Why were educational and cultural developments often controversial in Germany in the years 1918-89? Flashcards
What were some of the things which were part of Weimar culture?
-hiking, going to the opera and listening to the radio.
what is culture in the Weimar Republic often portrayed as?
culture in the years of the Weimar Republic is often portrayed as vibrant, experimental and, especially in the cities, decadent.
-it must be remembered that this is based on the activities of a small part of the population and in particular places - there were large parts of Germany that were untouched by cultural experimentation, or were horrified by it.
were were 2 influential movements which started in Germany during the Weimar period?
-Bauhaus: this literally means ‘architecture house’ and it was a design school set up in 1919
-Neue Sachlichkeit (New objectivity): it meant a matter-of-fact representation of life. E.g. showing the squalor of poverty in art, books or film
what were the 3 strands into which Weimar culture divided into?
-art elite culture
-government-subsidised culture
-popular culture
who formed the Weimar cultural strand of Art elite culture? and explain a bit about their work
-artists, intellectuals, writers and those who supported them formed this group.
-they were the most experimental, using ideas, developing them and then moving on.
-at first they favoured the forward-looking modernism or expressionism, but they then gave it a darker twist with the new objectivity method. These movements existed side by side, influencing art, music, literature, opera and theatre.
-this creativity was highly valued by some wealthy people who subsidised artists.
explain the Weimar cultural strand of Government subsidised culture
-the gov subsidised theatres, orchestras, museums and libraries - bringing culture to even quite small towns.
-however, subsidies were small and social welfare projects took priority for both federal and state govs.
-the gov also encouraged other cultural initiatives. Ufa, a gov-organised film consortium of the biggest film studios, made most of German movies, including Fritz Lang’s famous silent film about the future: Metropolis. It was the first full-length film to have a science fiction subject and the most expensive movie ever made up to that point.
explain the Weimar cultural strand of popular culture
-this was widely enjoyed and largely non-subsidised. It was also the most diverse.
-some people, especially the young in urban areas, were heavily influenced by US trends such as a consumer culture, advertising and jazz. But traditional music and plays still had a wide following.
-Cinema took of in the Weimar period. The subjects of Weimar movies were often ‘dark’, Nosferatu, the first vampire movie, was made in Germany in 1922. Clara Zetkin, the communist and woman’s rights campaigner, agreed with New Objective thinking when she said that film should show real life, not unrealistic or fantastic stories. However, she was hoping such films would spark social reform.
What was the Weimar govs reaction to such cultural experimentation?
-the Weimar constitution said free speech was a right of citizens. While some people thought this meant no censorship, the Criminal Code still had paragraph 184, allowing the banning of ‘obscene’ films, publications and so on, which had been widely applied pre-war.
-the Weimar gov used censorship to protect those under 16 from pornography, but people could paint, sing, or write far more freely. While this allowed Expressionism to flourish, it also allowed critics of both Expressionism and of the gov to express their views, forcefully.
why did many right-wing people worry about Weimar culture?
they worried about the decadence, the increasing number of influential Jewish writers, artists and musicians, and the increasing Americanisation of culture, e.g. jazz and the way ‘new women’ dressed and behaved.
What did Nazis want over culture? Which Nazi policy meant that Nazis wanted this?
-Nazis wanted tight control over culture, as well as education. They censored ‘unacceptable’ culture and created one of their own.
-the Nazi policy of Gleichschaltung (co-ordination) meant that Nazis wanted tight control over culture.
what did Nazi propaganda stress about culture?
it stressed that Germans were the Kulturtrager (culture-bearers) of Europe, but that they had been led astray by the over-intellectual, Jewish-led, corrupt culture of Weimar Germany
On 10 May 1933, with the help of the Nazi student organisation, what did the Nazis do?
the Nazis organised the burning of about 25,000 books that were ‘unsound’, from textbooks to famous foreign authors such as Ernest Hemingway.
-Jewish authors were all seen as ‘unsound’
-towns also held book burnings on various dates throughout 1933.
what else was censored in Nazi Germany?
art, music and theatre were also censored, weeding out works that were by ‘unacceptable’ people (Jews), of an ‘unacceptable’ style (e.g. Expressionism), with an ‘unacceptable’ message (e.g. pacifism) or that were ‘intellectual’ (e.g. philosophy)
-almost anything that encouraged individualism or discouraged conformity was ‘unsound’
-magazines, newspapers and radio were censored.
on 22 September 1933, what did Goebbels set up?
he set up the Reichskulturkammer (RKK) to control all of the creative arts, stopping culture being ‘elitist’ and bringing it to everyone: the right sort of culture with the right sort of message.
what type of art was acceptable in Nazi Germany?
Nationalist, approachable, realistic art was acceptable.
-despite the fact that Nazis encouraged modern production techniques in factories and spent a lot of public money on large-scale urban building schemes, they idealised the simple, rural life and the simple, healthy farmer, and approved art often reflected this idealist view.
