Weimar culture

Question 1

what were key parts of the Weimar culture?

Answer 1

hiking, opera, cinema, radio, art

Question 2

why is it wrong to say all of Weimar culture was vibrant and experimental?

Answer 2

only shows activities of small part of population, large parts of Germany untouched by cultural experimentation

Question 3

what was the Bauhaus movement?

Answer 3

architecture movement/ design school, saw beauty in technology, simple design and careful craftsmanship

Question 4

what was the New Objectivity movement?

Answer 4

matter of fact representation of life, gave modernism and expressionism darker twist

Question 5

who were the most experimental in this period?

Answer 5

artists, intellectuals, writers, directors

Question 6

what did the government subsidise to bring culture to small towns?

Answer 6

theatres, orchestras, museums and libraries

Question 7

what was Fritz Lang’s movie, why was it so shocking?

Answer 7

Metropolis, first full length film with sci-fi subject, very modern

Question 8

what is expressionism?

Answer 8

belief that thoughts and feelings are more important than actual representation in art

Question 9

what is modernism?

Answer 9

embraced future, beauty in tech, mass production, rejected representational art of stylised fiction

Question 10

what US trends were some young people influenced by?

Answer 10

consumer culture, advertising, jazz

Question 11

what did Paragraph 184 of the Criminal Code ban, despite ‘free speech’?

Answer 11

obscene films, publications etc, protect under 16s from pornography

Question 12

why was Weimar culture so free and diverse, regarding the constitution?

Answer 12

freedom of speech and expression

Question 13

why was freedom of expression not always a good thing?

Answer 13

allowed critics of the culture and the government to express their views just as freely

Question 14

how did the numbers of cinemas change between 1919 and 1929?

Answer 14

doubled, 2,800 in 1919, 5,200 1929

Question 15

what movies were popular and why, The Holy Mountain is an example?

Answer 15

hiking, mountain films
helped Germans remember traditional past times and distract them from post-war period and recent events

Question 16

what type of book was Junger’s Storm of Steel, why?

Answer 16

romanticised book of trench life, said trenches paradise, described acts of slaughter in graphic sensual detail

Question 17

what did Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front show?

Answer 17

bleak depiction of WW1, continual horror, fear and destruction affected young soldiers, men destroyed physically and mentally by war

Question 18

How did artists Otto Dix and George Grosz embrace New Objectivity?

Answer 18

stripped away pre-war idealism
Dix presented German soldiers as monstrous, gas masks transformed their faces into skulls
Grosz presented army as vicious and inhumane, Eberts brain steaming pile of dung, ridicules elites

Question 19

what new filming techniques did Walter Ruttmann use?

Answer 19

sped up and slowed down rate of film,fast cuts + edits to create visual rhythm, sequences focusing on abstract shapes

Question 20

why did right wing people fear the new culture?

Answer 20

increasing influence of Jews and Americanisation, the replacement/ degrading of traditional culture

Question 21

despite fearing the new culture how did some Conservatives use it?

Answer 21

to put forward their ideas, had control of newspapers, media etc