Introductory description

Sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, always complicated, the relationship between Britain and Germany has been of central importance to the United Kingdom’s relations with continental Europe since the end of the nineteenth century. No other modern European state has inspired such a variety of responses – fear, admiration, envy, and revulsion – or been regarded by turns as such a valued partner or deadly enemy. Nor has any other relationship had such an enduring fascination for historians.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Autumn Term

1. Introduction - Patterns and Perspectives on the Anglo-German Relationship
2. ‘The German Revolution’? Britain and German Unification
3. Diplomacy in the Bismarck Era, 1871-90
4. Family Ties: Immigration, Inter-marriage and the Social Impact of Dynastic Politics
5. ‘On the Bummel’: Travel and Tourism, 1871-1914
6. Reading Week
7. ‘Our German Cousins’: Identity and Ethnicity in Anglo-German Relations
8. ‘A Nation of Damned Professors’: Educational and Intellectual Exchange before 1914
9. ‘The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism’: Relations under Wilhelm II
10. ‘The Crisis of the Anglo-German Antagonism’? The First World War

Spring Term

1. Making Peace: Versailles and German Democracy
2. The British in Germany: Diplomats, Occupiers and Enforcers of the Treaty
3. From the Ruhr Crisis to the ‘Locarno Spirit’: Normalising relations in the mid-1920s
4. ‘Germany Wants to See You’: Travel and Tourism in the 1920s and 30s
5. Cultural Links in the 1920s and 30s
6. Reading Week
7. Changing Perceptions of National Socialism, 1929-37
8. Appeasement
9. The Parting of the Ways? The Second World War
10. Coda: Anglo-German Relations since World War II

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the nature and development of Anglo-German relations between 1871 and 1945
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources relating to the Anglo-German relationship
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the Anglo-German relationship
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the Anglo-German relationship

Indicative reading list

• J. Mander, Our German cousins: Anglo-German relations in the 19th and 20th centuries (London, 1974).
• R. Gorner, Anglo-German Affinities and Antipathies (London, 2005).
• M. Görtemaker, Britain and Germany in the twentieth century (Oxford, 2006).
• W.J. Mommsen, Two centuries of Anglo-German relations: a reappraisal (London, 1984).
• M.C. Potter, The inspirational genius of Germany: British art and Germanism, 1850-1939 (Manchester, 2016).
• J. Ramsden, Don't mention the war: the British and the Germans since 1890 (Abacus, 2007).
• P. Oltermann, Keeping up with the Germans: a history of Anglo-German encounters (London, 2013).
• K. Robbins, Britain and Europe, 1789-2005 (Hodder Arnold, 2005)
• M. Seymour, Noble endeavours: the life of two countries, England and Germany, in many stories (London, 2014).
• B. Simms, Britain's Europe (Penguin, 2017).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.