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German Politics During the Cold War: A Four Part Course with Dr. Finn Ballard
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- We’ll discuss how the alliance between the Allied forces of World War Two disintegrated immediately after VE Day, and see how the Berlin Blockade and subsequent Berlin Airlift precipitated the division of the capital city and country.
- We’ll learn about the uprising of June 1953, and how those critical of the ‘German Democratic Republic’ were suppressed.
- We’ll see how the Berlin Wall came to rise in 1961 and fall in 1989. And we’ll learn how close the world came to the brink of a much worse catastrophe - more than once!
Led by an expert on twentieth-century German history, Dr. Finn Ballard, this course will answer all the questions you’ve ever wanted to ask about the ‘hermit kingdom’ of East Germany. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of the nuances of this oh-so-recent German history.
In this session, we'll explore the history of demilitarisation, division, and 'denazification.' We'll discover how the stage for the division of Germany was set during World War Two, and consider how different world history may have developed in the immediate post-war years had other hypotheses - like the short-lived 'Morgenthau Plan' by which Germany would have been reduced to an agrarian backwater - come to fruition. We'll see how tensions between the wartime Allies turned to outright hostility almost before the ink was dry on the Germans' pledge of unconditional surrender on VE Day.
Lecture Two – Candy Bombers, Demonstrations, and a New Dictatorship:
In our second session, we'll explore Stalin's last-ditch effort to annex West Berlin: the Berlin Blockade. We'll learn about the incredible Western Allied response - the Berlin Airlift - and how this gesture of solidarity, generosity, and indeed self-sacrifice (by Germany's former enemies) precipitated a vast migration westwards. We'll examine the creation of 'Stalinallee,' East Germany's new showcase boulevard, and what lay beneath this sheen: state-orchestrated violence and draconian levels of control.
Lecture Three – The Berlin Wall and the Stasi:
In this class, we'll explore how the Berlin Wall came to be, and the international response to it - not to mention the Berliners' response. We'll also focus on the State Security Service or Stasi, one of the most sinister secret police forces the world has ever known, and see how these two enormous obstacles to freedom impacted everyday life in the East - and West.
Lecture Four – The Great Collapse:
In our final session, we'll discuss the history of how the Berlin Wall really collapsed, and how the Soviet Union dissolved itself immediately thereafter. We'll learn of how the scars of the Cold War manifest themselves in Berlin and Germany today, discuss the phenomenon of 'Ostalgie,' 'nostalgia for the East,' and ponder the question: has Germany ever really reunited?
Finn grew up in Northern Ireland before moving to England to study and later teach in the department of Film and Literature at the University of Warwick. He completed his doctoral study on German folklore and popular cinema in 2012, and has published extensively in the fields of Film Studies and Gender Studies. Since 2008, he has been living and guiding in Berlin. He now works as a historical advisor for television and film productions set in Berlin, particularly during the Weimar era or Third Reich. He is a journalist for the 'Siegessauele', Europe's foremost Queer magazine, and organises events at Berlin's English-language bookstore 'Another Country'.
Not suitable for children under age 13 (sensitive content).
90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.
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What an incredible drama those years were, and Finn keeps you hanging on every word. He's a great storyteller, a very knowledgeable historian, and very personable. So glad I signed up for this class.
Finn always keeps me totally interested in whatever he is talking about.This time, the Cold War came alive for me. As a teenager I was not interested except when we worried about WHO was going to drop the bomb!
The final lecture in a four part course, and like all lectures/seminars, it was well organized, informative, and substantive. With Dr.Ballard’s warm personality and friendly presentation style.
Finn provided a first class look at the "history" of the Cold War up to and including the fall of the Berlin Wall and its aftermath. His portrayal of the main players was most illuminating (and depressing - so little has changed....)