to problem solve in a reasoned and well-argued way.

(Assessed)

Research and information literacy skills: Through written coursework, students demonstrate their skills in research and information literacy.

(Assessed)

Communication and literacy: Both written and verbal communications skills and literacy are developed in this module.

(Assessed)

Employability skills

Improving own learning and performance: 'Flipped' lectures and student led discussion will help students to develop their own independent learning and to express their ideas coherently in dialogue with others.

Team work: Yes, through participating in seminar discussions.

Application of Information Technology: Students will use information technology to carry out their bibliographical research and to present their essay coursework.

Application of number: N/A

Personal development and career planning: N/A

Essay: 100% - 2500 Word Essay, Semester 1

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

Students who fail the module will be reassessed by submission of an essay to be capped at a mark of 40%.

The module will cover topics including: the history of German colonialism; varieties of German colonialism; controversies in the historical interpretation of German colonialism; literary and filmic representations of German colonialism.

Baranowski, S. 2011. Nazi Empire: German Colonialism and Imperialism from Bismarck to Hitler. Cambridge: CUP.

Berman, N. K. Mühlhahn, and P. Nganang, eds. 2014.  German Colonialism Revisited: African, Asian, and Oceanic Experiences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Göttsche, D. 2013. Remembering Africa: The Rediscovery of Colonialism in Contemporary German Literature. Rochester, NY: Camden House.

Kundrus, Birtha, ed. 2003. Phantasiereiche: Zur Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Kolonialismus. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus.

Langbehn, V. and M. Salama, eds. 2011. German Colonialism: Race, the Holocaust and Postwar Germany.

Naranch, B. and G. Eley, eds. 2014. German Colonialism in a Global Age. Durham: Duke University Press.

Schilling-Wang, Britta. 2014. Postcolonial Germany: Memories of Empire in a Decolonized Nation. Oxford: OUP.

Steinhoff, Hans, dir. 1941. Ohm Krüger. [Film]

Van Laak, Dirk. 2005. "Über alles in der Welt": Deutscher Imperialismus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Munich: Beck.

Zantop, S. 1997. Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870. Durham NC: Duke University Press.

Further detailed reading is available in the module course kit.

See above. Further reading lists are available in the course kit.