Weimar: Education And Culture Flashcards
What was school like before the war
- eduction compulsory ages 6-14
- upper class kids went fee-paying schools and working class went Volkesschule
Why was social mobility hard before the war
Most working class kids needed to work from ages 14 onwards and eduction post 14 was expensive. Eduction system supported social status quo eg. Children from prof. Families entering the professions
How did the new Weimar goverment change school
Set up compulsory grandshcule for 6-10 yr olds and stopped clerical inspections.
New gov wanted fairer educational system with mixed and non confessional and no RE.
How was religious teaching in school a big topic in the public and the constitution
Public view:
- rural towns and ppl in northern Länder liked no RE and those in rural areas were strong advocates for it. Some people felt strongly about its teaching while others did not, and others valued teaching it for the basic morality principles religion brought
Government:
- various parties couldn’t agree. Centre party fought to keep confessional schools and religion, but the educational articles kept the compuslory grandshcule
How many schools were there in 1931
- 29k Protestant ones
- 15k catholic ones
- 97 Jewish ones
- 9k common schools
- 295 secular schools
What was eduction like beyond 10 yrs old
- was payed
- went to Haptshchule (5 years leading into trade), Realschule (6 years leading to business work etc) or a gymnasium (9 year schooling leading to university)
What was the differences between civil servants parents and working class parents of uni students. Why could these not be solved by the gov
In 1928, survey showed around 45% were civil servants, and only 2.3% were of working class.
The gov hoped to reform this, but their own principle of freedom meant the unis carried on as before, so the rest of the school structure had to fit in with them.
In 1928 what % of students were in a uni corporation, and how were the memberships important for students futures
56% in corps, some of whic excluded race opr gender, like the German-aryan chambers.
Membership was important because support, or lack of, from those who’d been in same corporation could then affect ur future career.
What is Bauhaus
Literally meaning ‘arichture house’ was a design school made by Walter Gropius in 1919 and saw beauty in tech and simple design. Name spread a way of thinking and designing, and not just the school
What is Neue Sachlikeit
New objectivity movement grew out of the modern and expressionist movements that developed just before First World War.
It meant representation of life, freeze example, showing the squalor of poverty in art and books
What was Art elite culture?
Formed from artist, intellectual and writers. They were the most experimental using ideas and developing them and moving on.
They favoured forwarding modernism, but they then gave it a darker twist with the new objectivity movement . These movements existed, side-by-side, influencing art, music, literature, opera, et cetera.
The Creativity was highly valued by some wealthy people who subsidise artists.
What were government subsidies culture?
They subsidised, theatres, orchestra, museums, and libraries, allowing culture to be brought to quite small towns. But subsidies were small and social welfare projects took priority for federal and state governments.
Government encourage other cultural initiatives, like Ufa government organised film, consortium made most German movies, including Fritz Lang, most famous silent film about the future: metropolis
What was special about the movie Metropolis?
It was the first full length film to have science-fiction subject, and the most expensive movie ever made up until the point
What was popular culture and how was it influenced by US trends?
Was why enjoyed and largely not subsidised, but was the most diverse.
Especially young people in urban areas were heavily influenced by US trends like consumer culture and jazz but traditional music and plays still had a wide following
Cinema in Weimar, and how did activist films would affect society
Cinema took off his period and the subjects of the movies were often dark.
For example, the first vampire movie, Nosferatu was made in Germany in 1922.
Clara Zetkin , communist, and women right campaigner, agreed with New objective thinking, saying film should show real life and not unrealistic stories = was hoping such would films with Spark social reform
