Summer Study Abroad: The Cold War in Europe--Berlin, Prague
Instructors (Director and Co-Director): J.M. van der Laan, Katherine McCarthy
Syllabus and Program Schedule
Date
Day
Place
classes/activities
Due dates
June 3
Sat
Chicago
PM: check into apartments; Orientation with AIFS staff;
June 4
Sun
Arrive
Berlin
mandatory student meeting; welcome dinner (AIFS)
Week 1--Cold War begins: From Potsdam to Berlin Airlift and Communization of E Europe, 1945-53
June 5
Mon
Berlin
No classroom
AM: bus tour of Berlin (AIFS)
PM: walking tour 1--Prenzlauer Berg
Classroom: 9-12
June 6
Tues
Berlin
AM: JV--Kunze, The Wonderful Years
KM--1945: Berlin at war's end and Potsdam treaty
PM: walking tour 2--Berlin Mitte, Jewish Quarter
June 7
Wed
PotsNo classroom: All day Excursion to Potsdam
dam
Potsdam, Sanssouci, Cecilienhof tour, Glienicke Bridge
("bridge of spies") (AIFS)
Classroom: 9-12
June 8
Thurs
Berlin
afternoon free
KM--Origins of Cold War, Berlin Blockade and the division
of Germany
JV--Kunze, The Wonderful Years
Classroom: 9-12
June 9
Fri
Berlin
afternoon free
JV--Kunze, The Wonderful Years
KM--"Communizing" Eastern Europe from 1948
Czechoslovak coup to 1953 Berlin Uprising
free
June 10
Sat
suggestions for optional excursions: Steamboat ride on
Havel lakes (Sieben-Seen Rundfahrt); or day-trip to
Hamburg, Dresden, or Leipzig
free
June 11
Sun
Week 2--From the Secret Speech to the Thaw and its limits: 1956-1968
Classroom: 9-12
June 12
Mon
Berlin
Journal/daybook
AM: JV--The Lives of Others (film)
June 3-11
KM--Khrushchev’s Secret Speech, the Thaw and Everyday
life: Workers, Dissidents, and Party Hacks
PM: DDR museum--tour guided by faculty
Classroom: 9-12
June 13
Tues
Berlin
AM: JV--The Lives of Others, discussion
KM--Building the Berlin Wall
PM: walking tour 3--Berlin Wall Memorial, Checkpoint
Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden
June 14
Wed
Berlin
No classroom:
AM: AIFS--tour of escape tunnels under the Wall;
PM: walking tour 4-- Tiergarten (Soviet War Memorial),
Friedrichstraße, Palace of Tears
Classroom: 9-12
June 15
Thur
Berlin
AM: KM-- Prague Spring, WPO invasion, and the Brezhnev
Doctrine
JV--Kundera, The Joke
PM: Guest speakers on Berlin and life in the GDR
June 16
Fri
Berlin
No classroom:
afternoon free
AM: Stasi museum (faculty-guided tour)
PM: Optional: Spree boat tour and "Beach bar"
free
June 17
Sat
suggestion for optional day-trip: Sachsenhausen
free
June 18
Sun
suggestion for optional excursion: Charlottenburg
Week 3--Communism in Decline and Collapse: Brezhnev Doctrine to Common European Home and
German Unification, 1969-1990
free
June 19
Mon
Classroom: 9-12
June 20
Tues
Berlin
AM: JV--Kundera, The Joke
KM--Communism loses legitimacy in 1970s. Goulash
communism, political repression, and anti-politics
PM: Blochplatz and Packstraße nuclear shelters (AIFS)
Classroom: 9-12
June 21
Wed
Berlin
AM: JV-- Goodbye Lenin (film)
KM-- Gorbachev's reforms, communism collapses: GDR,
Czechoslovakia
PM: Hohenschönhausen Prison and Memorial (AIFS)
Classroom: 9-12
June 22
Thur
Berlin
AM: JV--Goodbye Lenin, discussion
KM-- Berlin Wall opens 11/9/89; German unification; Soviet
Union falls
PM: Reichstag tour (AIFS); Eastside Gallery (Wall)
free
June 23
Fri
Journal/daybook
June 12-22
free
June 24
Sat
suggestion for optional excursion: Waldsiedlung
free
June 25
Sun
suggestion for optional excursion: Trümmerberg
Teufelsberg in Grunewald
Week 4--Beyond Berlin: Rise and Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia
June 26
Mon
Berlin/
check out of Berlin apts., travel to Prague, check-in to
afternoon free
Prague
hostel/hotel
PM: group dinner
AM: Optional Bus Tour of Prague
June 27
Tues
Prague
PM: (AIFS) guided walking tour--Prague Castle, Jewish
quarter, New Old Synagogue, and entrances
AM: communism in Czechoslovakia (discuss Kovaly,
June 28
Wed
Prague
Charter 77, Vaclav Havel, Civic Forum)
PM: (AIFS) guided walking tour of “Communist” Prague
(1945-1989); including sites for 1948 coup, Slansky trial
Prague Spring, WPO invasion
Museum of Communism, Havel Library
--evening--Magic Lantern show (AIFS)
AM: walking tour of dissident sites and Velvet Revolution
June 29
Thur
Prague
afternoon free
sites, 1989-1990
PM: farewell group dinner (AIFS)
June 30
Fri
Prague/ Depart from Prague and arrive in Chicago
Chicago
Journal/daybook
June 23-30 and
final reflection-due; no
exceptions or
extensions
Course description:
Students will be reading novels by renowned writers as well as memoirs by eye witnesses about the Cold
War in Europe. As well, they will view films depicting everyday life under communism. They will visit many
of the important sites related to the Cold War and reflect on the past while experiencing the present. In
Berlin and Prague, students will explore city neighborhoods, visit museums, historic sites, and memorials of
the places they will be studying. Discussion and reflective daily journal entries will enable students to
process their new perspective on German and Czech experiences and cultures, provide a more global
perspective than can be found at ISU, and foster lifelong curiosity and openness about other cultures.
This course is designed to take full advantage of local resources in Berlin and Prague in order to enhance
student understanding of the Cold War in Europe. In Berlin, students will be able to study and then see
firsthand the major sites of the Cold War from the Potsdam settlement in 1945, to the Berlin Blockade and
Airlift, to the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Prague will allow students to visit sites
associated with the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, the popular communist coup in 1948, Dubcek and
the Prague Spring and Soviet invasion, 1968 and Vaclav Havel and the collapse of communism in 1989 as
well as the subsequent division of Czechoslovakia. These courses supplement ISU campus curricula and
offer a more hands-on approach to learning about the Cold War than what is possible in courses at ISU.
Attendance and participation:
All students are required to participate in all classes, activities, and events. All students must attend all
classes, activities, and events in order to participate. Participation is graded according to the quality of the
contribution to course discussions. In other words, each student’s grade corresponds to the level of
intellectual engagement with the readings, films, tours, events, and activities.
Assignments:
Read and/or view all books and films.
Attend and take part in all tours, events, and activities.
Write a journal or day book for every meeting day of the program. This journal should consist of thoughtful
reflections on the texts or films and events or activities of each day. As such, each daily journal entry
should be at least 2-3 pages in length. Journals are due at times specified on the program schedule.
Assignment values:
25%--Journal/Day Book 1
25%--Journal/Day Book 2
25%--Journal/Day Book 3
25%--Attendance and participation
Grading scale:
A--90-100%
B--80-89%
C--70-79%
D--60-69%
F--below 60%
Texts and materials:
A personal journal
Kundera, The Joke (1969, definitive version, 1993 Harper-Perennial)
Kunze, The Wonderful Years
Leo, Red Love
The following films will be provided for viewing by the professors:
The Lives of Others (2006)
Goodbye Lenin (2003)