As a modern city, Berlin, with its fractured history, occupies a special place amongst German metropoles. This hold especially true for Berlin’s trials and tribulations in the 20th century. In this course, we will look at this period and study in-depth reflections and responses to the city in literature, music, and the visual arts. Topics will include: Expressionism, both in literature and the visual arts; the “Golden Twenties” with their cabaret culture and burgeoning film industry; Jewish life in Berlin; Berlin under Nazism; the building and fall of the Berlin Wall and their reflection in literature; German reunification and its cultural repercussions; the “Neue Mitte” and the cultural and literary profile of Berlin today; and changing depictions of the city in contemporary texts. Authors will include Jakob van Hoddis, Gottfried Benn, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Döblin, Erich Kästner, Kurt Tucholsky, Carl Zuckmayer, Lion Feuchtwanger, Sarah Kirsch, Günter Grass, Rolf Hochhuth, Tanja Dückers, Inka Parei, Hans-Ulrich Treichel, and Gerhard Falkner, and others.