Das Deutsche Problem: Human Rights and Cultural Conflict in Bavaria

This program will explore historical evolution and conflict within social, political, racial, religious, and cultural constructs – focused on events occurring within and emanating from the Bavarian region of Germany. Famous for its picturesque mountains and castles, for centuries Bavaria has also been a crucible for wrenching social change, and has fostered radical domestic policy and world-views ranging from "Mad" King Ludwig to the Third Reich. Students will learn and debate the philosophy and practice of social engineering within the German historical context – while touring the actual sites where the policies originated and were put into practice.

Topics for study will include:

• Kingdom, nation, state: Bavaria's socio-political evolution through the 19th Century
• Anti-Semitism in German history: roots, practices, and remedies
• The development and use of the "National Myth" as a tool of socio-political policy
• The role of landscape, monuments, and tourist sites in developing a "National Myth"
• Legal constructs for racial and social discrimination
• The Death of Multiculturalism in Germany – 20th Century Edition
• External political reformation and the imposition of "international norms"
• Post-War social reconstruction and the birth of multiculturalism
• Guest workers, immigrants, and terrorists – post-war German cultural development and strife
• The Death of Multiculturalism in Germany – 21st Century Edition

Historical sites students will tour include:

• Medieval churches Frauenkirche, St. Sebaldus, St. Ludwig
• Castles Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, and Linderof – King Ludwig's visionary palaces of "Bavarian" grandeur
• "The Eagles Nest" – Hitler's Alpine headquarters, including historical museum and underground bunker complex
• Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial
• The Nuremberg Human Rights Center and Palace of Justice (site of the post-WWII Nuremberg war crimes trials)
• German National Museum
• Jewish Museum
• Munich's 1972 Olympic Park and Memorials