"Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit": German History of the 19th & 20th century


This course will focus on developing an understanding of the most siginificant contexts, developments, continuities and discontinuities of German history during the nineteenth and twentieth century. „Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit“ – the beginning of the German national anthem’s third stanza – will be the starting point of the discussion and German history will be analyzed against this background. What did unity, justice and freedom signify during the two centuries under the ever changing rules of government and during a time when modernity changed the lives of most people dramatially and fundamentally? Which hopes, anxieties and infractions were and are assoicated with these terms and their application and interpretation for German life in the areas of state, society, culture and economy? Finally,the course will investigate if the triad „Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit“ is actually a suitable formula to define German history since the 19th century.