Oct 7, 2021-Feb 3, 2022: 16 Week History Course – Postwar Germany: Stunde Null 1945 to the Berlin Wall

In this course the focus will be on the life in postwar Germany, the trying, despairing, crisis laden years of the Allied occupation between 1945 and 1948, including the starvation winters, the black market economy, the degasification processes and the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.

Furthermore, the life in the Soviet satellite known as the German Democratic Republic will be discussed and how its secret police apparatus, the Stasi, turned its citizens into a nation of informants. How occupied Germany evolved into the epicenter of the emerging Cold War as relations between East and West Germany and the superpowers supporting them became increasingly strained.

How the West German state came into being via the Berlin Airlift will be emphasized, currency reform and the Marshall Plan which would set it on course to realize the Wirtschaftwunder (economic miracle) that made West Germany a preeminent economic power again and the “Made in Germany” brand globally respected the world over. All events which would compel more than 2.5 million East Germans to flee to the West between 1949 and 1961–causing the infamous Berliner Mauer (Wall) to be constructed.