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.
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.
Damon J. Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150888
- eISBN:
- 9781400846481
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150888.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter examines why the long-run appeal of jazz music worldwide was related to the city of origin's network position with the exception of Berlin in what was then Weimar Germany. Between 1923 ...
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This chapter examines why the long-run appeal of jazz music worldwide was related to the city of origin's network position with the exception of Berlin in what was then Weimar Germany. Between 1923 and 1933, Berlin produced more early jazz than any other city in Europe as the center of Weimar culture. And yet the lasting appeal of jazz music recorded in Berlin was notably less than that of other European cities. To explain this puzzle, the chapter develops a sequential relational model for understanding the fate of German jazz in which the locations of musical reception and production correspond to schemas that affect the tastes and the ways in which cultural objects are interpreted. The example of German jazz suggests that the model of sociological congruence works best when the musical identity of a location is not so strong that its actual output is overwhelmed by the perceived output from a location.Less
This chapter examines why the long-run appeal of jazz music worldwide was related to the city of origin's network position with the exception of Berlin in what was then Weimar Germany. Between 1923 and 1933, Berlin produced more early jazz than any other city in Europe as the center of Weimar culture. And yet the lasting appeal of jazz music recorded in Berlin was notably less than that of other European cities. To explain this puzzle, the chapter develops a sequential relational model for understanding the fate of German jazz in which the locations of musical reception and production correspond to schemas that affect the tastes and the ways in which cultural objects are interpreted. The example of German jazz suggests that the model of sociological congruence works best when the musical identity of a location is not so strong that its actual output is overwhelmed by the perceived output from a location.
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.
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.
Ehrhard Bahr
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520251281
- eISBN:
- 9780520933804
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520251281.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In the 1930s and 1940s, Los Angeles became an unlikely cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectuals—including Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, ...
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In the 1930s and 1940s, Los Angeles became an unlikely cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectuals—including Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, and Arnold Schoenberg—who had fled Nazi Germany. During their years in exile, they would produce a substantial body of major works to address the crisis of modernism that resulted from the rise of National Socialism. Weimar Germany and its culture, with its meld of eighteenth-century German classicism and twentieth-century modernism, served as a touchstone for this group of diverse talents and opinions. This is the first book to examine these artists and intellectuals as a group. It looks at selected works of Adorno, Schoenberg, Brecht, Lang, Mann, Max Horkheimer, Richard Joseph Neutra, Rudolph Michael Schindler, and Alfred Döblin, and weighs Los Angeles's influence on them and their impact on German modernism. Touching on such examples as film noir and Mann's Doctor Faustus, the book shows how this community of exiles reconstituted modernism in the face of the traumatic political and historical changes they were living through.Less
In the 1930s and 1940s, Los Angeles became an unlikely cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectuals—including Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, and Arnold Schoenberg—who had fled Nazi Germany. During their years in exile, they would produce a substantial body of major works to address the crisis of modernism that resulted from the rise of National Socialism. Weimar Germany and its culture, with its meld of eighteenth-century German classicism and twentieth-century modernism, served as a touchstone for this group of diverse talents and opinions. This is the first book to examine these artists and intellectuals as a group. It looks at selected works of Adorno, Schoenberg, Brecht, Lang, Mann, Max Horkheimer, Richard Joseph Neutra, Rudolph Michael Schindler, and Alfred Döblin, and weighs Los Angeles's influence on them and their impact on German modernism. Touching on such examples as film noir and Mann's Doctor Faustus, the book shows how this community of exiles reconstituted modernism in the face of the traumatic political and historical changes they were living through.
Richard Landes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199753598
- eISBN:
- 9780199897445
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753598.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter traces the millennial dimensions of Hitler's career and his attempt to inaugurate the Tausendjähriges Reich. It shows how Hitler inserted himself into earlier German messianic traditions ...
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This chapter traces the millennial dimensions of Hitler's career and his attempt to inaugurate the Tausendjähriges Reich. It shows how Hitler inserted himself into earlier German messianic traditions around a Führer who would save the German people in a time of total catastrophe;how he linked them to the racist, millennial ideology of the Ariosophists; and how, once in power, he exploited modern technology to create a mass movement that swept up a nation in millennial enthusiasm (Nüremberg Rallies). Hitler's genocidal anti-Semitism appears as a form of hard zero-sum millennial competition between two “chosen people.”Less
This chapter traces the millennial dimensions of Hitler's career and his attempt to inaugurate the Tausendjähriges Reich. It shows how Hitler inserted himself into earlier German messianic traditions around a Führer who would save the German people in a time of total catastrophe;how he linked them to the racist, millennial ideology of the Ariosophists; and how, once in power, he exploited modern technology to create a mass movement that swept up a nation in millennial enthusiasm (Nüremberg Rallies). Hitler's genocidal anti-Semitism appears as a form of hard zero-sum millennial competition between two “chosen people.”
Anna von der Goltz
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199570324
- eISBN:
- 9780191722240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570324.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter argues that the Hindenburg myth was as much a cultural as it was a political phenomenon, and did not just occupy those engaged in German politics, but penetrated much broader sections of ...
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This chapter argues that the Hindenburg myth was as much a cultural as it was a political phenomenon, and did not just occupy those engaged in German politics, but penetrated much broader sections of society in its myriad forms: a massive readership of Hindenburg books and special issues of the illustrated press existed, as did a receptive audience for Hindenburg films and his frequent speeches on the radio. Equally, consumers' purchase decisions were animated by the use of his iconic image in commercial advertising. The author shows that Hindenburg's omnipresence in these modern mass media broadened his appeal considerably and led his myth to escape the strict political dividing lines characteristic of Weimar Germany. This points to considerable common symbolic ground beyond political fault-lines. The chapter also highlights Hindenburg's considerable involvement in promoting, managing, and censoring his own myth from the top down.Less
This chapter argues that the Hindenburg myth was as much a cultural as it was a political phenomenon, and did not just occupy those engaged in German politics, but penetrated much broader sections of society in its myriad forms: a massive readership of Hindenburg books and special issues of the illustrated press existed, as did a receptive audience for Hindenburg films and his frequent speeches on the radio. Equally, consumers' purchase decisions were animated by the use of his iconic image in commercial advertising. The author shows that Hindenburg's omnipresence in these modern mass media broadened his appeal considerably and led his myth to escape the strict political dividing lines characteristic of Weimar Germany. This points to considerable common symbolic ground beyond political fault-lines. The chapter also highlights Hindenburg's considerable involvement in promoting, managing, and censoring his own myth from the top down.
Michael David-Fox
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794577
- eISBN:
- 9780199932245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794577.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the outposts and activities of Soviet cultural diplomacy in Western countries in the 1920s. It argues that Weimar Germany became the most important testing ground for the Soviet ...
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This chapter examines the outposts and activities of Soviet cultural diplomacy in Western countries in the 1920s. It argues that Weimar Germany became the most important testing ground for the Soviet dilemma of choosing between ideological sympathizers and influential yet politically distant “bourgeois” partners. It provides a comparative history of the German Society of Friends of the New Russia and other cultural friendship societies created by VOKS after 1923 in Central and Western Europe and the United States. Finally, it examines the international travel of Soviet intellectuals and the role of the Soviet intelligentsia in cultural exchange, probing the patronage relations between Soviet agencies and intellectuals at home and abroad.Less
This chapter examines the outposts and activities of Soviet cultural diplomacy in Western countries in the 1920s. It argues that Weimar Germany became the most important testing ground for the Soviet dilemma of choosing between ideological sympathizers and influential yet politically distant “bourgeois” partners. It provides a comparative history of the German Society of Friends of the New Russia and other cultural friendship societies created by VOKS after 1923 in Central and Western Europe and the United States. Finally, it examines the international travel of Soviet intellectuals and the role of the Soviet intelligentsia in cultural exchange, probing the patronage relations between Soviet agencies and intellectuals at home and abroad.
Elizabeth Harvey
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204145
- eISBN:
- 9780191676123
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204145.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Social History
This is a study of social policy in Weimar Germany. The Weimar Republic gave German youth new social rights and a pledge of generous educational and welfare provision. Public social and welfare ...
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This is a study of social policy in Weimar Germany. The Weimar Republic gave German youth new social rights and a pledge of generous educational and welfare provision. Public social and welfare policies would, it was hoped, banish the spectre of delinquent and rebellious youth, and ensure that the future citizens, workers, and mothers of Germany's new democracy would be well-adjusted, efficient, and healthy. But how far could the would-be architects of modern technocratic welfare realize their vision in the midst of the economic and political instability of the Great Depression? How did young people respond to policies supposedly in their best interests, but which contained an unmistakable dimension of supervision and control? This book examines a wide range of policies implemented by central and local government, including vocational training, labour market policies, reformatory schooling, and the juvenile justice system. The book offers insights into the troubled development of the Weimar welfare state and the crisis into which it was plunged by the Depression. The book also adds evidence to the debate over continuities in social policy between Weimar Germany and the Third Reich.Less
This is a study of social policy in Weimar Germany. The Weimar Republic gave German youth new social rights and a pledge of generous educational and welfare provision. Public social and welfare policies would, it was hoped, banish the spectre of delinquent and rebellious youth, and ensure that the future citizens, workers, and mothers of Germany's new democracy would be well-adjusted, efficient, and healthy. But how far could the would-be architects of modern technocratic welfare realize their vision in the midst of the economic and political instability of the Great Depression? How did young people respond to policies supposedly in their best interests, but which contained an unmistakable dimension of supervision and control? This book examines a wide range of policies implemented by central and local government, including vocational training, labour market policies, reformatory schooling, and the juvenile justice system. The book offers insights into the troubled development of the Weimar welfare state and the crisis into which it was plunged by the Depression. The book also adds evidence to the debate over continuities in social policy between Weimar Germany and the Third Reich.
Sean Andrew Wempe
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- June 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190907211
- eISBN:
- 9780190907242
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190907211.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The introduction outlines the core focus of the book, the Kolonialdeutsche (Colonial Germans): officials and settlers who had invested substantial time and money in German imperialism. The book will ...
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The introduction outlines the core focus of the book, the Kolonialdeutsche (Colonial Germans): officials and settlers who had invested substantial time and money in German imperialism. The book will examine the difficulties this diverse group of men and women encountered adjusting to their new circumstances, in Weimar Germany or in the new mandates, as they situated their notions of group identity between colonizers and colonial subjects in a world of empires that were not their own. The introduction outlines the temporal scope of the book, starting with the Treaty of Versailles and ending the in-depth analysis in 1933. The epilogue looks into the Nazi era and beyond. The author highlights the importance of Colonial German involvement in such diplomatic flashpoints as the Naturalization Controversy in South African-administered Southwest Africa, and German participation in the Permanent Mandates Commission (PMC) from 1927 to 1933, and the participation of one of Germany’s former colonial governors in the League of Nations’ commission sent to assess the Manchurian Crisis between China and Japan. The introduction also illustrates the contributions this book makes: revising standard historical portrayals of the League of Nations’ form of international governance, German participation in the League, the role of interest groups in international diplomacy, and liberal imperialism. In analyzing Colonial German investment and participation in interwar internationalism, the book also challenges the idea of a direct continuity between Germany’s colonial period and the Nazi era.Less
The introduction outlines the core focus of the book, the Kolonialdeutsche (Colonial Germans): officials and settlers who had invested substantial time and money in German imperialism. The book will examine the difficulties this diverse group of men and women encountered adjusting to their new circumstances, in Weimar Germany or in the new mandates, as they situated their notions of group identity between colonizers and colonial subjects in a world of empires that were not their own. The introduction outlines the temporal scope of the book, starting with the Treaty of Versailles and ending the in-depth analysis in 1933. The epilogue looks into the Nazi era and beyond. The author highlights the importance of Colonial German involvement in such diplomatic flashpoints as the Naturalization Controversy in South African-administered Southwest Africa, and German participation in the Permanent Mandates Commission (PMC) from 1927 to 1933, and the participation of one of Germany’s former colonial governors in the League of Nations’ commission sent to assess the Manchurian Crisis between China and Japan. The introduction also illustrates the contributions this book makes: revising standard historical portrayals of the League of Nations’ form of international governance, German participation in the League, the role of interest groups in international diplomacy, and liberal imperialism. In analyzing Colonial German investment and participation in interwar internationalism, the book also challenges the idea of a direct continuity between Germany’s colonial period and the Nazi era.
Conan Fischer
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198208006
- eISBN:
- 9780191716607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208006.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This introductory chapter describes the traumatic consequences of the Ruhr Crisis for the region's people. It argues that these events, in which Germany and the Germans appear as victims, have been ...
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This introductory chapter describes the traumatic consequences of the Ruhr Crisis for the region's people. It argues that these events, in which Germany and the Germans appear as victims, have been largely neglected by historians since they fit uncomfortably within an essentially negative and pessimistic understanding of 19th- and earlier 20th-century German history. However, the Ruhr Crisis is best understood as a popular struggle rooted in the republican values of Weimar Germany, conducted at an ultimately devastating price to the ordinary people of the Ruhr and to the wider post-1918 revolutionary settlement. All in all the character of post-1918 Franco–German relations and of early Weimar Germany assume a form contrary to received wisdom.Less
This introductory chapter describes the traumatic consequences of the Ruhr Crisis for the region's people. It argues that these events, in which Germany and the Germans appear as victims, have been largely neglected by historians since they fit uncomfortably within an essentially negative and pessimistic understanding of 19th- and earlier 20th-century German history. However, the Ruhr Crisis is best understood as a popular struggle rooted in the republican values of Weimar Germany, conducted at an ultimately devastating price to the ordinary people of the Ruhr and to the wider post-1918 revolutionary settlement. All in all the character of post-1918 Franco–German relations and of early Weimar Germany assume a form contrary to received wisdom.
Alison Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099434
- eISBN:
- 9781526124098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099434.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter investigates examples of literary case studies by Alfred Döblin, a medical doctor and a main representative of the 1920s ‘New Objectivity’ aesthetic movement in Weimar Germany. Like ...
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This chapter investigates examples of literary case studies by Alfred Döblin, a medical doctor and a main representative of the 1920s ‘New Objectivity’ aesthetic movement in Weimar Germany. Like fellow poet Gottfried Benn, Döblin brought his professional expertise in medicine to bear on his literary projects. Whereas his contemporaries were preoccupied with questions of social justice, Döblin was particularly interested in gender relations and the nexus between sexuality and crime, and used literature as a metaphorical laboratory to explore shocking and topical themes of the day. With his realistic case studies based on trials and his own expert knowledge of psychiatry, sexology and psychoanalysis, Döblin strove to bridge the gap between highbrow literature and the new empirical life sciences, as well as between his medical practice and his love of literature. His work demonstrates both the benefits and limits of the case study genre as a vehicle for transporting new forms of knowledge. While his attempts to refashion the literary case study as a crime novel by incorporating the latest theories about the human psyche and female homosexuality were of limited success, he achieved greater success with Berlin Alexanderplatz, a modernist novel about crime and sex in the metropolis.Less
This chapter investigates examples of literary case studies by Alfred Döblin, a medical doctor and a main representative of the 1920s ‘New Objectivity’ aesthetic movement in Weimar Germany. Like fellow poet Gottfried Benn, Döblin brought his professional expertise in medicine to bear on his literary projects. Whereas his contemporaries were preoccupied with questions of social justice, Döblin was particularly interested in gender relations and the nexus between sexuality and crime, and used literature as a metaphorical laboratory to explore shocking and topical themes of the day. With his realistic case studies based on trials and his own expert knowledge of psychiatry, sexology and psychoanalysis, Döblin strove to bridge the gap between highbrow literature and the new empirical life sciences, as well as between his medical practice and his love of literature. His work demonstrates both the benefits and limits of the case study genre as a vehicle for transporting new forms of knowledge. While his attempts to refashion the literary case study as a crime novel by incorporating the latest theories about the human psyche and female homosexuality were of limited success, he achieved greater success with Berlin Alexanderplatz, a modernist novel about crime and sex in the metropolis.
Jason Crouthamel
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859898423
- eISBN:
- 9781781385128
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859898423.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book explores the impact of psychological trauma, or ‘war neurosis’ in imperial, Weimar and Nazi Germany from the perspective of ordinary mentally disabled veterans of the First World War. War ...
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This book explores the impact of psychological trauma, or ‘war neurosis’ in imperial, Weimar and Nazi Germany from the perspective of ordinary mentally disabled veterans of the First World War. War neurosis was a key topic in debates over the memory of the war, masculinity, and social deviance. This volume uses previously unexplored first-person accounts in order to focus on traumatized German war veterans. It follows these vulnerable members of society as they emerged from the trenches and pursued lives in work, family and politics as they experienced marginalization as burdens on the nation and terrifying reminders of the effects of mass violence. Traumatized veterans actively fought doctors who tried to de-emphasize or stigmatize mental wounds. Within the fragmented landscape of interwar politics, these men also struggled to find acceptance as legitimate victims of war. After the Nazi seizure of power, these men faced intensified attacks as ‘enemies of the nation,’ and they protested their status as ‘social outsiders’. They claimed recognition as normal men with authentic and socially vital perspectives on the traumatic effects of modern war. This book situates veterans’ words and experiences in the contemporary field of trauma studies, revealing a previously hidden vein of protest against the Nazi institutions and official memory of war. It exposes the universal problems faced by societies coping with war and the politics of the veterans’ long-term care.Less
This book explores the impact of psychological trauma, or ‘war neurosis’ in imperial, Weimar and Nazi Germany from the perspective of ordinary mentally disabled veterans of the First World War. War neurosis was a key topic in debates over the memory of the war, masculinity, and social deviance. This volume uses previously unexplored first-person accounts in order to focus on traumatized German war veterans. It follows these vulnerable members of society as they emerged from the trenches and pursued lives in work, family and politics as they experienced marginalization as burdens on the nation and terrifying reminders of the effects of mass violence. Traumatized veterans actively fought doctors who tried to de-emphasize or stigmatize mental wounds. Within the fragmented landscape of interwar politics, these men also struggled to find acceptance as legitimate victims of war. After the Nazi seizure of power, these men faced intensified attacks as ‘enemies of the nation,’ and they protested their status as ‘social outsiders’. They claimed recognition as normal men with authentic and socially vital perspectives on the traumatic effects of modern war. This book situates veterans’ words and experiences in the contemporary field of trauma studies, revealing a previously hidden vein of protest against the Nazi institutions and official memory of war. It exposes the universal problems faced by societies coping with war and the politics of the veterans’ long-term care.
Benjamin A. Schupmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198791614
- eISBN:
- 9780191833991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198791614.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The Introduction analyzes both how the popular appeal of the Nazi and Communist parties posed a dilemma for Weimar democracy and how Schmitt thought this dilemma illustrated the broader problem mass ...
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The Introduction analyzes both how the popular appeal of the Nazi and Communist parties posed a dilemma for Weimar democracy and how Schmitt thought this dilemma illustrated the broader problem mass democracy posed for twentieth-century constitutional democratic states. The dilemma begged the question of whether the will of the people could be legitimately constrained. The Introduction contextualizes Schmitt’s analysis of this dilemma by reconstructing nineteenth- and early twentieth-century debates in German jurisprudence about the nature of valid law, arguing that Schmitt’s thought emerged out of an anti-positivist movement. This Introduction also assesses some of the problems facing scholarship of Schmitt, including his occasionalism and anti-Semitism. While acknowledging how damning these charges are, it argues that Schmitt’s state and constitutional theory can be separated from his personal failures and that his thought provides a valuable and original solution to the problems modern mass democracy poses.Less
The Introduction analyzes both how the popular appeal of the Nazi and Communist parties posed a dilemma for Weimar democracy and how Schmitt thought this dilemma illustrated the broader problem mass democracy posed for twentieth-century constitutional democratic states. The dilemma begged the question of whether the will of the people could be legitimately constrained. The Introduction contextualizes Schmitt’s analysis of this dilemma by reconstructing nineteenth- and early twentieth-century debates in German jurisprudence about the nature of valid law, arguing that Schmitt’s thought emerged out of an anti-positivist movement. This Introduction also assesses some of the problems facing scholarship of Schmitt, including his occasionalism and anti-Semitism. While acknowledging how damning these charges are, it argues that Schmitt’s state and constitutional theory can be separated from his personal failures and that his thought provides a valuable and original solution to the problems modern mass democracy poses.
Roger Cotterrell
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198264903
- eISBN:
- 9780191682858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198264903.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
The theme of historical transformations of legal rationality can be further developed through an examination of the changing social foundations of the idea of the Rule of Law, illuminated by Franz ...
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The theme of historical transformations of legal rationality can be further developed through an examination of the changing social foundations of the idea of the Rule of Law, illuminated by Franz Neumann and Otto Kirchheimer. Neumann's view that the Rule of Law reconciles, in specific historical conditions, the contradictory elements of law as sovereign power or will (voluntas)and as reason or principle (ratio) is important to the arguments in Part III of this book. The idea of the Rule of Law recognises centralised political power as the immediate origin of modern law while emphasising certain values that may be asserted against government. But what does that formulation entail in contemporary conditions? Historical evidence suggests why an appropriate reconciliation of ratio and voluntas may be hard to maintain. This chapter discusses the legal invisibility of change, the Rule of Law of competitive society, the ‘England problem’ and the Rule of Law, and the experience of Weimar Germany.Less
The theme of historical transformations of legal rationality can be further developed through an examination of the changing social foundations of the idea of the Rule of Law, illuminated by Franz Neumann and Otto Kirchheimer. Neumann's view that the Rule of Law reconciles, in specific historical conditions, the contradictory elements of law as sovereign power or will (voluntas)and as reason or principle (ratio) is important to the arguments in Part III of this book. The idea of the Rule of Law recognises centralised political power as the immediate origin of modern law while emphasising certain values that may be asserted against government. But what does that formulation entail in contemporary conditions? Historical evidence suggests why an appropriate reconciliation of ratio and voluntas may be hard to maintain. This chapter discusses the legal invisibility of change, the Rule of Law of competitive society, the ‘England problem’ and the Rule of Law, and the experience of Weimar Germany.
Max Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153599
- eISBN:
- 9781400845248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153599.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This book examines the “problem” of fear in its intellectual, social, and political incarnations. It situates fear in world-historical terms, thus breaking new ground in the historical and cultural ...
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This book examines the “problem” of fear in its intellectual, social, and political incarnations. It situates fear in world-historical terms, thus breaking new ground in the historical and cultural analysis of emotions. Each contributor is specifically concerned with a discrete historical moment, thereby emphasizing the variability and contingency of fears past, present, and future. Examples of such moments are the experience of fear among eighteenth-century rebels, priests, and colonial administrators in Peru; the universal fear response evoked by the Thirty Years War; and the technologically mediated experiences of anxiety and fear collectively felt by cinemagoers in Weimar Germany. This introduction discusses some of the lineaments of the history and philosophy of emotion as it pertains to the problem of fear, highlighting counterpoints or analogues to fear such as comfort, assurance, and hope.Less
This book examines the “problem” of fear in its intellectual, social, and political incarnations. It situates fear in world-historical terms, thus breaking new ground in the historical and cultural analysis of emotions. Each contributor is specifically concerned with a discrete historical moment, thereby emphasizing the variability and contingency of fears past, present, and future. Examples of such moments are the experience of fear among eighteenth-century rebels, priests, and colonial administrators in Peru; the universal fear response evoked by the Thirty Years War; and the technologically mediated experiences of anxiety and fear collectively felt by cinemagoers in Weimar Germany. This introduction discusses some of the lineaments of the history and philosophy of emotion as it pertains to the problem of fear, highlighting counterpoints or analogues to fear such as comfort, assurance, and hope.
Maiken Umbach
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199557394
- eISBN:
- 9780191721564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557394.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
This is a study of a distinctive brand of modernism, which first emerged in late 19th‐century Germany, and remained influential throughout the inter‐war years and beyond. Its supporters saw ...
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This is a study of a distinctive brand of modernism, which first emerged in late 19th‐century Germany, and remained influential throughout the inter‐war years and beyond. Its supporters saw themselves as a new elite, ideally placed to tackle the many challenges facing the young and rapidly industrializing German nation‐state. They defined themselves as bourgeois, and acted as self‐appointed champions of a modern consciousness. Focusing on figures such as Hermann Muthesius, Fritz Schumacher, and Karl‐Ernst Osthaus, and the activities of the Deutscher Werkbund and other networks of bourgeois designers, writers and ‘experts', this book shows how bourgeois modernism shaped the infrastructure of social and political life in early 20th‐century Germany. Like the project of liberal governmentality described by Foucault, bourgeois modernism exercised its power not so much in the realm of ideas, but by transforming the physical environment of German cities, from domestic interiors, via consumer objects, to urban and regional planning. Drawing on a detailed analysis of key material sites of bourgeois modernism, and interpreting them in conjunction with written sources, this study offers new insights into the history of the bourgeois mindset and its operations in the private and public realms. Thematic chapters examine leitmotifs such as the sense of locality and place, the sense of history and time, and the sense of nature and culture. Yet for all its self‐conscious progressivism, German bourgeois modernism was not an inevitable precursor of neo‐liberal global capitalism. It remained a hotly contested historical construct, which was constantly redefined through its performance in different geographical and political settings.Less
This is a study of a distinctive brand of modernism, which first emerged in late 19th‐century Germany, and remained influential throughout the inter‐war years and beyond. Its supporters saw themselves as a new elite, ideally placed to tackle the many challenges facing the young and rapidly industrializing German nation‐state. They defined themselves as bourgeois, and acted as self‐appointed champions of a modern consciousness. Focusing on figures such as Hermann Muthesius, Fritz Schumacher, and Karl‐Ernst Osthaus, and the activities of the Deutscher Werkbund and other networks of bourgeois designers, writers and ‘experts', this book shows how bourgeois modernism shaped the infrastructure of social and political life in early 20th‐century Germany. Like the project of liberal governmentality described by Foucault, bourgeois modernism exercised its power not so much in the realm of ideas, but by transforming the physical environment of German cities, from domestic interiors, via consumer objects, to urban and regional planning. Drawing on a detailed analysis of key material sites of bourgeois modernism, and interpreting them in conjunction with written sources, this study offers new insights into the history of the bourgeois mindset and its operations in the private and public realms. Thematic chapters examine leitmotifs such as the sense of locality and place, the sense of history and time, and the sense of nature and culture. Yet for all its self‐conscious progressivism, German bourgeois modernism was not an inevitable precursor of neo‐liberal global capitalism. It remained a hotly contested historical construct, which was constantly redefined through its performance in different geographical and political settings.
Susan Funkenstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036767
- eISBN:
- 9780252093869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036767.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Gret Palucca quickly ascended to dance stardom in the 1920s. Born in 1902, Palucca received her dance training at Mary Wigman's pioneering Dresden studio in the early 1920s and was among the first ...
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Gret Palucca quickly ascended to dance stardom in the 1920s. Born in 1902, Palucca received her dance training at Mary Wigman's pioneering Dresden studio in the early 1920s and was among the first generation of Wigman students to go on to innovate in the world of dance. During her career ascent, Palucca positioned herself in close proximity to visual artists, and she especially touted her relationship with artists at the Bauhaus, the innovative school for art and design in Weimar Germany. This chapter examines the visual images of Palucca created by students and teachers at the Bauhaus. In so doing, it challenges the standard literature that associates Bauhaus dance exclusively with dance choreographer Oskar Schlemmer.Less
Gret Palucca quickly ascended to dance stardom in the 1920s. Born in 1902, Palucca received her dance training at Mary Wigman's pioneering Dresden studio in the early 1920s and was among the first generation of Wigman students to go on to innovate in the world of dance. During her career ascent, Palucca positioned herself in close proximity to visual artists, and she especially touted her relationship with artists at the Bauhaus, the innovative school for art and design in Weimar Germany. This chapter examines the visual images of Palucca created by students and teachers at the Bauhaus. In so doing, it challenges the standard literature that associates Bauhaus dance exclusively with dance choreographer Oskar Schlemmer.
Jared S. Buss
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813054438
- eISBN:
- 9780813053172
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813054438.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter follows Ley during his early twenties, when he became an intermediary between specialized experts and the general public. Ley constructed his persona as a freelance writer and ...
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This chapter follows Ley during his early twenties, when he became an intermediary between specialized experts and the general public. Ley constructed his persona as a freelance writer and journalist, who could translate complex concepts for a broader audience in Weimar Germany. This chapter explores Ley’s entrance into rocketry clubs, amateur science, and circles of journalists during Weimar’s rocketry fad. It concludes with an analysis of his role in the ground breaking science fiction film, Woman in the Moon (1929).Less
This chapter follows Ley during his early twenties, when he became an intermediary between specialized experts and the general public. Ley constructed his persona as a freelance writer and journalist, who could translate complex concepts for a broader audience in Weimar Germany. This chapter explores Ley’s entrance into rocketry clubs, amateur science, and circles of journalists during Weimar’s rocketry fad. It concludes with an analysis of his role in the ground breaking science fiction film, Woman in the Moon (1929).
