Seminar Questions:

• Was the collapse of the GDR a result of inherent flaws in the East German system?

• What role did international factors play in bringing down the GDR?

• What does Germany and being German mean to the post-1989 generation?

Reading List:

Required Reading:

• David F. Patton, 'Annus Mirabilis: 1989 and German Unification' in Helmut Walser Smith (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History (OUP, 2012)
• 25 Years of the Berlin Republic (Youtube)

Further Reading:

The Collapse of the GDR and Reunification:

• Gareth Dale, The East German Revolution of 1989 (Manchester University Press, 2006)
• Steven Pfaff, Exit-voice dynamics and the collapse of East Germany : the crisis of Leninism and the revolution of 1989 (Duke University Press, 2006)
• Alexander von Plato, The end of the Cold War?: Bush, Kohl, Gorbachev, and the reunification of Germany (Palgrave, 2015)
• Mary Elise Sarotte, The collapse : the accidental opening of the Berlin Wall (Basic Books, 2014)

Society and Identity in the Berlin Republic:

• William A. Barbieri Jr., 'Toward A Multicultural Society?' in Helmut Walser Smith (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History (OUP, 2012)
• Hans Kundnani, 'Angela Merkel will survive – but will the soul of post-war Germany?', The Spectator, 29 October 2015
• 'After Twenty Years: Change and Continuity in Unified Germany', Special issue of the German Studies Review, Vol. 33, No. 3 (October 2010)
• Pertti Ahonen, 'Unity on Trial: The Mauerschutzenprozesse and East-West Rifts of United Germany' in Anne Fuchs, Kathleen James-Chakraborty, and Linda Shortt (eds.), Debating German cultural identity since 1989 (Camden House, 2011)
• Frank Brunssen, 'The New Self-Understanding of the Berlin Republic: Readings of Contemporary German History' in Taberner, Frank Finlay (eds.), Recasting German Identity : Culture, Politics, and Literature in the Berlin Republic (Boydell & Brewer, 2013)
• Dieter Dettke (ed.), The spirit of the Berlin Republic (Berghahn, 2003)
• Ben Gook, Divided subjects, invisible borders : re-unified Germany after 1989 (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2015)
• Ludger Helms, 'Germany's Crisis and Struggle for Political Self-Reinvention: The 2005 Federal Election in Context', German Studies Review Vol. 29, No. 2 (May, 2006), pp. 315-330
• Dagmar Herzog, 'Post coitum triste est…? Sexual Politics and Cultures in Pzostunification Germany' in Jeffrey J. Anderson and Eric Langenbacher (eds.), From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic : Germany at the twentieth anniversary of unification (Beghahn, 2010)
• Sara Jones, The media of testimony : remembering the East German Stasi in the Berlin Republic (Palgrave, 2014)
• Jennifer A. Jordan, 'Apples, Identity and Memory in Post-1989 Germany' in Anne Fuchs, Kathleen James-Chakraborty, and Linda Shortt (eds.), Debating German cultural identity since 1989 (Camden House, 2011)
• Ottmar Jung, Direct democracy in Germany : trends since 1989 (Inter-Nationes, 1998)
• Eva Kolinsky, 'Migration Experiences and the Construction of Identity among Turks Living in Germany' in Stuart Taberner, Frank Finlay (eds.), Recasting German Identity : Culture, Politics, and Literature in the Berlin Republic (Boydell & Brewer, 2013)
• Olaf Kuhlke, 'Representing German identity in the new Berlin republic : body, nation, and place' (Edwin Mellen Press, c2004)
• Joyce Marie Mushaben, 'From Ausländer to Inlander: The Changing Faces of Citizenship in Post-Wall Germany' in Jeffrey J. Anderson and Eric Langenbacher (eds.), From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic : Germany at the twentieth anniversary of unification (Beghahn, 2010)
• Hanns W. Maull (ed.), Germany's uncertain power: Foreign policy of the Berlin republic (Palgrave, 2006)
• Georg Packer, "The Quiet German: The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world," New Yorker, December 1, 2014