From the Renaissance to Nazi Germany:Ancient Greece and Rome in German Nationalism

In 1943 the Nazi SS stormed the Italian Villa Fontedamo in search of a book: the "Germania" of the ancient Roman historian Tacitus. Storming the villa was just one example of a quest Germans had been undertaking since the Renaissance: to find German national identity with the help of Ancient Greece and Rome. In this course, we will study the impact that Greece and Rome had on German national identity starting in the 16th century, when a group of poet-scholars transformed ancient Roman texts into central components of German national identity. We will trace it through the Enlightenment in the 17th-18th centuries and the age of imperialism in the 19th century , ending with how the Nazis reinterpreted the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome as a justification for fascism and violent nationalism. We will debate extensively and write in detail about questions of authority, identity, tolerance, and intolerance. Our goals are to understand classical culture's potential for use and abuse, and to develop tools for historical thought and insight that help us understand the past and present.

Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; AS LCD; AS WI I; FA HUM; AR HUM; BU Hum; BU IS

From the Renaissance to Nazi Germany:Ancient Greece and Rome in German Nationalism

HISTORY 3087

Section 01