Living Standards and lifestyles Flashcards
1
Q
What was the concept of the ‘new woman’
A
- free, independent, sexually liberated and increasingly visible in public life.
- W constitution had given women equality with men in voting rights and in access to education.
-> gave women equal opportunities in civil service appointments and the right to equal pay. - the war had brought more women into paid employment to replace the men who had fought.
2
Q
How was the concept of the ‘new woman’ undermined
A
- the much more traditional Civil Code of 1896 remained in force -> stated that in a marriage, the husband had the right to decide on all matters in family life -> inc whether his wife should work.
- the League of German Women (BDF) (most popular women’s group, promoted traditional maternal responsibilities.
-> this was echoed by conservative parties and churches that were alarmed by these changes which they considered to be threat to family life.
3
Q
What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of employment
A
- the constitution gave women greater equality in employment rights.
- By 1925, 36% of the German workforce were women.
- By 1933, there 100,000 female teachers and 3000 female doctors.
4
Q
What was the reality of the ‘new woman’ in terms of employment
A
- the ‘demobilisation’ laws after the war required women to leave their jobs so that ex-soldiers could find employment.
- women were paid much less than men doing equivalent work.
- In many occupations, women were required to give up their employment when they married.
5
Q
What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of sexual freedom
A
- Birth control became more widely available and the birth rate declined.
- Divorce rates increased.
- There was a rise in the number of abortions, by 1930, there was an estimated 1 million abortions a year.
6
Q
What was the reality of the ‘new woman’ in terms of sexual freedom
A
- abortion was a criminal offence and would be often performed by unqualified people.
-> in 1930, there was an estimated 12,000 deaths each year from abortions. - the decline in the birth rate was attacked by the conservative press and politicians as a ‘birth strike’ that threatened the health of the nation and the continued existence of the race.
- Catholic and Protestant churches were vigorously opposed to birth control, divorce and abortion.
-> many German women were committed members of church congregations.
7
Q
What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of politics and public life
A
- women gained equal voting rights and the right to be Reichstag deputies in the Weimar Constitution.
- In 1919, 41 women were elected to the Reichstag, the German Reichstag had a higher proportion of female deputies than the British House of Commons.
- Women’s were also very active in local government at state and city level.
8
Q
What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of politics and public life
A
- there were no female representatives in the Reichstrat.
- No woman became a cabinet member during the Weimar Republic.
- No political party had a female leader in the Weimar years.
- The party that gained the most from female suffrage was the Catholic Centre Party.
-> the conservative DNVP and the DVP appealed most to women voters.
-> none of these parties gave any support to feminist issues.
9
Q
What was life like overall for Young people
A
- Increasing concern that young people were turning increasingly to a life of crime and anti-social behaviour.
- In Weimar years, there were fewer apprenticeships and more youth unemployment.
- In 1925-26, 17% of the unemployed were in the 14-21 age group.
- many young working-class kids living in big cities joined gangs to find comradeship that they were lacking in their lives.
- In Hamburg there cliques such as Death Defiers, Tartar’s Blood and Eagle’s Claw.
-> tried projecting an image of physical toughness, aggressive masculinity.
-> cliques used taverns as their meeting places as alcohol played an important part in their sub-culture.
10
Q
What was education like for the youth
A
- although there were few elite private schools in Germany, the state education system was divided along class lines.
-> majority of gymnasium schools were draw from the middle and upper classes. - system was also divided along religious lines, since the Protestant and Catholic Churches had a powerful influence over religious education.
11
Q
What reform was there for the education system
A
- education reformers aimed to break divides and provide a non-sectarian education that would be free to all.
- the main reform was the intro of elementary schools.
-> those who did not pass the entrance examination for a Gymnasium would be able to continue at elementary for a further 4 years. - reformers did not succeed in aim of removing the influence of the churches from schools.
12
Q
what were the 3 types of youth groups
A
- Wandervogel
- Church youth groups
- Political youth groups
13
Q
who were the Wandervogel
A
- mainly consisted of middle-class boys.
- although the Wandervogel were non-political, they were very nationalistic with a romanticised view Germany’s past.
- hated industrialisation and big cities.
-> spent time hiking in the forests, swam lakes and rivers, and sleeping under canvas. - rejected middle class conventions and sought the freedom of wild spaces.
14
Q
What were church youth groups
A
- both Catholic and Protestant churches had youth groups.
- The Catholics had many different groups aimed at different sections at young people.
-> New Germany, was founded in 1919, aimed at middle-class youths. - In both religions, the tasks of the youth groups were to promote religious observance and instil respect for the church, family and school.
15
Q
What were political youth groups
A
- all the main political parties had their youth sections.
-> the Social Democratic Youth movement (SPD) was founded in 1925, has most members of any political youth groups in the Weimar period. - The Young Communist League was founded in 1925 for the children of KPD members.
- The Hitler Youth was linked to the Nazi Party. Its growth was slow in the 1920s, reaching a membership of only about 13,000 in 1929.
16
Q
What were Jewish peoples’ role in politics and the press
A
- Jewish publishing firms had a powerful influence in the media, with 2 Jewish-run newspapers, the Berliner Tageblatt and the Frankfurter Zeitung, promoting liberal political views.
- Theodor Wolff, editor of Berliner Tageblatt, was the driving force behind the moderate Liberal DDP.
- Walter Rathenau was a leading member of the DDP.
17
Q
What were Jewish peoples’ role in industry, commerce, and professions
A
- had achieved considerable influence in industry and commerce. E.g. the Rathenau family controlled the huge electrical engineering firm AEG until 1927.
- Jewish firms dominated coal-mining, steelworks and the chemical industry in Silesia.
- Jewish banking families such as the Rothschilds owned about 50% of private banks.
-> Jewish directors also managed several major public banks. - successful in retailing -> owned almost half of the firms involved in the cloth trade.
- successful in the professions: law and medicine, made up 16% of lawyers and 11% of doctors in Germany.
18
Q
What was the extent of assimilation and anti-semitism in Weimar Germany
A
- vast majority of German Jews, in lang, dress and lifestyle, thousands of Jews looked and acted like other Germans.
- main factor limiting Jewish assimilation was the reluctance of many Germans to stop identifying Jews as alien.
- in difficult early years of W Rep, 1918-1924, there was backlash against perceived threat of Jewish Bolshevism -> e.g. in the Spartacus uprising.
- Anti-semitism was part of the violent nationalism behind right-wing movements like the Freikorps and the NSDAP formed in 1920.
- 1924-1930, however, anti-semitism was generally not present.
19
Q
What were Berlin’s nightclubs
A
- Berlin nightclubs became renowned for their cabarets.
-> E.g. the Eldorado. - American jazz music, played by black Americans became popular.
- many comedians in clubs attacked politicians and authoritarian attitudes.
- Many older Germans viewed nightclubs with contempt.
-> hated the influence of the USA on German cultural life and attacked the W Rep for relaxing censorship.
20
Q
Explain the development of art in the republic
A
- the predominant movement in German art was Expressionism.
- associated with artists like Kandinsky, George Grosz, Franz Marc and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
- Expressionist painters believed that their works should express meaning or emotion rather physical reality, hence their paintings were abstract in style and vivid in colour.
21
Q
Explain the development of music in the republic
A
- Expressionism also influenced German classical composers in this period.
- E.g. Hindemith and Arnold Schoenberg.
- Schoenberg attempted to convey powerful emotions bit traditional forms -> associated with ‘atonal’ music, which lacks a key, and sounds harsh and lacking in harmony.
22
Q
Explain the development of literature in the republic
A
- Expressionism also influenced this.
- novelists and poets adopted a free form of writing where they focused on a character’s internal mental state rather than on the external social reality.
- a common theme was revolt against parental authority.
- the leading German writer of the period was Thomas Mann.
23
Q
Explain the development of architecture in the republic
A
- the founding of the Bauhaus at Dessau by William Gropius in 1919 was a key event in the development of modernist art in Germany.
- Bauhaus students were encouraged to break down barriers between art and technology by incorporating new materials like steel, concrete and glass in designs.
- students were taught to make the function of an object or building into the key element of their designs, stripping away superfluous ornamentation.
24
Q
Explain the development of theatre in the republic
A
- many dramatists incorporated expressionist into their productions.
-> sets were stark and plays relied on abstraction and symbolism to convey their message. - much of experimental theatre was explicitly political, attacking capitalism, nationalism and war.
- Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill developed a new form of music theatre.
-> created The Threepenny Opera, a savage left-wing satire that treated respectable middle classes as villains, while making heroes out of criminals and protistutes. - they were attacked by the right as ‘cultural Bolsheviks’.
25
Explain the development of film in the republic
- Berlin became an important centre for world cinema, developing modern techniques that would later be exploited by Nazi propaganda.
- E.g. Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Josef von Sternberg.
- it was Sternberg who directed the best known film of the Weimar era, The Blue Angel.
