Instructors: Professor George M. Muschamp
Department of Theatre Arts
Dr. Kenneth W. Pool
Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning
It's 1933, and you are a college student in Berlin. A minority of voters has just elected Adolf Hitler as Reich's Chancellor of the national German government. As the global Great Depression deepens, a clear majority of the Germans assert that Germany has been "heading in the wrong direction" for at least the past decade. "Anything is better than this," is a prevailing sentiment. Maybe the newly empowered Nazis can do something, finally, to "clean up the mess." Many of your friends and fellow students are sympathetic to Chancellor Hitler, a charismatic leader who seems to make "good, common sense." They rush to join his Nazi Party. Still, the Nazis are somewhat controversial, and people are torn. What do you do?
You will arrive at an answer through an in-depth experience with Address Unknown, a best-selling novel authored in 1935 by a beloved Gettysburg College professor, the late Katherine Kressmann Taylor. You will encounter other readings that reveal additional information about the era. The course includes varied field trips, live drama/film presentations and guest speakers. On the journey, you'll immerse yourself in a rich sampler of the politics, arts, culture, theatre, family life-even the cuisine-of pre-World War II San Francisco, Berlin, Munich and Vienna.
300 North Washington Street · Gettysburg, PA 17325