Berlin since 1945: History And Culture

Programme & literature for Eckard‘ classes

General works on the history of Berlin before and after 1945:

Gill Bennett (ed.), Documents on British Foreign Policy Overseas. Series 3/Vol. 6: Berlin in the Cold
War 1948-1990, London 2009.

Jens Bisky, Berlin: Biografie einer großen Stadt, Berlin 2019.

John Borneman, Belonging in the Two Berlins: Kin, State, Nation, Cambridge 1992.

Brian Ladd, The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape, Chicago 2008.

David Clay Large, Berlin: A Modern History, London 2002

Hanno Hochmuth (ed.), Stadtgeschichte als Zeitgeschichte: Berlin im 20. Jahrhundert, Göttingen
2019.

Gerd Langguth (ed.), Berlin: Vom Brennpunkt der Teilung zur Brücke der Einheit, Bonn 1990

Michael Lemke, Vor der Mauer: Berlin in der Ost-West-Konkurrenz 1948-1961, Cologne 2011

Moritz Völlmer, Individuality and Modernity in Berlin: Self and Society from Weimar to the Wall,
Cambridge 2013

Emily Pugh, Architecture, Politics and Identity in Divided Berlin, Pittsburgh 2014

Alexandra Ritchie, Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin, London 1999

Wilfried Rott, Die Insel: Eine Geschichte West-Berlins 1948-1990, Munich 2009

Bernd Stöver, Berlin: A Short History, Munich 2013

Week 1: Life Among Ruins: Berlin in the immediate post-war years (1945-1948)

Source: Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin (Diary 20 April to 22 June 1945), London 2011; German
version: Anonyma, Eine Frau in Berlin. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen vom 20. April bis 22. Juni 1945,
Frankfurt/M. 2003

Preparatory Reading: Atina Grossmann, ‘“A Question of Silence”: The Rape of German Women by
Soviet Occupation Soldiers’, In: Nicole Dombrowski (ed.), Women and War in the 20th Century,
London 1999; 162-183; Elisabeth Heinemann, ‘The Hour of the Women: Memoirs of the German
Crisis Years and West German National Identity’, in: American Historical Review, 101 (1996), 345-395;
Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, ‘Gazing at Ruins: German Defeat as Visual Experience’, in: Journal of
Modern European History, 9 (2011), 328-350, Annemarie Tröger, ‘Between Rape and Prostitution:
Survival Strategies and Possibilities of Liberation of Berlin Women 1945-1948, in: Judith Friedlaender
(ed.), Women in Culture and Politics: A Century of Change, Bloomington 1986.
Further literature: Antony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, London 2002; Richard Bessel, Germany
1945: From War to Peace, London 2009; Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler’s
Capital 1939-1945, London 2011; Jennifer Evans, Life Among Ruins. Cityscape and Sexuality in Cold
War Berlin, Basingstoke 2011; Miriam Gebhardt, Als die Soldaten kamen: Die Vergewaltigung
deutscher Frauen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs, Munich 2015; Martina Metzger, Bewältigung,
Auswirkungen und Nachwirkungen des Bombenkriegs in Berlin und London 1940-1955, Stuttgart
2011; Elisabeth Jarrik, ‘”The Golden Hunger Years”: Music and Superpower Rivalry in Occupied Berlin
1945-1947’, in: German History 22 (2004), 76-99; Norman Naimark, The Russians in Germany 1945-
1949. A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, Cambridge/Mass. 1995; Jörg Roesler, ‘The Black
Market in Post-War Berlin and the Methods Used to Counteract it’, in: German History, 5 (1989), 92-
107; Yuliya von Saal, Anonyma: “Eine Frau in Berlin” – Geschichte eines Bestsellers, in:
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 67 (2019), 343-376; Wolfgang Schivelbusch, In a Cold Crater:
Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin 1945-1948, Berkeley 1998; London 2004; Paul Steege, Black
Market – Cold War. Everyday Life in Berlin 1946-1949, Cambridge 2007; Leonie Treber, Mythos
Trümmerfrauen. Von der Trümmerbeseitigung in der Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit und der Entstehung
eines deutschen Erinnerungsortes, Essen 2014, Malte Zierenberg, Berlin‘s Black Market 1939-1950,
Basingstoke 2015

Week 3: Berlin as a Battleground of the Cold War: From the Berlin Airlift to the Quatripartite
Agreement (1948-1971)

Sources: Franz Neumann, Der Insulaner (1948); Khrushchev‘ Berlin Ultimatum 27 November 1958,
Letter from Brandt to Kennedy 15 August 1961; Kennedy’s Speech in Berlin 26 June 1963; Jung sind
die Linden(1966); Quadripartite Agreement September 1971

Preparatory Reading: Dominik Geppert, ‚“Proclaiming Liberty Throughout the Land“: Berlin and the
Symbolism of the Cold War‘, in: D. Geppert (ed.), The Post-War Challenge: Cultural, Social and
Political Change in Western Europe 1945-1958, Oxford 2003, 339-363;

Further literature: Timothy Garton Ash, In the Name of Europe: Germany and the Divided Continent,
London 1993; Burghard Ciesla (ed.), Sterben für Berlin? Die Berlin-Krisen 1948-1958, Berlin 1999;
Andreas Daum, Kennedy in Berlin: Politics and Culture in the Cold War, Cambridge 2008; Corine
Defrance (ed.), Die Berliner Luftbrücke: Erinnerungsort des Kalten Krieges, Berlin 2018; Stephanie
Eisenhut, Die Schutzmacht: Die Amerikaner in Berlin 1945-1994, Göttingen 2018; John Gearson (ed.),
The Berlin Wall Crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances, New York 2002; David Harrington, Berlin
on the Brink: The Blockade, the Airlift and the Early Cold War, Lexington 2012; Frederick Kempe,
Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrustchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth, London 2011; Michael
Lemke, Vor der Mauer. Berlin in der Ost-West-Konkurrenz 1948-1961, Cologne 2011; Annie
Grünbacher, ‚Sustaining the Island: Western Aid to 1950s West-Berlin‘, in: Cold War History 3 (2003),
1-23; Hope Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations 1953-1961,
Princeton 2005; Thomas Parrish, Berlin in the Balance 1945-1949. The Blockade – the First Major
Battle of the Cold War, Reading 1998; Klaus-Dietmar Henke (ed.), Die Mauer: Errichtung,
Überwindung, Erinnerung, Munich 2011; Mary Elie Sarotte, Dealing with the Devil: East Germany,
Détente and Ostpolitik 1969-1973, Chapel Hill 2001; Robert G. Waite, ‘“Ish bin ein Berlineer”: John F.
Kennedy’s June 1963 Visit to Berlin: The Views from East-Berlin’, in: Journal of Contemporary History
44 (2010), 844-865 .

Week 4: Capital of Protest und Subcultures - West-Berlin 1961 to 1989

Sources: Ton Steine Scherben, Mensch Meier (1972); Gebrüder Blattschuss, Kreuzberger Nächte sind
lang (1978); Ideal, Berlin (1980)

Preparatory reading: ; Timothy Brown, ‘Music as a Weapon? Ton, Steine, Scherben and the Politics
of Rock in Cold War Berlin’, in: German Studies Review 32 (2009), 1-22; Belinda Davis, ‘The City as
Theatre of Protest: West-Berlin and West-Germany 1962-1983’, in: Gyan Prakash (ed.), The Spaces of
the Modern City: Imaginairies, Politics and Everyday Life, Princeton 2008, 247-274; Carla MacDougell,
‘In the Shadow of the Wall: Urban Space and Everyday Life in Berlin-Kreuzberg’, in: Timothy Brown
(ed.), Between Avantgarde and Everyday: Subversive Politics in Europe from 1957 to the Present,
New York 2011, 154-173; David Barclay, ‘A Complicated Contrivance: West-Berlin Behind the Wall
1971-1989’, in: Marc Silverman (ed.), Walls, Borders, Boundaries, New York 2012, 113-130.

Further literature: Timothy Brown, The Anti-Authoritarian revolt 1962-1978: West Germany and the
Global Sixties, Cambridge 2013; Ulrich Chaussy, Rudi Dutschke: Die Biographie, Berlin 2018; Hanno
Hochmuth, Kiezgeschichte: Friedrichshain und Kreuzberg im geteilten Berlin, Göttingen 2017; Elke
Kimmel, West-Berlin: Biografie einer Halbstadt, Berlin 2018; Reinhild Kreis, ‘Heimwerken als Protest:
Instandbesetzter und Wohnungspolitiik in West-Berlin während der 1980er Jahre’, in: Zeithistorische
Studien online 14/2017; Richard Merritt (ed.), Living With the Wall: West-Berlin 1961-1985, Durham
1985; Eckard Michels, Schahbesuch 1967: Fanal für die Studentenbewegung, Berlin 2017; Bodo
Mrozek, ‚Vom Ätherkrieg zur Poppperschlacht: Die Popscape West-Berlin als Produkt der urbanen
und geopolitischen Konfliktgeschichte‘, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen 2/2014; Sven Reichardt,
Authentizität und Gemeinschaft: Linksalternatives Leben in den siebziger und frühen achtziger
Jahren, Frankfurt/M. 2014; Peter Schneider, Rebellion und Wahn: Mein ‘68, Cologne 2008; Nick
Thomas, Protest Movements in 1960s West Germany: A History of Dissent and Democracy, Oxford
2003; Tim Verlaan, ‘The Neukreuzberger Zentrum: Urban Planning, Property Developers and
Fractious Left-Wing Politics in West-Berlin 1963-1974’, in: German History 38 (2020), 113-132; James
Tent, The Free University of Berlin: A Political History, Bloomington 1988; Alexander Vasudevan,
Metropolitan Preoccupations. The Spatial Politics of Squatting in Berlin, Oxford 2015.

Week 8: East-Berlin - Capital of the GDR

Sources: Information über die Stimmung in Ost-Berlin Mai 1961; Am Tag darauf ohne Texashose
(Neues Deutschland, 22. August 1961); Reinhard Lakomy, Das Haus, wo ich wohne (1974)

Preparatory reading: Brian Ladd, ‘Socialism on Display: East-Berlin as a Capital’, in: Andreas Daum,
Berlin – Washington 1800 – 2000, Cambridge 2005, 217-232.

Further literature: Pertti Ahonen, Death at the Berlin Wall, Oxford 2009, Maoz Azaryahu,
‘Streetnames an Political Identity: The Case of East Berlin’, in: Journal of Contemporary History, 21
(1986), 581-604; Paul Betts, Within Walls: Private Life in the GDR, Oxford 2010; Alexander Burdumy,
Sozialpolitik und Repression in der DDR: Ost-Berlin 1971-1989, Essen 2014; Jürgen Danyel (ed.), Ost-
Berlin: 30 Erkundungen, Berlin 2019; Mary Fulbrook, The People’s State: East German Society from
Hitler to Honecker, London 2005; Hans Herrmann Hertle, Sofort, unverzüglich: Die Chronik des
Mauerfalls, Berlin 2019; Hanno Hochmuth, Kiezgeschichte: Friedrichshain und Kreuzberg im geteilten
Berlin, Göttingen 2017; Brian Ladd, ‘East Berlin Political Monuments in the Late GDR: Finding a Place
for Marx and Engels’, in: Journal of Contemporary History, 37 (2002), 91-105; Patrick Major, “Going
West”: The Open Boarder and the Problem of `Republikflucht`, in: P. Major and J. Osmond (eds.), The
Workers and Peasant State: Communism and Society in East Germany 1945-1971, Manchester 2002;
Patrick Major, Behind the Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power, Oxford 2010; Catherine
Pence (ed.), Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics, Ann Arbor 2008; Corey
Ross, ‘East Germans and the Berlin Wall: Popular Opinion and Social Change Before and After the
Border Closure of August 1961’, in: Journal of Contemporary History 39 (2004), 25-43; Eli Rubin,
‘From “Mietskaserne” to “Wohnungsbauserie 70” in East Berlin’s North-East’, in: Central European
History, 47 (2014), 334-374; Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin
Wall, New York 2014; Paul Stangl, Risen from Ruins: The Cultural Politics of Rebuilding East-Berlin,
Stanford 2018; Florian Urban, Neo-Historical East-Berlin: Architecture and Urban Design in the
German Democratic Republic 1970-1990, London 2016; Stefan Wolle, Ost-Berlin: Biografie einer
Hauptstadt, Berlin 2020.

Week 10: Berlin since 1989/90

Sources: Speeches by Norbert Blüm (CDU) and Wolfgang Thierse (SpD) in the Bundestag. 20 June
1991

Secondary Literature: Matthias Bernt (ed.), The Berlin Reader: A Companion on Urban Change and
Activism, Bielefeld 2013 (free online resource); Hope Harrison, After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the
Making of a New Germany, Cambridge 2019; Hanno Hochmuth, ‘Contested Legacies: Cold War
Memory Sites in Berlin’, in: Konrad Jarausch (ed.), The Cold War: History, Memory, Representation,
Berlin 2017, 283-299; Hermann Rudolf, Berlin – Wiedergeburt einer Stadt: Mauerfall, Ringen um die
Hauptstadt, Aufstieg zur Metropole, Cologne 2014; Peter Schneider, Berlin Now: The Rise of the City
and the Fall of the Wall, London 2014; M. Silberman (ed.), After the Wall: Berlin in Germany and
Europe, Basingstoke 2011.