Erik N. Jensen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395648
- eISBN:
- 9780199866564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395648.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and ...
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Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. Athletes in the 1920s took the same techniques that were streamlining factories and offices and applied them to maximizing the efficiency of their own flesh and bones. Sportswomen and men embodied modernity — quite literally — in all of its competitive, time‐oriented excess and thereby helped to popularize, and even to naturalize, the sometimes threatening process of economic rationalization by linking it to their own personal success stories. Enthroned by the media as the new cultural icons, athletes radiated sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self‐determination. Champions in tennis, boxing, and track and field showed their fans how to be “modern,” and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the limits of the physical body, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today — sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women — received its first articulation in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body.Less
Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. Athletes in the 1920s took the same techniques that were streamlining factories and offices and applied them to maximizing the efficiency of their own flesh and bones. Sportswomen and men embodied modernity — quite literally — in all of its competitive, time‐oriented excess and thereby helped to popularize, and even to naturalize, the sometimes threatening process of economic rationalization by linking it to their own personal success stories. Enthroned by the media as the new cultural icons, athletes radiated sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self‐determination. Champions in tennis, boxing, and track and field showed their fans how to be “modern,” and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the limits of the physical body, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today — sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women — received its first articulation in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body.
Michael Tracey
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159254
- eISBN:
- 9780191673573
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159254.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Public broadcasting was the single most important social, cultural, and journalistic institution of the twentieth century. In the 15 years preceding the publication of this book, it had been ...
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Public broadcasting was the single most important social, cultural, and journalistic institution of the twentieth century. In the 15 years preceding the publication of this book, it had been assaulted politically, ideologically, technologically, and was everywhere in retreat. This book considers the idea of public service broadcasting and examines in detail the assault made upon it, with specific emphasis on global developments and events in the United Kingdom, Japan, Europe, and the United States. It argues that public service broadcasting has been a vital and democratically significant institution now experiencing a terminal decline brought about by changes in political, economic, and technological circumstances. Based on years of research and extensive contact with leading public broadcasters around the world, the book examines the idea of public service broadcasting and how for the most part it has vainly (and often ineffectually) struggled to survive. It concludes that public broadcasting is, as was once said of Weimar, a corpse on leave. Its likely disappearance constitutes an indication of a real and deep-seated crisis within liberal democracy.Less
Public broadcasting was the single most important social, cultural, and journalistic institution of the twentieth century. In the 15 years preceding the publication of this book, it had been assaulted politically, ideologically, technologically, and was everywhere in retreat. This book considers the idea of public service broadcasting and examines in detail the assault made upon it, with specific emphasis on global developments and events in the United Kingdom, Japan, Europe, and the United States. It argues that public service broadcasting has been a vital and democratically significant institution now experiencing a terminal decline brought about by changes in political, economic, and technological circumstances. Based on years of research and extensive contact with leading public broadcasters around the world, the book examines the idea of public service broadcasting and how for the most part it has vainly (and often ineffectually) struggled to survive. It concludes that public broadcasting is, as was once said of Weimar, a corpse on leave. Its likely disappearance constitutes an indication of a real and deep-seated crisis within liberal democracy.
David Midgley
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151791
- eISBN:
- 9780191672835
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151791.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters and presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It shows that what we are dealing with in the Weimar period is not a ...
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This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters and presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It shows that what we are dealing with in the Weimar period is not a straightforward paradigm shift from one literary style to another, nor a straightforward collapse into authoritarian attitudes. Rather, we are dealing with a contest among writers and artists over the appropriate attitudes to adopt towards the post-war situation of the German-speaking world, over the interpretation of major cultural issues which present themselves in that situation, and over the techniques of representation appropriate to that task of interpretation.Less
This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters and presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It shows that what we are dealing with in the Weimar period is not a straightforward paradigm shift from one literary style to another, nor a straightforward collapse into authoritarian attitudes. Rather, we are dealing with a contest among writers and artists over the appropriate attitudes to adopt towards the post-war situation of the German-speaking world, over the interpretation of major cultural issues which present themselves in that situation, and over the techniques of representation appropriate to that task of interpretation.
Anthony Kauders
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206316
- eISBN:
- 9780191677076
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206316.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book is a scholarly reassessment of the ‘Jewish Question’ in Germany (1910–1933). It challenges the view that, following Hitler's rise to power, anti-Semitism radically increased among the ...
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This book is a scholarly reassessment of the ‘Jewish Question’ in Germany (1910–1933). It challenges the view that, following Hitler's rise to power, anti-Semitism radically increased among the majority of Germans. It argues that the Weimar Republic was also very influential in changing people's attitudes towards the Jews and their place in German society. Through a study of Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, two German cities of comparable size but disparate regional, religious, and economic characteristics, it explores the attitudes of journalists, politicians, clerics, and ordinary people. Using local and national archival material, the book is able to show that, whereas before the First World War most Germans would distance themselves from racial anti-Semitism, after 1918 many Germans agreed with völkisch agitators that Jews were, in a variety of ways, alien to the national community.Less
This book is a scholarly reassessment of the ‘Jewish Question’ in Germany (1910–1933). It challenges the view that, following Hitler's rise to power, anti-Semitism radically increased among the majority of Germans. It argues that the Weimar Republic was also very influential in changing people's attitudes towards the Jews and their place in German society. Through a study of Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, two German cities of comparable size but disparate regional, religious, and economic characteristics, it explores the attitudes of journalists, politicians, clerics, and ordinary people. Using local and national archival material, the book is able to show that, whereas before the First World War most Germans would distance themselves from racial anti-Semitism, after 1918 many Germans agreed with völkisch agitators that Jews were, in a variety of ways, alien to the national community.
Yeshayahu A. Jelinek
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195134681
- eISBN:
- 9780199848652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195134681.003.0026
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
A review of the book, Weimar Jewry and the Crisis of Modernization, 1918–1933 by Oded Heilbronner (ed.) is presented. This book is a collection of essays. It has neither introduction nor conclusion, ...
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A review of the book, Weimar Jewry and the Crisis of Modernization, 1918–1933 by Oded Heilbronner (ed.) is presented. This book is a collection of essays. It has neither introduction nor conclusion, and readers are thus expected to determine for themselves the volume's raison d' être. On the back jacket, however, appear several sentences, written by an anonymous hand, that serve in place of a formal introduction. According to the back jacket copy, the editor's aim is to concentrate on the Jewish story of the Weimar Republic rather than to provide either an epilogue to the Second Reich or a prologue to the Third. Thus, the main focus of these essays is on the social, economic and cultural history of German Jewry in the given period.Less
A review of the book, Weimar Jewry and the Crisis of Modernization, 1918–1933 by Oded Heilbronner (ed.) is presented. This book is a collection of essays. It has neither introduction nor conclusion, and readers are thus expected to determine for themselves the volume's raison d' être. On the back jacket, however, appear several sentences, written by an anonymous hand, that serve in place of a formal introduction. According to the back jacket copy, the editor's aim is to concentrate on the Jewish story of the Weimar Republic rather than to provide either an epilogue to the Second Reich or a prologue to the Third. Thus, the main focus of these essays is on the social, economic and cultural history of German Jewry in the given period.
Timothy J. Gorringe
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198752462
- eISBN:
- 9780191695117
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198752462.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, History of Christianity
Karl Barth (1886–1968) was the most prolific theologian of the 20th century. Avoiding simple paraphrasing, this book places the theology in its social and political context, from the First World War ...
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Karl Barth (1886–1968) was the most prolific theologian of the 20th century. Avoiding simple paraphrasing, this book places the theology in its social and political context, from the First World War through to the Cold War by following Barth's intellectual development through the years that saw the rise of national socialism and the development of communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two Commentaries on Romans, begun during the First World War. His attempt to deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after the Second World War. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by Anglo-Saxon theology the book shows that Barth responds to the events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics. In conclusion the book asks what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation.Less
Karl Barth (1886–1968) was the most prolific theologian of the 20th century. Avoiding simple paraphrasing, this book places the theology in its social and political context, from the First World War through to the Cold War by following Barth's intellectual development through the years that saw the rise of national socialism and the development of communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two Commentaries on Romans, begun during the First World War. His attempt to deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after the Second World War. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by Anglo-Saxon theology the book shows that Barth responds to the events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics. In conclusion the book asks what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation.
Henning Grunwald
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199609048
- eISBN:
- 9780191744280
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609048.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
What role did the courts play in the demise of Germany's first democracy and Hitler's rise to power? This book challenges the orthodox interpretation of Weimar political justice. It argues that an ...
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What role did the courts play in the demise of Germany's first democracy and Hitler's rise to power? This book challenges the orthodox interpretation of Weimar political justice. It argues that an exclusive focus on reactionary judges and a preoccupation with number-crunching verdicts has obscured precisely that aspect of trials most fascinating to contemporary observers: its drama. Drawing on untapped sources and material previously inaccessible in English, it shows how an innovative group of party lawyers transformed dry legal proceedings into spectacular ideological clashes. Supported by powerful party legal offices (hitherto almost entirely disregarded), they developed a sophisticated repertoire of techniques at the intersection of criminal law, politics, and public relations. Harnessing the emotional appeal of tens of thousands of trials, Communists and (emulating them) National Socialist institutionalized party legal aid in order to build their ideological communities. Defendants turned into martyrs, trials into performances of ideological self-sacrifice, and the courtroom into a ‘revolutionary stage’, as one prominent party lawyer put it. This political justice as ‘revolutionary stage’ powerfully impacted Weimar political culture. This book's argument about the theatricality of justice helps explain Weimar's demise but transcends interwar Germany. Trials were compelling not because they offered instruction about the revolutionary struggle, but because in a sense they were the revolutionary struggle, admittedly for the time being played out in the grit-your-teeth, clench-your-fist mode of the theatrical ‘as if’. The ideological struggle, their message ran, left no room for fairness, no possibility of a ‘neutral platform’: justice was unattainable until the Republic was destroyed.Less
What role did the courts play in the demise of Germany's first democracy and Hitler's rise to power? This book challenges the orthodox interpretation of Weimar political justice. It argues that an exclusive focus on reactionary judges and a preoccupation with number-crunching verdicts has obscured precisely that aspect of trials most fascinating to contemporary observers: its drama. Drawing on untapped sources and material previously inaccessible in English, it shows how an innovative group of party lawyers transformed dry legal proceedings into spectacular ideological clashes. Supported by powerful party legal offices (hitherto almost entirely disregarded), they developed a sophisticated repertoire of techniques at the intersection of criminal law, politics, and public relations. Harnessing the emotional appeal of tens of thousands of trials, Communists and (emulating them) National Socialist institutionalized party legal aid in order to build their ideological communities. Defendants turned into martyrs, trials into performances of ideological self-sacrifice, and the courtroom into a ‘revolutionary stage’, as one prominent party lawyer put it. This political justice as ‘revolutionary stage’ powerfully impacted Weimar political culture. This book's argument about the theatricality of justice helps explain Weimar's demise but transcends interwar Germany. Trials were compelling not because they offered instruction about the revolutionary struggle, but because in a sense they were the revolutionary struggle, admittedly for the time being played out in the grit-your-teeth, clench-your-fist mode of the theatrical ‘as if’. The ideological struggle, their message ran, left no room for fairness, no possibility of a ‘neutral platform’: justice was unattainable until the Republic was destroyed.
Ray A. Moore and Donald L. Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151169
- eISBN:
- 9780199833917
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515116X.003.0016
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Recounts the intense debate in the revision committee over Article 9, renouncing war and armed forces, and the contents of the bill of rights (Chapter III). The chapter reveals sharp quarrels between ...
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Recounts the intense debate in the revision committee over Article 9, renouncing war and armed forces, and the contents of the bill of rights (Chapter III). The chapter reveals sharp quarrels between Chairman Ashida Hitoshi and representatives of the left about viewing the Weimar Constitution as a model for Japan's new democracy. It sets forth the debate over human rights: what would be the status of religion under the new constitutional structure? Would Japan's traditional family structure survive in the new emphasis on the rights of individuals? A notable speech by a newly elected female member, Katō Shizue, and rejoinders by Kimura Tokutarō and Tanaka Kōtarō, ministers of justice and education, respectively, explored these questions.Less
Recounts the intense debate in the revision committee over Article 9, renouncing war and armed forces, and the contents of the bill of rights (Chapter III). The chapter reveals sharp quarrels between Chairman Ashida Hitoshi and representatives of the left about viewing the Weimar Constitution as a model for Japan's new democracy. It sets forth the debate over human rights: what would be the status of religion under the new constitutional structure? Would Japan's traditional family structure survive in the new emphasis on the rights of individuals? A notable speech by a newly elected female member, Katō Shizue, and rejoinders by Kimura Tokutarō and Tanaka Kōtarō, ministers of justice and education, respectively, explored these questions.
Nicholas Attfield
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780197266137
- eISBN:
- 9780191865206
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266137.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This book challenges commonplace conceptions of musical conservatism during Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33). Its primary goal is to offer scrutiny of uncritical links often made by musicologists ...
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This book challenges commonplace conceptions of musical conservatism during Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33). Its primary goal is to offer scrutiny of uncritical links often made by musicologists and historians between musical conservatism and cultural-political conservatism of the era, and the accompanying tendentious vocabulary of the ‘anti-modern’. It does so chiefly by means of a critical and nuanced application of the term ‘conservative revolution’, as used in the Weimar era and popularized in its historiography after 1945. The introduction introduces the time-honoured notion of ‘Weimar culture’ and its tendency to obscure parts of the contemporary cultural landscape, not least in their relation to modernity and modernism. Chapter 1 considers the problematic status of the term ‘conservative revolution’. Four contrasting studies are then presented, each focused on a particular ‘conservative’ musical figure or movement, and informed by readings of a complex discourse drawn from contemporary journals, speeches, letters, scores, and archival sources. Chapters 2 and 3 address Thomas Mann and his relationship with Hans Pfitzner in the aftermath of the First World War, and Alfred Heuss’s 1920s tenure as editor of Schumann’s Zeitschrift für Musik. Chapters 4 and 5 turn to the so-called ‘Bruckner cult’ of the Weimar era and its representations of its central composer as medieval mystic, and the work of August Halm—another dedicated Brucknerian—within the German youth movement, as defined and proclaimed by the radical pedagogue Gustav Wyneken. An extended epilogue considers advocacy for these Weimar-era musical conservatisms under the Nazi regime after 1933.Less
This book challenges commonplace conceptions of musical conservatism during Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33). Its primary goal is to offer scrutiny of uncritical links often made by musicologists and historians between musical conservatism and cultural-political conservatism of the era, and the accompanying tendentious vocabulary of the ‘anti-modern’. It does so chiefly by means of a critical and nuanced application of the term ‘conservative revolution’, as used in the Weimar era and popularized in its historiography after 1945. The introduction introduces the time-honoured notion of ‘Weimar culture’ and its tendency to obscure parts of the contemporary cultural landscape, not least in their relation to modernity and modernism. Chapter 1 considers the problematic status of the term ‘conservative revolution’. Four contrasting studies are then presented, each focused on a particular ‘conservative’ musical figure or movement, and informed by readings of a complex discourse drawn from contemporary journals, speeches, letters, scores, and archival sources. Chapters 2 and 3 address Thomas Mann and his relationship with Hans Pfitzner in the aftermath of the First World War, and Alfred Heuss’s 1920s tenure as editor of Schumann’s Zeitschrift für Musik. Chapters 4 and 5 turn to the so-called ‘Bruckner cult’ of the Weimar era and its representations of its central composer as medieval mystic, and the work of August Halm—another dedicated Brucknerian—within the German youth movement, as defined and proclaimed by the radical pedagogue Gustav Wyneken. An extended epilogue considers advocacy for these Weimar-era musical conservatisms under the Nazi regime after 1933.
Volker R. Berghahn
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691179636
- eISBN:
- 9780691185071
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179636.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This book takes an in-depth look at German journalism from the late Weimar period through the postwar decades. Illuminating the roles played by journalists in the media metropolis of Hamburg, the ...
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This book takes an in-depth look at German journalism from the late Weimar period through the postwar decades. Illuminating the roles played by journalists in the media metropolis of Hamburg, the book focuses on the lives and work of three remarkable individuals: Marion Countess Dönhoff, distinguished editor of Die Zeit; Paul Sethe, “the grand old man of West German journalism”; and Hans Zehrer, editor in chief of Die Welt. All born before 1914, Dönhoff, Sethe, and Zehrer witnessed the Weimar Republic's end and opposed Hitler. When the latter seized power in 1933, they were, like their fellow Germans, confronted with the difficult choice of entering exile, becoming part of the active resistance, or joining the Nazi Party. Instead, they followed a fourth path—“inner emigration”—psychologically distancing themselves from the regime, their writing falling into a gray zone between grudging collaboration and active resistance. During the war, Dönhoff and Sethe had links to the 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler, while Zehrer remained out of sight on a North Sea island. In the decades after 1945, all three became major figures in the West German media. The book considers how these journalists and those who chose inner emigration interpreted Germany's horrific past and how they helped to morally and politically shape the reconstruction of the country. With fresh archival materials, the book sheds essential light on the influential position of the German media in the mid-twentieth century and raises questions about modern journalism that remain topical today.Less
This book takes an in-depth look at German journalism from the late Weimar period through the postwar decades. Illuminating the roles played by journalists in the media metropolis of Hamburg, the book focuses on the lives and work of three remarkable individuals: Marion Countess Dönhoff, distinguished editor of Die Zeit; Paul Sethe, “the grand old man of West German journalism”; and Hans Zehrer, editor in chief of Die Welt. All born before 1914, Dönhoff, Sethe, and Zehrer witnessed the Weimar Republic's end and opposed Hitler. When the latter seized power in 1933, they were, like their fellow Germans, confronted with the difficult choice of entering exile, becoming part of the active resistance, or joining the Nazi Party. Instead, they followed a fourth path—“inner emigration”—psychologically distancing themselves from the regime, their writing falling into a gray zone between grudging collaboration and active resistance. During the war, Dönhoff and Sethe had links to the 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler, while Zehrer remained out of sight on a North Sea island. In the decades after 1945, all three became major figures in the West German media. The book considers how these journalists and those who chose inner emigration interpreted Germany's horrific past and how they helped to morally and politically shape the reconstruction of the country. With fresh archival materials, the book sheds essential light on the influential position of the German media in the mid-twentieth century and raises questions about modern journalism that remain topical today.
Udi Greenberg
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159331
- eISBN:
- 9781400852390
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159331.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This book reveals the origins of two dramatic events: Germany's post-World War II transformation from a racist dictatorship to a liberal democracy, and the ideological genesis of the Cold War. The ...
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This book reveals the origins of two dramatic events: Germany's post-World War II transformation from a racist dictatorship to a liberal democracy, and the ideological genesis of the Cold War. The book shows that the foundations of Germany's reconstruction lay in the country's first democratic experiment, the Weimar Republic (1918–33). It traces the paths of five crucial German émigrés who participated in Weimar's intense political debates, spent the Nazi era in the United States, and then rebuilt Europe after a devastating war. Examining the unexpected stories of these diverse individuals—Protestant political thinker Carl J. Friedrich, Socialist theorist Ernst Fraenkel, Catholic publicist Waldemar Gurian, liberal lawyer Karl Loewenstein, and international relations theorist Hans Morgenthau—the book uncovers the intellectual and political forces that forged Germany's democracy after dictatorship, war, and occupation. These émigrés also shaped the currents of the early Cold War. Having borne witness to Weimar's political clashes and violent upheavals, they called on democratic regimes to permanently mobilize their citizens and resources in global struggle against their Communist enemies. In the process, they gained entry to the highest levels of American power, serving as top-level advisors to American occupation authorities in Germany and Korea, consultants for the State Department in Latin America, and leaders in universities and philanthropic foundations across Europe and the United States. From interwar Germany to the dawn of the American century, this book sheds light on the crucial ideas, individuals, and politics that made the trans-Atlantic postwar order.Less
This book reveals the origins of two dramatic events: Germany's post-World War II transformation from a racist dictatorship to a liberal democracy, and the ideological genesis of the Cold War. The book shows that the foundations of Germany's reconstruction lay in the country's first democratic experiment, the Weimar Republic (1918–33). It traces the paths of five crucial German émigrés who participated in Weimar's intense political debates, spent the Nazi era in the United States, and then rebuilt Europe after a devastating war. Examining the unexpected stories of these diverse individuals—Protestant political thinker Carl J. Friedrich, Socialist theorist Ernst Fraenkel, Catholic publicist Waldemar Gurian, liberal lawyer Karl Loewenstein, and international relations theorist Hans Morgenthau—the book uncovers the intellectual and political forces that forged Germany's democracy after dictatorship, war, and occupation. These émigrés also shaped the currents of the early Cold War. Having borne witness to Weimar's political clashes and violent upheavals, they called on democratic regimes to permanently mobilize their citizens and resources in global struggle against their Communist enemies. In the process, they gained entry to the highest levels of American power, serving as top-level advisors to American occupation authorities in Germany and Korea, consultants for the State Department in Latin America, and leaders in universities and philanthropic foundations across Europe and the United States. From interwar Germany to the dawn of the American century, this book sheds light on the crucial ideas, individuals, and politics that made the trans-Atlantic postwar order.
Andreas Killen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153599
- eISBN:
- 9781400845248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153599.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter examines the place of hypnosis in Weimar Germany's cultural imaginary and its connection to a broad set of fears articulated around the “masses,” “mass culture,” and the problem of “mass ...
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This chapter examines the place of hypnosis in Weimar Germany's cultural imaginary and its connection to a broad set of fears articulated around the “masses,” “mass culture,” and the problem of “mass psychology.” It relates this motif to debates about Weimar cinema, which aroused both intense apprehension concerning its impact on audiences and equally intense hopes concerning its possibilities as a medium of public instruction or enlightenment. In particular, it looks at Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, which was banned in 1933 by Germany's film censor board due to fear that it represented an incitement not merely to crime but to revolution and terror. The chapter shows that Testament both casts a hypnotic spell and undoes it through a kind of “counterhypnosis.” It also discusses some of the questions raised by the banning of Testament, including one relating to the role of the mass media in modern public life.Less
This chapter examines the place of hypnosis in Weimar Germany's cultural imaginary and its connection to a broad set of fears articulated around the “masses,” “mass culture,” and the problem of “mass psychology.” It relates this motif to debates about Weimar cinema, which aroused both intense apprehension concerning its impact on audiences and equally intense hopes concerning its possibilities as a medium of public instruction or enlightenment. In particular, it looks at Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, which was banned in 1933 by Germany's film censor board due to fear that it represented an incitement not merely to crime but to revolution and terror. The chapter shows that Testament both casts a hypnotic spell and undoes it through a kind of “counterhypnosis.” It also discusses some of the questions raised by the banning of Testament, including one relating to the role of the mass media in modern public life.
Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691135106
- eISBN:
- 9781400846788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691135106.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to bring together a broad range of papers on diverse themes pertaining to the intellectual and cultural history of the Weimar ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to bring together a broad range of papers on diverse themes pertaining to the intellectual and cultural history of the Weimar Republic. It includes a great variety of contributions by scholars affiliated with manifold disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, political theory, philosophy, sociology, history of science, film theory, art history, and literary criticism. Few if any single-volume works have succeeded at offering a unified portrait of the rich developments of Weimar thought, and the authors believe the time is right to offer a guidebook to the German interwar era, a compendium focused primarily on the major intellectual trends of the time. The chapter then discusses the unity and diversity of Weimar thought followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to bring together a broad range of papers on diverse themes pertaining to the intellectual and cultural history of the Weimar Republic. It includes a great variety of contributions by scholars affiliated with manifold disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, political theory, philosophy, sociology, history of science, film theory, art history, and literary criticism. Few if any single-volume works have succeeded at offering a unified portrait of the rich developments of Weimar thought, and the authors believe the time is right to offer a guidebook to the German interwar era, a compendium focused primarily on the major intellectual trends of the time. The chapter then discusses the unity and diversity of Weimar thought followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.
Robert Gellately
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205609
- eISBN:
- 9780191676697
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205609.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the establishment of Hitler's dictatorship. The years leading up to 1933 were difficult ones for Germany. The Weimar Republic's parliament was divided into more than a dozen ...
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This chapter discusses the establishment of Hitler's dictatorship. The years leading up to 1933 were difficult ones for Germany. The Weimar Republic's parliament was divided into more than a dozen political parties, and from the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, German Chancellors had to rely increasingly on the President's emergency powers to pass legislation. At the end of 1932, when the crisis facing the country deepened and government ground to a standstill, a group of influential conservatives advised President Paul von Hindenburg that Adolf Hitler's leadership would be a way to deal with mounting social, economic, and political crisis. Hitler was appointed on 30 January 1933. Those men around the President and the social elites with whom they had contact, favoured Hitler as an interim leader, or at least saw him as a necessary evil. They no doubt believed that, lacking political experience, he would not be able to assert himself too much, and that they would retain ultimate control. They badly misjudged the situation. In less than six months the Nazis undermined the parliamentary system and had begun the destruction of justice by suspending civil and legal rights, which in turn opened the way for the creation of the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the establishment of the first concentration camps.Less
This chapter discusses the establishment of Hitler's dictatorship. The years leading up to 1933 were difficult ones for Germany. The Weimar Republic's parliament was divided into more than a dozen political parties, and from the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, German Chancellors had to rely increasingly on the President's emergency powers to pass legislation. At the end of 1932, when the crisis facing the country deepened and government ground to a standstill, a group of influential conservatives advised President Paul von Hindenburg that Adolf Hitler's leadership would be a way to deal with mounting social, economic, and political crisis. Hitler was appointed on 30 January 1933. Those men around the President and the social elites with whom they had contact, favoured Hitler as an interim leader, or at least saw him as a necessary evil. They no doubt believed that, lacking political experience, he would not be able to assert himself too much, and that they would retain ultimate control. They badly misjudged the situation. In less than six months the Nazis undermined the parliamentary system and had begun the destruction of justice by suspending civil and legal rights, which in turn opened the way for the creation of the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the establishment of the first concentration camps.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter explores Bach's cantatas for the Easter season, Christmas season, Lent-Easter, Trinity season, and Advent. Bach was exposed to much new Italian music at the Weimar court, guiding his own ...
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This chapter explores Bach's cantatas for the Easter season, Christmas season, Lent-Easter, Trinity season, and Advent. Bach was exposed to much new Italian music at the Weimar court, guiding his own creativity in new directions. And his encounter with the new operatic style of libretto for the sacred cantata was clearly a decisive factor. Whereas the old type of cantata text, still used in Bach's early cantatas, consisted largely of biblical words and chorales, the new type was at first made up exclusively of madrigalian verse, designed to be set in an alternation of recitative and arias. Not long afterwards, however, the new type of libretto was modified by reintroducing biblical words and chorales alongside the madrigalian verse, thereby creating an element of continuity with past traditions. This mixed type is most relevant to Bach's Weimar period, for it was employed by Salomo Franck, resident poet at the Weimar court, during the years (1713-16) in which he collaborated closely with the composer.Less
This chapter explores Bach's cantatas for the Easter season, Christmas season, Lent-Easter, Trinity season, and Advent. Bach was exposed to much new Italian music at the Weimar court, guiding his own creativity in new directions. And his encounter with the new operatic style of libretto for the sacred cantata was clearly a decisive factor. Whereas the old type of cantata text, still used in Bach's early cantatas, consisted largely of biblical words and chorales, the new type was at first made up exclusively of madrigalian verse, designed to be set in an alternation of recitative and arias. Not long afterwards, however, the new type of libretto was modified by reintroducing biblical words and chorales alongside the madrigalian verse, thereby creating an element of continuity with past traditions. This mixed type is most relevant to Bach's Weimar period, for it was employed by Salomo Franck, resident poet at the Weimar court, during the years (1713-16) in which he collaborated closely with the composer.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in Part II of this book. It argues that Bach arrived at full maturity by about the middle of the Weimar period (around 1713), which is attested by the ...
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This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in Part II of this book. It argues that Bach arrived at full maturity by about the middle of the Weimar period (around 1713), which is attested by the stylistic and technical assurance, and the consistently high standard of his writing at that time, both for keyboard and for vocal and instrumental ensemble. During the mid-to-late Weimar years (1713-17), he produced some of his greatest masterpieces, never to be eclipsed by anything he composed in later years at Cöthen or Leipzig.Less
This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in Part II of this book. It argues that Bach arrived at full maturity by about the middle of the Weimar period (around 1713), which is attested by the stylistic and technical assurance, and the consistently high standard of his writing at that time, both for keyboard and for vocal and instrumental ensemble. During the mid-to-late Weimar years (1713-17), he produced some of his greatest masterpieces, never to be eclipsed by anything he composed in later years at Cöthen or Leipzig.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter begins with a discussion of Bach's attainment of full maturity as a composer. It argues that the favourable conditions Bach experienced at the Weimar court facilitated the approach and ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of Bach's attainment of full maturity as a composer. It argues that the favourable conditions Bach experienced at the Weimar court facilitated the approach and eventual arrival of complete mastery in the handling of a mature style that is recognized instantly as ‘Bachian’. It identifies two important features of Bach's later career are already anticipated in Weimar. First, he was in increasing demand as a teacher: about a dozen students of his are known by name from this period, including Schubart and Vogler, both of whom had moved with him from Mühlhausen. Secondly, the conception of systematic cycles, which plays such a central role in Bach's creative work from the Cöthen period onwards, is already anticipated in Weimar.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of Bach's attainment of full maturity as a composer. It argues that the favourable conditions Bach experienced at the Weimar court facilitated the approach and eventual arrival of complete mastery in the handling of a mature style that is recognized instantly as ‘Bachian’. It identifies two important features of Bach's later career are already anticipated in Weimar. First, he was in increasing demand as a teacher: about a dozen students of his are known by name from this period, including Schubart and Vogler, both of whom had moved with him from Mühlhausen. Secondly, the conception of systematic cycles, which plays such a central role in Bach's creative work from the Cöthen period onwards, is already anticipated in Weimar.
Bernd Widdig
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520222908
- eISBN:
- 9780520924703
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520222908.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
For many Germans the hyperinflation of 1922 to 1923 was one of their most decisive experiences of the twentieth century. This book investigates the effects of that inflation on German culture during ...
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For many Germans the hyperinflation of 1922 to 1923 was one of their most decisive experiences of the twentieth century. This book investigates the effects of that inflation on German culture during the Weimar Republic. It argues that inflation, with its dynamics of massification, devaluation, and the rapid circulation of money, is an integral part of modern culture and intensifies and condenses the experience of modernity in a traumatic way.Less
For many Germans the hyperinflation of 1922 to 1923 was one of their most decisive experiences of the twentieth century. This book investigates the effects of that inflation on German culture during the Weimar Republic. It argues that inflation, with its dynamics of massification, devaluation, and the rapid circulation of money, is an integral part of modern culture and intensifies and condenses the experience of modernity in a traumatic way.
Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691135106
- eISBN:
- 9781400846788
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691135106.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
During its short lifespan, the Weimar Republic (1918–33) witnessed an unprecedented flowering of achievements in many areas, including psychology, political theory, physics, philosophy, literary and ...
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During its short lifespan, the Weimar Republic (1918–33) witnessed an unprecedented flowering of achievements in many areas, including psychology, political theory, physics, philosophy, literary and cultural criticism, and the arts. Leading intellectuals, scholars, and critics—such as Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, and Martin Heidegger—emerged during this time to become the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century. Even today, the Weimar era remains a vital resource for new intellectual movements. This book presents a comprehensive guide and unified portrait of the most important innovators, themes, and trends of this fascinating period. The book is divided into four thematic sections: law, politics, and society; philosophy, theology, and science; aesthetics, literature, and film; and general cultural and social themes of the Weimar period. It brings together established and emerging scholars from a remarkable array of fields, and each individual essay serves as an overview for a particular discipline while offering distinctive critical engagement with relevant problems and debates. Whether used as an introductory companion or advanced scholarly resource, the book provides insight into the rich developments behind the intellectual foundations of modernity.Less
During its short lifespan, the Weimar Republic (1918–33) witnessed an unprecedented flowering of achievements in many areas, including psychology, political theory, physics, philosophy, literary and cultural criticism, and the arts. Leading intellectuals, scholars, and critics—such as Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, and Martin Heidegger—emerged during this time to become the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century. Even today, the Weimar era remains a vital resource for new intellectual movements. This book presents a comprehensive guide and unified portrait of the most important innovators, themes, and trends of this fascinating period. The book is divided into four thematic sections: law, politics, and society; philosophy, theology, and science; aesthetics, literature, and film; and general cultural and social themes of the Weimar period. It brings together established and emerging scholars from a remarkable array of fields, and each individual essay serves as an overview for a particular discipline while offering distinctive critical engagement with relevant problems and debates. Whether used as an introductory companion or advanced scholarly resource, the book provides insight into the rich developments behind the intellectual foundations of modernity.
Yvonne Hardt
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195386691
- eISBN:
- 9780199863600
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386691.003.009
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Yvonne Hardt links the era of early German modern dance called Ausdruckstanz (expressive dance) and the workers’ culture movement in the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s. Both were influenced by the ...
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Yvonne Hardt links the era of early German modern dance called Ausdruckstanz (expressive dance) and the workers’ culture movement in the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s. Both were influenced by the life reform movement (Lebensreformbewegung), which envisioned that a different society could be achieved by a new body culture (Körperkultur). Whereas Ausdruckstanz has most frequently been discussed in terms of how it could empower women, it also, theoretically, offered men the chance to “rediscover” themselves in ways that could emancipate them from traditional gender roles. At the same time, early modern dance could also reflect ideals of the Socialist and Communist ideology, which reinscribed some old male‐female divisions by emphasizing the physical strength of the male worker. Thematic aspects in the work of the following prominent Weimar dance figures are considered: Rudolf Laban, Martin Gleisner, and Jean (Hans) Weidt. Implicit in Hardt's analysis is the difficulty of embodying political ideals in dance in a way that acknowledges the multiple strands of complex gender identities.Less
Yvonne Hardt links the era of early German modern dance called Ausdruckstanz (expressive dance) and the workers’ culture movement in the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s. Both were influenced by the life reform movement (Lebensreformbewegung), which envisioned that a different society could be achieved by a new body culture (Körperkultur). Whereas Ausdruckstanz has most frequently been discussed in terms of how it could empower women, it also, theoretically, offered men the chance to “rediscover” themselves in ways that could emancipate them from traditional gender roles. At the same time, early modern dance could also reflect ideals of the Socialist and Communist ideology, which reinscribed some old male‐female divisions by emphasizing the physical strength of the male worker. Thematic aspects in the work of the following prominent Weimar dance figures are considered: Rudolf Laban, Martin Gleisner, and Jean (Hans) Weidt. Implicit in Hardt's analysis is the difficulty of embodying political ideals in dance in a way that acknowledges the multiple strands of complex gender identities.
