- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
‘If Prussia’s power is ever broken, Germany will probably not escape Poland’s fate’, the paramount diplomat of his age, Otto von Bismarck, once warned. Without Prussia, the political unification of Germany would not have occurred in the first place. In only fifty years this dynamic warrior state rose to a position of power from which the Hohenzollerns settled by force the age-old question of who should rule the German nation. During the so-called Wars of Unification (1863-71), Austria was pushed out of Germany, Berlin became the premier capital in the Kaiserreich, ethnic minorities found themselves exposed to a new militant nationalism, and Catholics had to come to terms with Protestant hegemony.
This module explores how the process of unification transformed both Prussia and German society at large in the nineteenth century. We will examine what it took for a multi-ethnic monarchy to become the leader of a parliamentary nation-state by looking at cultural, political, and social catalysts of change. In so doing, the Special Subject draws on historians’ interpretations but also various primary sources such as newspapers, memoirs, and official correspondence to elucidate a key debate in history, namely whether Prussian raison d’état subverted the course of German nation-building and, if so, to what extent the politics of nationalism laid the foundations for the evils of Nazism.
Students taking this module must also take the first part in Semester 1.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 2 2023-24 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
Students will attend a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 2. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all. A one-to-one meeting between tutor and students will also be held to discuss assessments.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
For formative assessment, students submit an essay draft of 2000-words.
For summative assessment, students complete a 4000-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This comprises 100% of the overall module mark. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Following their formative assessment task, students will receive a one-to-one meeting with the tutor to discuss the essay and their plans for the assessed essay.
Work will be returned to students with written comments in their tutorial and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to make use of their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For summative assessment tasks, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading: