Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Berlin 1890-1933: Symphony of a (Great?) City
School	Lan, Cult, Art Hist & Music
Department	Art Hist, Cur and Vis Studies
Module Code	10 28863
Module Lead	Dr Camilla Smith
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module explores the cultural topography of Berlin and considers the city – both designed and represented space - as key capital of early twentieth-century modernist debate. Examining a range of works of art, architecture and film, as well as textual sources, this module explores the ways in which some of the defining practices and theories of the ‘Modernist Metropolis’ can be used to understand changing attitudes towards Berlin during Germany’s transition from Empire to Republic 1890-1933. The module will focus in particular on: Urban planning, architecture and designing modern dwelling spaces; consuming the city: sex, commodities and design of department stores; the city street: the artist-writer as flaneur/flaneuse murder and mental life: cultural responses to urban anonymity and surveillance. In order to consider these themes, this module will analyse several art historical moments associated with German Modernism (including Neue Sachlichkeit, German Expressionism, German neo-Impressionism). It will explore the work of artists, film makers, designers, photographers and architects such as; Bruno Taut; Grete Schütte-Lihotzky; Ludwig Meidner; Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; Hans Baluschek; Walter Ruttmann; Fritz Lang and August Sander, amongst others. As well as developing an understanding of the city as a site of complex social and psychological negotiations, students will be encouraged to engage critically with both historical (Simmel, Kracauer, Benjamin, Endell) and more contemporary theoretical conceptions of city space and place (De Certeau, Foucault, Lefebvre) in order to frame their interpretations of visual culture.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate a detailed and comprehensive knowledge of the module’s taught content. Describe relationships between relevant artworks and the cultural and social environment of the period covered by the module. Identify and analyse relevant artworks produced during the period covered by the module. Comment on theoretical and other matters embodied in primary or other sources relating to the period covered by the module.
Assessment	28863-01 : Essay : Coursework (50%) 28863-02 : 1.5hr EO Managed Exam : Exam (Centrally Timetabled) - Written Unseen (50%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 x 2500-word essay (50% of the final module mark) 1 x 1.5-hour unseen examination (50% of the final module mark) Alternative assessment if on campus activity is restricted: proctored exams will be converted to take home papers. Reassessment: Re-submission of failed component
Other
Reading List