HIST 001W. First-Year Seminar: Migration and the Making of Modern Germany

This First-Year Seminar examines the history of modern Germany through the lens of migration. From the formation of the German Empire in 1871 through the aftermath of the 2015 refugee crisis, migrants have been at the center of the politial, cultural, social, and economic conflicts that have forged the modern German state. Over nearly 150 years, Germany underwent three major transformations. First, it shifted from a region of mass emigration to become the world’s second-largest immigration destination by 1914. Then, during the interwar period, its fledgling democracy gave way to a genocidal ethnostate. Finally, the post-1945 era saw an ethnically cleansed and ideologically divided nation evolve into today’s multicultural Federal Republic, where one in five citizens claims an “immigrant background.” As we analyze the many clashes over race, gender, class, religion, family, mobility, and national identity that attended these movements, we will explore a variety of approaches to studying migrations historically. Key topics include mass emigration and colonial expansion; settler colonialism and the migration of colonial subjects to the German metropole; the rise of modern antisemitism, refugees, genocide, and ethnic cleansing; anti-imperialism and educational migration from the Global South; “guest workers” and Afro-German history; as well as asylum-seeking and ongoing debates about the role of Islam in German society. This writing course will engage a wide array of primary and secondary sources, ranging from academic monographs and article to autobiographies, films, letters, police reports, novels, visual media, and video games.
Concentration: Domination and Resistance. Writing (applied for)
Social sciences.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Eligible for BLST, ISLM, CULTID, MDS
Fall 2025. Van Zee
Catalog chapter: History
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/history

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