Art And Culture Flashcards
What did nightclubs allow and for who in particular?
• The freedom of expression
• Gay men, lesbians, transvestites able to display their sexuality openly
What music became popular?
American jazz music, often performed by black American musicians
What did many comedians begin to do?
Attack politicians and authoritarian attitudes within their jokes
How did more traditional Germans regard nightclubs?
•Hated the influence of the USA on German culture
•Attacked the Weimar Republic for relaxing censorship
•Felt that order and discipline had been destroyed by the revolution and that German society was becomming degenerate
What was expressionism art and who were popular artists that were associated with it?
• Originated in Germany
• Art that expresses meaning or emotion rather than physical reality, often vivid in colour and abstract in style
• Kandinsky, Grosz, Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig
Who was Arnold Schoenburg?
• An expressionist musician
• Attempted to convey powerful emotions in his music but avoided traditional forms of beauty
- Associated with ‘atonal’ music which lacks a key and sounds harsh
How was expressionism used in literature?
• Novelists and poets adopted a free form of writing in which they focused on a character’s internal mental state rather than pn the external social reality
• A common theme was revolt against parental authority
Who was Thomas Mann?
• German writer
• Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929
• He was a staunch supporter of the Weimar Republic
• Fled to Sweden after the Nazis came to power in 1933
What was the Bauhaus at Dessau school?
• Created by William Gropius in 1919
• Primarily an architecture school, also taught art, design and photography
• Students were encouraged to break down the barriers between art and technology by incorporating new matierials such as steel and glass into designs
- Also taught to make the function of the building a key feature in its design
What was experimental theatre in Germany?
• Abstraction and symbolism used to convey messages
• Much of it was explicitly political, attacking capitalism, nationalism and war
What was the Threepenny Opera?
• A savage left-wing satirical theatre
• Treated respectable middle classes as villains
• Made heroes out of criminals and prostitutes
• Attacked by the right
What about film was exploited by Nazis and why?
• Film’s developed modern techniques
• Nazi used it for propaganda
