HIS 324 - Modern Germany: Sex in Modern Germany (1)

Few would argue with the assertion that modern Germany played an extraordinarily large role in shaping the global twentieth century, not least because of the two World Wars, the Holocaust, the division of East and West in the Cold War, etc. But historians have argued more recently that German notions and expressions of sexuality from the nineteenth century to today have been equally influential in the creation of “modern” and, indeed, contemporary notions of sex and sexual identity, more specifically. This course will investigate the German history of sex and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By focusing on such topics as the “German invention of homosexuality” (Beachy); the birth of sexual science in Germany and Vienna; intimacy and dating technology at the turn of the twentieth century; the new visibility of alternative sexualities in the 1920s; Nazi and wartime sexuality; Beate Uhse and the commercialization of sex and sex toys; sexual revolutions in the 1960s; sexuality behind the Iron Curtain; etc., this course aims to understand not just modern German history but also (and more importantly) the way we as modern people understand and negotiate sex, intimacy, sexuality, and identity in the twenty-first century. Prerequisite: HIS 104 or junior standing. Offered subject to availability of faculty. No alternate grade option.
(Humanities)