German History 1945-1990: From Occupation to Unification

• Level: 5
• Value: 15 credits
• Course tutor: Eckard Michels 

Course content

• Introduction to the course
• Germany after the Nazis: Allied Plans and Politics (1943–1948)
• Politics in the Western Zones and the Creation of the Grundgesetz (1945–1949)
• From the Soviet Zone of Occupation to the GDR (1945–1952)
• Politics and Society in the Federal Republic during the Adenauer Era (1949–1963)
• The West German Economic Miracle (1948–1973)
• Constructing a Socialist Society: The Development of the GDR 1952–1971
• Politics and Society in the Federal Republic 1963 to 1982
• West German Foreign Policy from Adenauer to Kohl
• Between International Recognition and Economic Decline: the GDR 1971–1989
• The Collapse of the GDR and the Unification of Germany (1989–1990).

Introductory literature

• Lothar Kettenacker, Germany since 1945 (Oxford 1997)
• Anthony Nicholls, The Bonn Republic (Oxford 1997)
• Dennis Bark and David Gress, A History of West Germany. Volume 1 From Shadow to Subsistence 1945-1963; Vol. 2 Democracy and its Discontents (Oxford 1993)
• Manfred Görtemaker, Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Von der Gründung bis zur Gegenwart (Munich 1999)
• Mary Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR 1949-1989 (Oxford 1995)
• Dietrich Staritz, Geschichte der DDR (Frankfurt 1996).