Volker Berghahn

I disagree with his having a silver star. I know I'm in the minority with that belief. But let me justify my claim: Prof. Berghahn is an exceptional lecturer, and well regarded by most taking his class. He's a great man and really cares about teaching and about students. That said, although his lectures are generally engaging and for the most part well organized, I felt like I didn't get that much out of them. He always had important points to make but I felt like the critical analysis just wasn't there, or when it was, it had no edge to it. In other words, critical engagement was often sacrificed for narrative, statistics, or anecdote. Sometimes, he will make banal platitudes about the importance of perspective in doing history, but never really said anything that made you think really hard after the lecture. It was easy to just go, type a few notes on the lecture, leave, and not think about it again until the final; similarly, discussion section was typically dry--"so, what do we notice about this document?" type of stuff. This class really didn't achieve what I think Humanities pedagogy is supposed to achieve. While I certainly do not regret taking the class, I definitely won't look back on this class as having shaped my intellectual development in any significant way. I'm sure the auditors--who took up literally the first 5-6 rows of seats--got more out of this class than…

I happened to love both European Catastrophe and Prof. Berghahn's class this semester on modern Germany. Prof. Berghahn is warm, friendly, and, most importantly an excellent scholar and an interesting lecturer. His frequent focus on social history and choice of (in my opinion) already fascinating periods of history makes his lectures easy to listen to. If you choose to write your final paper on your own topic, he is really available to talk about this outside of class and takes an active interest in your work. I'd take another class with him in a heartbeat.

Berghahn is a smiley, sheepish and friendly German man. Apparently, we dragged him away from Brown--take that for whatever it may mean. Pretty intelligent guy who focuses a lot on historiography, rather than the history of 20th century Germany. Don't pay any attention to the terms he puts on the board at the beginning of each lecture: they are completely irrelevant. This class can be depressing sometimes. Think about it: every day it's either about an economic depression, massive warfare, inept governments, etc., etc., etc. Thankfully, he took the godforesaken 700+ page biography of Hitler off his reading list (which students had to read in its entirety and write a 10-page review). Visit him in his office hours. And don't laugh too hard at his frequent usage of the word, "willy-nilly."

This was one of the best classes I have ever taken. Professor Berghahn is an incredibly engaging lecturer and anyone who likes history will absolutely love this course. He is a very fair grader- probably a bit generous at times - and he is always happy to meet with students. Berghahn is one of the best professors I have ever had. Also he does a good job of choosing TA's all of them were really nice.

Wretched, incomparable disappointment. This is the worst class I have taken from the otherwise excellent History department. It is difficult to believe that a course taught by a so-called distinguished professor for so many years can still seem like such a poorly organized train wreck. True, Volker could feign benevolence, granting the same post-Thanksgiving extension on the research paper he does every year (were he to merely readjust the due date on the syllabus, the opportunity to seem as if a warm and caring instructor would of course be lost). He will take the time to meet with you and recommend sources on your papers as well, but only up to a point (and will grade based on preconceptions he somehow gleaned from these meetings which may have little or nothing to do with the subject or contents of such papers- in fact, for all his reputed easy grading, my book review paper was far more generously graded by the otherwise notorious TAs). I found all his purported warmth to be as disingenuous as that of a department store Santa Claus. And as others have mentioned, the intellectual caliber of the class hardly compensates; if you do glean anything from lectures (most likely in the form of some obscure detail), it will not be in any coherently presented fashion- Volker will flit between tenuously connected topics, claim he is lecturing on one subject and deliver another, and spe…

A fantastic course overall. Professor Berghahn is brilliant and his lectures are lucid. Unlike many professors in the history dept., you can sense his genuine interest in making students understand the material. Anyone interested in taking this course to learn about the Holocaust should look elsewhere, as the factors leading up to it and its ramifications are the true focus of mid-century lectures. Berghahn tries (and mostly succeeds) on showing different aspects of Germany society, politics, and culture. I'd advise actually going to lectures and taking good notes, since the exam questions are essentially lecture topics. A great course overall made possible by a wonderful professor.

Other reviewers have already said it right. Volker cares - he always has a big smile on his face in the front of the class, lectures without notes, is awesome to meet with in person, etc. (I feel like he'd be an awesome seminar professor), but this class is really boring. I'm a history major, and I usually love going to my history classes because the professors say such interesting new things about the subject, or shed some new light on an event or period - but this class taught me nothing that I felt like I couldn't learn instead by staying home and reading wikipedia. It was a real disappointment. I stopped going half way through the semester. The workload for this class is also too much. A 7-8 page book review and 15-17 page research paper - for a maximum total of 25 pages is more pages than were assigned for my 4 point seminar, and more than my other three history classes this past semester combined. People seemed to love "Homage to Catalonia" - but its a very difficult book to review (and I thought it was dull). That paper was also graded harshly. I chose to do my own topic for the research paper, but after deciding to pass/fail this class, I did a pretty terrible job (and yet, still received the same grade on it as the book review that I actually worked at). I would avoid this class, I had high hopes for it, and it was a huge letdown. Volker's great though - if you have t…

Prof. Berghahn is without question one of the shining stars of Columbia -- not just within the History Department, but of the University as a whole. This class was an absolute pleasure: interesting, provocative, engaging and empowering. Prof. Berghahn's kind nature and brilliant mind come through in his teaching style -- his lectures are perfectly organized (and he even provides a brief recap of the previous class meeting which is very helpful), he had a soft-spoken and kind demeanor, and he truly welcomes questions. When I visited him during Office Hours, he seemed undistracted and genuinely interested in my questions and my well-being in general. His review of my classwork was at once thorough, rigorous and encouraging. He comes with an understated brilliance that is inspiring. On the basis of this classroom experience, I would take virtually any course that Prof. Berghahn offers.

I really did enjoy the class overall. I thought that his lectures were very interesting, although I noticed that other people who reviewed him did not agree. My main problem with the course was the TAs. Avoid courses where TAs grade your work. They grade extremely hard. He gives the option of attending a discussion section and then each of your papers and your final will count less when calculating your end grade. While this sounds ideal, do not do it. While you may think that it will be easy to get an A in the discussion section it is not worth it because if you are in a discussion section your TA will grade your papers. The TAs grade unfairly. If you are not in a discussion section, while the papers and tests will count more, you are more likely to do better on them, because Professor Berghahn will grade the papers himself, which is ideal. He is a great man. If you take the class, try to meet with him at some point. He is very interesting. Also for the final paper, try to pick your own topic as opposed to one of the options he gives you.

The finest gentleman around, professor Berghahn is polite, respectful, pleasant, organized, and caring. He is exactly what I had always dreamed an Ivy League professor should be. He will guide you through the material, he will answer your questions, he will respond to your e-mails within an hour or so, and be there to help you. I can't tell you how much I've learned in this course - granted the subject is fascinating to most people, he sure makes it even more so. Take his class, history major or not - the professor alone is worth your while.