Evaluation of Weimar Germany
The Weimar Republic was an extremely complex and diverse placethroughout the entirety of the interwar years. The society and theculture that the Weimar created had several different facets andfrontiers according to how one chooses to approach it. The fundamentalthemes of the period evolve around Political conflict, economicinstability, social unrest and diverse ideologies.
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In relation to this essay I shall be focusing my attention on thelatter themes, as I believe that the determinants of social unrest andconflicting ideologies are paramount when investigating the social andcultural development of the Weimar Republic.
There is little doubt that pre-war and post-war German societies werevery different. Prior to the Great War, under an autocratic regime,the innovative intellectuals within society felt that the institutionoppressed their views and creative instinct.
In contrast, post World War one Germany brought with it an extremelydiverse and radical culture. It is with the benefit of hindsight thatit becomes apparent that this period was an opportunity for thosepioneering modernists to sow their ideology in fertile lands.
Those observers who nostalgically refer to the Weimar years as the‘Golden Twenties’ are clearly not referring to the socio-economicdistresses of the period. Instead, as Eberhard Kolb expresses they arereferring to “The eruption of new vitality, the liberation of creativeforces in a short decade of unbound intellectual and artisticfreedom.” (1)
In the immediate post War years rapid ideological change and economicdevelopment were evident throughout m…
…al history, 1918-33, (New York, 1974),p. 110.
(4) P. Bookbinder, Weimar Germany, p. 250.
(5) P. Bookbinder, Weimar Germany, p. 254
(6) W. Gropius, ‘Bauhaus Memorandum’, (Weimar, Feb 3rd, 1922), inWhitford (ed.), p. 134.
(7) E. Kolb, The Weimar Republic, p. 86.
(8) J. Willett, The Weimar years: a culture cut short (1984), p. 9.
(9) W. Laqueur, Weimar, a cultural history, 1918-33, (New York, 1974),p. 137
(10) E. Kolb, The Weimar Republic, p. 90.
(11) J. Willett, The Weimar years: a culture cut short (1984), p. 7
(12) J. Willett, The Weimar years: a culture cut short (1984), p. 7
(13) J. Willett, The Weimar years: a culture cut short (1984), p. 7
(14) H. Pachter, Weimar Etudes, (New York, 1982), p. 91
(15) W. Laqueur, Weimar, a cultural history, 1918-33, (New York,1974), p. 277.
