This optional module introduces students to the history and legacy of German colonialism and imperialism today. 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. The module will also explore the relationship of the two post-war German states to former colonies and contemporary debates over the decolonialisation of German culture, for example in recent controversies over street names, repatriation of looted art and the removal of monuments to colonisers.

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. The module will also examine the role of literature and film in the critical re-examination of Germany’s colonial history and its legacy from the 1970s to the present, including attempts to re-conceptualise Germany’s relationship to what became known as the ‘Third World.’

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 in the past and in the present;
4. Critically evaluate the impact of current attempts to de-colonise German culture.

The module will be taught through a blend of live online classes and guided, interactive online tasks and activities, designed to fulfil the learning outcomes. These will be delivered remotely, and on-campus if the University deems it safe and practicable.

Academic Skills

Developed

Assessed (Yes/No)

1.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.

Y

2. Problem Solving

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

Y

3. Research and information literacy skills

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

Y

4.Communication and literacy

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

Y

Employability Skills

Developed

Assessed (Yes/No)

1.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.

N

2.Team work

Yes, through participating in seminar discussions.

N

3.Application of Information technology

Students will use information technology to carry out their bibliographical research and to present their essay coursework.

N

4.Application of number

N/A

N

5.Personal development and career planning

N/A

N

The method(s) of assessing the learning outcomes for this module are set out in the Assessment Table, which also contains the weightings of each assessment component.

Reassessment

You may be required to resit one or more of the assessments in this module if you fail the module. The Examination Board will advise you which assessments you need to resit during the August resit period. Resit assessments that are not supported by extenuating circumstances will be capped at the pass mark applicable to your programme.

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 and the postcolonial world; current debates on the legacy of colonialism in Germany.

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.

Kracht, Christian. 2013 [2012]. Imperium. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

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.

Link, Caroline, dir. 2001. Nirgendwo in Afrika. [Film]

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]

Timm, Uwe. 2000 [1978]. Morenga. Munich: DTV.

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.