Write an essay on ONE of the topics listed below:
Recommended length: 5,000 words
Submission date: 12 noon, Thursday Week 4 of Term 3

You are recommended to consult the following three Department documents when writing this essay:

• Undergraduate Studies Handbook
• Assessed-essay-writing guidelines
• Essay-marking criteria for Options and Core Modules

1. ‘Zeugnisse guten Willens, zugleich aber wieder Dokumente der Ratlosigkeit’ (Günther Mahal). Discuss with reference to a representative selection of texts from the material in the collection Die Berliner Moderne, 1885-1914.

2. ‘Tatsächlich ist es die Erfahrung der Großstadt Berlin, die Konfrontation eines in der Provinz herangebildeten kleinbürgerlichen Bewußtseins mit der Hektik, der Unübersichtlichkeit, den Massenmenschen, dem Elend der industrialisierten Metropole, aus denen die Entstehung der künstlerischen Moderne, ihr unklarer und widersprüchlicher Charakter verstanden werden können.’ (Jürgen Schutte and Peter Sprengel). Discuss with reference to a representative selection of texts or visual material produced before 1930 that you have studied on the module.

3. ‘Die psychologische Grundlage, auf der der Typus großstädtischer Individualitäten sich erhebt, ist die Steigerung des Nervenlebens, die aus dem raschen und ununterbrochenen Wechsel äußerer und innerer Eindrücke hervorgeht.’ (Georg Simmel). Analyse the significance of Simmel’s essay ‘Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben’ of 1903 for an understanding of Walther Ruttmann’s film Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt.

4. Compare and contrast the representation of modernity and the urban metropolis in Walther Ruttmann’s film Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt and a representative selection of texts or visual material produced before 1930 that you have studied on this module.

5. Does the technical complexity of Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz in your view detract from or enhance its validity as a portrait of social, political and existential concerns in Berlin during the late 1920s?

6. Which work in your view more successfully encapsulates the experience of urban modernity in 1920s Berlin: Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, or Ruttmann’s Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt?

7. Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz has been described as ‘little more than a pessimistic reaffirmation of the powerlessness of the individual when confronted by the forces of modern urban life.’ How far would you agree (or disagree) with this interpretation of the novel?

8. Compare and contrast the way in which the border between East and West Berlin is used to debate questions of both national and personal identity in ANY TWO of the following: Gerhard Klein Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser; Klaus Schlesinger Die Spaltung des Erwin Racholl; Peter Schneider Der Mauerspringer.

9. To what extent can Klaus Schlesinger’s Die Spaltung des Erwin Racholl and Peter Schneider's Der Mauerspringer – both texts in which the division of Berlin plays a crucial role – be regarded as ‘political’ texts? How is the political’ conceptualised in these texts?

10. Compare and contrast the representation of division – personal, geographical and political – in Klaus Schlesinger’s Die Spaltungen des Erwin Racholl and Peter Schneider’s Der Mauerspringer.

11. Compare and contrast the cinematic techniques deployed in Jürgen Böttcher’s Die Mauer and Hito Steyerl’s Die leere Mitte. Compare and contrast the kind of political narratives that emerge from the focus of these films on the ‘Wende’?

12. In his essay of 1996 ‘Ab durch die Mitte. Ein Liebesversuch’ Thomas Knauf uses two phrases to describe possible functions of architecture: ‘Machtdarstellung’, and ‘Erschliessung künftiger Lebensräume’. Analyse Berlin’s topographical development in the light of these contrasting conceptions. Your approach can be broad-ranging, i.e. covering a century or more, or shorter, e.g. post 1900, or post first-world-war or pre and/or post Wende. Your essay should include a range of visual and textual examples, and analysis of the political, social and moral values expressed by the constructs under discussion, as well as an explanation of the reasons for your choice of period and material.

13. ‘Berlin’s future is dependent on its past.’ (Gary Catchen). Show by means of a representative selection of buildings, texts, and/or monuments (including the Berlin Wall) how Berlin’s current architectural renewal is symbolic of the continuous connection between Berlin’s history, its present, and its future.

14. ‘Wir könnten natürlich auch endlich einmal schlicht von Berlin sprechen. Aber dann würden wir ja von einer ganz normalen Stadt erzählen.’(Claudia Schwarz) Discuss with reference to a representative selection of textual, visual and architectural material studied on the module.

15. ‘It is in Berlin’s buildings that the turbulent history of the city is most clearly expressed.’ Discuss, with an analysis of THREE of the following: the Berliner Stadtschloss, The Reichstag, the Olympia-Stadion, Flughafen Tempelhof, the Palast der Republik, the Neue Wache, Treptower Park, the Holocaust-Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, and the Jüdisches Museum.

16. ‘Berlin ist mehr Ost als West’ (Thilo Sarrazin). How far do you agree (or disagree) with this observation? You should illustrate your answer with reference to a representative selection of textual, visual and architectural material studied on the module.

We also invite students to submit their own titles if none of the above coincides with a particular interest. However, you MUST NOT simply start working on a title of your own; you must submit it to SA/SL for prior approval by the end of Week 9 (and we will seek approval of the external examiner).

Please note that some of the questions invite you to answer ‘with reference to a representative selection of textual, visual and architectural material studied on the module.’ If you are unsure whether or not the material you propose to discuss in your essay is sufficiently wide-ranging and/or representative, please consult the module tutors.

SA/SL, February 2012