Overview of the Semester

I learned quite a few things over the semester in this class. In the beginning the focus seemed to be more on tangible topics, such as specific places or people in Germany’s history, including historic cities and natural wonders. As we moved through the semester, we delved more into topics like the media – specifically radio and print media. We also read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and learned some of the feelings of the German troops during the Second World War. We then did somewhat in-depth analyses of broad topics from three important centuries in German history, including the roles of men and women in society, the poets and writers, the rulers and government, the music, theatre, and dance scene, and the inventions and industry. We last watched the movie The Baader-Meinhoff Complex in order to gain an understanding of the revolutionary culture within Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, and to witness the dissent from the student population therein.

Overall it may seem that the topics are quite disjointed, but I believe that a knowing a country’s past is pivotal to understand its present and future. All topics were relevant to Germany, and simply different aspects of the country and culture. I do feel I’ve learned a lot this semester and had adequate opportunity to share my own knowledge with my classmates.

My final question:

Why is it that Germans will associate themselves more with their individual state than Germany as a whole to foreigners?

Rote Armee Fraktion

RAF (the causes, the three generations, the end, and the similarities between today’s terrorists and the RAF) (250-300 words)

            The RAF was a political activist group formed in West Germany in 1970, self-described as a communistic and anti-imperialistic “urban guerrilla” group. The founding members included Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhoff, and Horst Mahler. Created in direct resistance of the “fascist state” they claimed West Germany had remained after World War Two, their aim was to change the country back to communism and free the people from their corrupt government. The young leftists saw the denazification of the country after the Second World War as completely ineffective, and altogether a failure.

            Three distinct generations of the RAF can be defined. The first was the original founding members, from 1970-1975, more commonly known to the German population as the Baader-Meinhoff Gang. The second was formed soon after the original members were arrested or killed, and lasted from 1975 to 1982. This included also mainly students, and the majority were of a middle-class background, who joined the ranks when their own political parties disbanded. The third generation was active from 1982-1993, and was perhaps the most violent with the least incentive, according to Wikipedia.com and an outside source, “Tom Vague.”

On 20 April, 1998, an 8 page, typewritten letter was faxed into the news headquarters at Reuters, signed with a machine-gun over a red star and the letters “RAF” declaring the group dissolved. According to the letter, “Vor fast 28 Jahren, am 14. Mai 1970, entstand in einer Befreiungsaktion die RAF. Heute beenden wir dieses Projekt. Die Stadtguerilla in Form der RAF ist nun Geschichte. (Almost 28 years ago, on 14 May 1970, the RAF arose in a campaign of liberation. Today we end this project. The urban guerrilla in the shape of the RAF is now history).”

There is a distinct similarity between today’s “terrorist” groups and the RAF, in that innocent people were killed to further the cause of an extreme activist group. One of the most glaring differences I can find, however, is the fact that the RAF killed police and civilians of their own country for political gain, whereas modern terrorists usually murder other citizens of other countries for their gain. Occasionally it is political; usually it tends to be more centered around religion.

The Baader-Meinhoff Complex

Personal Response to Baader-Meinhoff Complex (250-300 words)

This movie was actually very difficult to watch. In one of the first scenes, where the police watched as the student protestors were being beaten and eventually joined in beating them when they attempted to defend themselves was particularly contemptible. It still sickens me that any first-world country would do that to their own citizens. The trials near the end of the movie were nothing more than show put on for the public’s amusement – they wouldn’t listen to what any of the members had to say and denied them rights in prison and during trial.

What most surprised me was the fact that there were separate and distinct “generations” of the group. Instead of a member forming another group around themselves after the previous leaders had been captured or killed, an entirely new section started up with members who only knew of the ideals of the last group, and not the individual members.

I do believe, from what I saw in the movie, that action against the state was necessary, but the RAF went about it in the wrong way. Instead of forming a cohesive plan of action to change the world they lived in, they simply struck out randomly and expected things to be different because of it. Killing innocent people and terrorizing a nation is wrong, of course, but they said somewhere in the movie that a good majority of the nation’s youth actually supported the group. This proved to me that there were a lot more people in West Germany who wanted things to change from the way they were then there were people actually doing anything about it.

Industry in Germany in the 18th Century

·         The Industrial Revolution – “a period from the 18^th to the 19^th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions”

·         Started in the UK and gradually spread outward throughout Europe, North America, and finally the world

·         Nearly every aspect of daily life was influenced in someway

(A model of a Spinning Jenny, used to spin wool, which helped to start the Industrial Revolution)

·         Textiles and mining were very important to Germany in the 18^th century

·         Because the country was divided into so many small states, it was not until after 1800 that the process of industrialisation began to really get underway

·         The first German textile factory was built in Ratigen near Duesseldorf in 1784 – called “Cromford” after its English model, but very much on its own in Germany

·         Textile manufacturing was first mechanized in Germany, mainly in established cities and trading centers like Aachen, Krefeld, and Saxony

·         First German spinning machines were used in Chemnitz in 1782 and the town then became a pioneer in Engineering

·         In Upper Silesia as well as the State of Prussia, the local aristocratic landowners had enough capital to invest

·         Tests were made to lift water with the help of steam engines

·         Coal-mining was expanded

·         At the end of the 18^th century, the first coke(low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal)-driven blast furnace was constructed in Gleiwitz

·         Some areas of Germany, such as the area around the River Ruhr, remained rural, with only one ironwork factory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution

http://www.erih.net/industrial-history/germany.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Spinning_jenny.jpg

19th Century Music, Dance, and Theatre

https://mail.stcloudstate.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=302d4c711d564eb6bb3b23a82042e5b9&URL=https%3a%2f%2fdocs.google.com%2fpresent%2fedit%3fid%3d0AYZE5aS0jKW4ZGdmcmhuYzRfMTI3Z2Q2dHE1ZmM%26hl%3den%26authkey%3dCOK3jgU

Anna Louisa Karsch

Anna Louisa Karsch (Anna Luise Karsch) – 1 December, 1722 to 12 October, 1791
· Father was a beer brewer, mother was an inn-keeper; very poor
· She was an autodidact, meaning she taught herself.
· Sent to live with her great-uncle, who taught her to read despite protests of her grandmother
· Mother took her home to hinder to education, convinced it would drive her “insane”
· When she was 10, she met a sheepherder who gave her books to read, but she had to hide them from her family
· Married young but her husband was abusive; separated and married again soon after, to an abusive drunkard
· A poem written for the widow and daughter of a nearby innkeeper got her recognition from a schoolmaster
· Began to write poems for weddings and celebrations
· Wrote many praises of Frederick, the Prussian King
· When her two youngest children died, she wrote “Klagen einer Witwe” (Complaints of a Widow), which gained her the notice of Frederick, who took her and her children to Berlin
· Most known for her correspondences rather than her poems, especially with Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (30 years longs correspondence)
· Gained attention from writers such as Lessing, Mendelssohn, Herder, and eventually Goethe
· Though promised financial security by Frederick, he did not deliver, and it was not until Frederick II that she had a house built for her where she lived till she died

· Known to her contemporaries as “Die Karschin”
· Authored or participated in 14 publications
o Die Sapphischen Lieder (The Sapphic Songs)
o An die Natur (To Nature)
o Gedichte (Poems)
o Neue Gedichte (New Poems)
o Auserlesene Gedichte (Exquisite Poetry)
o Gedichte und Lebenszeugnisse (Poems and Life Testimonies)
o Die Letzten Leiden des Erlösers (The Last Sufferings of the Redeemer)
o O, mir entwischt nicht, was die Menschen fühlen (Oh, I don’t escape what people feel)
o Herzgedanken (Heart Thoughts)
o Die Karschin (The Karschin)
o Die Gedichte der Anna Luise Karschin mit e. Bericht ihres Lebens (The Poems of Anna Louisa Karsch with a report of her life)
o Die Karschin, Friedrichs des Grossen Volksdichterin (The Karschin, Frederick the Great’s People’s Poet)
o Die Spazier-Gänge von Berlin (The Walking Course of Berlin)
o Ausgewählte Gedichte (Selected Poems)


Source 1
Source 2
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Women in Germany in the 18th Century

Before the French Revolution women were thought of as "passive" citizens and they had no political influence. They were unable to vote or hold office. Women were thought of as "failed man," and that the fetus was not fully developed while in the womb. They were considered servants to men and their education reflected that. During the French Revolution however, women were not able to be kept out of politics.

The Revolutionary era of women wanted equality of rights within their marriage. They wanted the right to divorce, more rights for widows over their property, and rights for widowed women over their minor children. They wanted publicly guaranteed educational opportunities for women, like what were available for men, training, licensing and support for midwives, rights to employment, and the exclusion of men from certain woman-dominated trades, such as dress-making.

On October 5th, 1789 the Women's March on Versailles occurred. It consisted of around 7,000 angry working class women marching to Versailles to demand lower bread prices. They brought with them weapons and sang songs about killing Queen Marie Antoinette. The women broke in to the palace and killed two guards, and stuck their heads on pikes. The Queen escaped through a secret passage before they ransacked her room. The mob gathered in the courtyard demanding the Queen come to the balcony. Even though there were muskets pointed at her she did appear. Her bravery did a lot to calm the crowd. The women still demanded bread and that the royal family move back to Paris. The King reluctantly agreed and the family made their way back to Paris.

Many reforms before this time were extremely discriminatory toward the working and peasant classes – male suffrage was limited to men who paid at least three days of wages as taxes, and female suffrage of course did not exist. Public aid was restricted even for able-bodied men and women who could not find employment because much of the aristocracy had fled.

There were other non-violent, yet still active, women who expressed their feelings through writing. Although women did not gain the right to vote and little was done to improve equality towards women, this was one of the first times that women were participating and involved in politics. They were protesting and acting out in the same ways as men and this led to the ability of generations to come to advance on what these women accomplished.

Because Germany is a neighbor of France, many of the policies and reforms made in France slowly leaked their way into Germany and German politics, especially when the western states of Germany were occupied by France. The French Revolution was arguably the beginning of the women’s rights movement in Germany.