1.4 Changes in society, 1924-29

Question 1

How did employment rates change after 1924

Answer 1

• Unemployment Insurance act in 1927 charged workers 3% of their wages to give 60 marks per week for unemployment and sickness benefits if they fell out of work.
• Unemployment fell from 2 million in 1926 to 1.3 million in 1928

Question 2

How did work hours and wages change after 1924

Answer 2

• work hours were shortened from 50 hours in 1925 to 46 hours in 1927
• real wages rose by 25% from 1925 to 1928
• Working conditions also improved

Question 3

How did housing change after 1924

Answer 3

• By 1923 housing was in shortage
• In 1925, a 15% rent tax was introduced to fund building associations.
• Lots of houses built, and homeless stress had dramatically eased by 1928

Question 4

How did pensions change after 1924

Answer 4

Pensions were paid throughout the 1920s to 750,000 war veterans, 400,000 war widows and 200,000 parents of dead servicemen under the 1920 Reich Pension Law

Question 5

Women’s roles in politics after 1918

Answer 5

• Women were given the right to vote by the Social Democrats, who believed they’d worked hard in the war
• In the first week for the new Republic women were given votes and right to stand for elections
• In the Weimar elections, the turnout of women voters was 90%.
• By 1932, 112 women had been elected to the Reichstag, which means almost 10% of the members were female.

Question 6

Article 104 of the Weimar constitution

Answer 6

• Women had equal rights to men
• Marriage was an equal partnership, with equal rights on both sides
• Women should be able to ender all professions on an equal basis with men

Question 7

Women’s work after 1918

Answer 7

By 1918, 75% of women were in work to account for the men going to war.

• After the war, women employment levels returned to pre-war levels (36% of women) despite article 104 of the constitution.
• Women were paid about 33% less than men in the same jobs
• They were expected to give up work after marriage
• Few women were in high status professions
• Booming retail and service sectors produced lots of part-time jobs in shops and offices (so women could take them)
• Women did make progress in education and medicine sectors. Number of female doctors doubled between 1925 - 1932

Question 8

Women at leisure after 1918

Answer 8

• Greater financial independence
• Greater social independence (‘new women’)
• Bought more clothes, went out more.
• Expressed independence through behaviour; short hair, make-up, jewellery and revealing clothes
• smoked and drank more, went out unaccompanied
• Less interests in marriage and took advantage in liberal sexual attitudes which had developed during the war
• common in advertisements and films

Question 9

Problems with the ‘new women’ after 1918

Answer 9

• mainly men believed that the growing equality and independence of women threatened to change traditional aspects of society, such as motherhood, family and housekeeping.
• Birth rates were falling: dropped from 128 births per 1000 women in 1913 to 80 by 1925.
• Divorce rates were rising
• because of disagreements, and because men thought women challenged their roles in society, changes for women in the Weimar Republic was the source of many social tensions.

Question 10

Cultural changes in the Weimar republic

Answer 10

Art –> Otto Dix, and others, could really express the love or hate for the new maatregels.
Architecture –> Erich Mendelsohn, and the Einstein tower; designed a futuristic tower which looks like a rocket
Cinema –> Films became very popular; horror films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was one of the world’s first horror films. Metropolis was a science fiction film about life and technology in the 20th century. By 1932, there were 3,800 German cinemas showing film with sound.
Opposition –> Left wing extremists said the money was wasted on the extravagance, right wing extremists though it undermined traditional German culture.