Courses and Lectures on German-American Educational History in Summer 2017

Weimar on the Pacific, Weimar on the Hudson: "Bildung" in American Exile
Nicholas K. Johnson, M.A.

This seminar will explore the educational activities of the German-speaking refugee communities in Los Angeles and New York from the 1930s until the 1950s. These exiles included Theodor Adorno, Berthold Brecht, Billy Wilder, Thomas Mann, Max Horkheimer, and many others. The seminar will provide an overview of key academic exiles, especially those hosted by Columbia University, The New School, and the University of California, but also touch on their contributions to the American war effort during the Second World War. Additionally, the course will also explore how German-speaking exiles outside of academia sought to educate the American public on the dangers of fascism, particularly through Hollywood. The exile experience and how it shaped these important Weimar-era figures is the central theme of this course.

John Dewey's "Democracy and Education" (1916): Reading an American Classic
Professor Dr. Jürgen Overhoff

The US-American philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) was one of the world’s leading pedagogical theorists and most influential educational reformers of the twentieth century. His writings on progressive schooling, communication in the classroom, and the common interest of teachers and pupils, count, still today, as American classics on education. The pivotal point of all his educational treatises is the attempt to encourage teachers and school officials to teach democratic virtues by encouraging experimental intelligence and plurality in all educational institutions. His best known and at the same time most elaborate analysis of the democratic processes of education is his book “Democracy and Education” published in 1916 during World War I. The book was thus released at a time when US-President Woodrow Wilson famously sought to make the World “safe for democracy”. The seminar will be dedicated to a close reading and interpretation of the most important passages of Dewey’s literary masterpiece.

John Dewey: Democracy and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, New York 1916; Robert B. Westbrook: John Dewey and American Democracy, Ithaca, NY 1992