These will take place at the beginning of seminars in terms two and three, in the form of a three-person debate. Speakers should make the arguments in favour of each proposition, raising questions for the rest of the seminar group to discuss. Try to keep to 10 minutes - use a cue card rather than extensive notes. Handouts are a useful way of summarising information. Don’t be afraid to be polemical - your aim is to be thought-provoking for the rest of the group. I have suggested some key books below debate questions.

When you have decided, please sign up for a slot on the master-sheet on tutor's door (available Week 10, Autumn Term).

Week 1 (Term Two) - Collapse of Weimar

A. The ballot box brought the Nazis to power.
Childers, The Nazi Voter; Fischer, The Rise of the Nazis

B. The Army brought the Nazis to power.
Craig, Politics of the Prussian Army; Geary, in Stachura (ed.), Nazi Machtergreifung

C. Big Business brought the Nazis to power

Week 3 - Nazi Society

A. Gestapo terror was primarily responsible for the stability of the Third Reich.
Gellately, The Gestapo and German Society; Johnson, Nazi Terror

B. Propaganda and welfarism were primarily responsible for stability in the Third Reich.
Kershaw, The Hitler Myth; Welch, The Third Reich: Propaganda and Politics

C. Popular support was primarily responsible for stability in the Third Reich.
Gellately, Backing Hitler

Week 7 - Occupied Germany and the Cold War

A. The Soviets were primarily responsible for the division of Germany.
Naimark, The Russians in Germany

B. The Americans were primarily responsible for the division of Germany.
Eisenberg, Drawing the Line

C. The British were primarily responsible for the division of Germany.
Deighton, The Impossible Peace

D. The French were primarily responsible for the division of Germany.

Week 9 - West Germany

A. West German society was driven by materialism and amnesia about the Nazi past.
Hartrich, The Fourth and Richest Reich

B. West German society became a model of tolerance, democracy and civic responsibility.
Burns, Protest and Democracy in West Germany

Week 1 (Term Three) - East Germany

A. East Germany was a totalitarian police state.
Gelb, The Berlin Wall; Dennis, Stasi

B. East Germany’s welfare state created a basic loyalty to the system.
Jarausch, Dictatorship as Experience

Week 3 (Term Three) - United Germany

A. United Germany's main problems came from the former East Germany

B. United Germany's main problems came from globalisation