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Instructors: Dr. Eveline Bouwers
Event type:
Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
Ü.Neueste.Ges.
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
1 | 23
Registration group: WS 14 Üb NG
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Contents:
Despite recent trends to link all things European to ‘Brussels’, i.e. to the institutions of the European Union, the idea of a united Europe is both older and more heterogeneous than this. When in the early-nineteenth century Napoleonic power came crashing down, some pleaded for a European federation to prevent future war. In 1847, French author and pacifist Victor Hugo launched the idea of a ‘United States of Europe’. Initially contested, the idea was revived after World War I, when Austrian statesman Coudenhove-Kalergi established the Pan-Europa Movement and French Prime Minister Aristide Briand urged for a European Federal Union. Although during the 1930s and 1940s such ideas were necessarily put on hold, individuals were not deterred to contemplate post-war cooperation. With the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, the basis was created for an ever expanding, ever closer union of states: The European Union.
Although this course will look at the creation of European institutions, it is not a course on European integration history. Rather, the focus will be on ideas for a united Europe and on the process of forging what may tentatively be called a shared European identity. To this end, we will examine ideas of Europe as proposed by statesmen, interest groups, intellectuals and artists, and look at interstate cooperation. We will probe how institutional collaboration was realized, what form it took and what rituals and symbols were used to ‘perform’ Europe. As a result, much of the course readings will consist of primary sources.
Students are required to (i) actively participate in class, (ii) give a short presentation on an object or document that either represents or challenges the idea of Europe, (iii) contribute to a collective project at the end of term.
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