Extra Culture Stuff for Weimar Flashcards
1
Q
What were features of Art Elite Culture?
A
- Artists, intellectuals, writers and those who supported them
- They were the most experimental developing them and the moving on
- They initially favoured the forward-looking modernism and expressionism but later added a darker twist with new objectivity movement
- These movements existed side by side influencing art music, literature, opera and theatre
- This creativity was highly valued by some wealthy people who subsided artists
2
Q
What were features of Government subsidised culture?
A
- Govt subsided theatre’s, orchestras, museums and libraries which brought culture to small towns
- Subsidies were small and social welfare projects took priority for both federal and state governments
- The government also encouraged cultural initiatives, e.g UFA government organised film consortium of the biggest film studios
- Ex is Fritz Langs famous silent film about the future; Metropolis with a first full length film to have a science fiction subject and the most expensive movie ever made up until that time
3
Q
What was popular culture in the Weimar Republic?
A
- This was widely enjoyed and largely non-subsidised and was the most diverse
- Younger generation were heavily influenced by US trends and consumer culture
- Traditional music and plays still had a wide following
- Cinema took off, with subjects often being ‘dark’ e.g the first vampire movie ‘Nosferatu’ in 1922
- Clara Zetkin, communist and women right campaigner, agreed with New Objective thinking when she said film should show real life
4
Q
How did the criminal code suppress cultural publications?
A
- Paragraph 184
- Allowed the ban of ‘obscene’ films, publications and so on which had been widely applied pre-war
- Initially the Weimar Gov used censorship to protect those under 16 from pornography, but people could paint, sing or write far more freely
- Allowed Expressionism, but right-wing politicians worried about the decadence and increasing no. of Jewish writers, artists and musicians and the increasing of Americanisation of culture
