HS3SCW: "Cold War Berlin: Politics and Culture in a Divided City, 1945-89"

Module code: HS3SCW

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 40

ECTS credits: 20

Level: 6

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Professor Patrick Major, email: p.major@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: No placement specified

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 25 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Specials aim to provide 'hands-on' experience of the historian's task through close examination and evaluation of primary sources and the light they shed on issues and problems. 

• Review the historiography of Cold War Berlin both before and after 1989;
• Reveal how Eastern and Western documents propagandised the same events;
• Explore the intersection of high politics and bottom-up history at a geo-political fault line;
• Reflect on the cultural representation of the divided city in film, photography and music. 

The purpose of the module is to allow students to develop and demonstrate the skills they have gained working with primary sources throughout their degree programme.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. undertake detailed textual analysis and comment on the primary materials;
2. achieve a detailed command of varying historical interpretations of the primary materials and subject as a whole;
3. organise material and articulate arguments effectively in writing to a deadline;
4. locate and assemble information on the subject by independent research

Module content

The divided city of Berlin was the front line of the European Cold War. Two global systems cut through streets, rail lines, even sewers, as well as the family ties which criss-crossed the city. This Special Subject uses recently declassified documents available since the fall of the Wall to explore the politics of liberation in 1945, the Berlin Blockade and Airlift of 1948-49, the 17 June 1953 insurrection in East Germany, as well as the mass exodus of the 1950s which ultimately led to the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 as well as its fall in 1989. Besides superpower politics and intelligence operations - Berlin was after all 'spy city' - the module will cover everyday life in extraordinary circumstances, including the problem of mass rapes, the black market, reconstruction and denazification. Popular opinion from below will be furnished through situation reports collected by the western military governments and the East German party and Stasi. We also cover the student movement in West Berlin in the sixties, and the birth of urban guerrilla terrorism in the seventies. The module will, moreover, consider the cultural representation of division through feature films and literature, including the spy thrillers of Ian Fleming and John le Carré.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

• The teaching for this module involves weekly two-hour discussion seminars;
• Students will gain ‘hands-on’ experience of the historian’s task through the detailed evaluations of key texts, objects, and images, and the light they shed on the issues and problems being investigated;
• Students will be required to prepare for seminars through reading from both the primary sources and the secondary literature.

Study hours

At least 44 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

1,000 words or 2 pages of A4 maximum to include, at the module convenor's discretion, an essay plan, bibliography, book review or other preparatory work towards each of the summative assessments.

Reassessment

Additional costs