Zille: Berliners on the go; at the beach; beach2; in the "hinterhof"; checking to see the report on his latest robbery; Mein Milljöh; students; city scence 1926 and 1930; life if the big city ; sunbathing; FKK

Election postersthe middle; the failure of the centrist parties. Perception of social democrats But note their propaganda. : anti-nazi; last hope; pro-communist; election in art; election 1931; Reichstag results

Foreign Trade statistics...

Employment / unemployment statistics; Grosz unemployed a jobline ; the personal cost ; standing in line

Murder they wrote...

murder one and two and three


Ch 13 1929

deals with the cinema. .

Film/ cinema: Jannings, Dietrich, Hollaender. Consider the story of Blue Angel and consider Professor Unrath as the personification of Germany in the post Versailles period.  Self indulengence, hedonism, cynicism and nihilism.  How do they play out?  Bear in mind that movies illustrating the happy life of students in Heidelberg were much more popular with the masses.  But why?  Especially given the nature of German education  9cf. chapter 11

After stabilization of the Mark, an artificial prosperity 278but supported by increasing debt load not only to cover war reparations but also to fund growth. Zeppelins. 283. Nationalists opposed to Versailles Treaty and payment of reparations: [284-5]. First signs of trouble in labor market.

Rise of narcissicism and self-indulgence, the nudist movement. Nudism and sunbathing."a purging of bourgois standards" 284. How can that be true?

Ch 14. 1930

The problem: foreign investors recalled loans. The dilemma 302 . Degeneracy 304 ; and 306

After the crash of the US stock market, no nation more vulnerable to contraction of trade and credit than Germany. Unemployment doubles in a month, wages shrink, benefits reduced. Increasing cynicism about the government. [306] The cabinet had abandoned the attempt to govern; permanent unrest [306]. Ultimately to the Article 48 imposed --rule by presidential decree[page 311]. And then the general election.

By 1930 Nazis had 1 million members 311and some Thyssen support. The defeat of Strasser left Hitler with a private army of gangsters 316-7. Election night [315]. Moderate parties of middle lose to extremes at both ends of the spectrum violence and degenerary 319 [322] Communists with 77 seats, Nazi with 107, i.e., 184 of the 577. Who voted? 324ff. Increasing conflicts between rival political gangs. The story of Horst Wessel. [322:] many intellectuals seem to find a peculiar kind of satisfaction in the act of submission. The Weimar constitution seen as something imposed by allies, and contrary to German identity [324]. Growth of private armies, turbulence in Reichstag."All Quiet on the Western Front" debuts and then is shut down.

Ch 15 1931

The movie M:"I couldn't control myself!" and the challenge to law and order

The main theme here is the descent into brutality: [331] Note the challenge of the words "They [the Weimar police] unlike their successors regarded murder as murder, even if they did not punish the right wing perpetrators. But ...the Serial Murders: what do you make of the cases of

[337]Hitler: "Brutality is respected. The people need some wholesome fear. They want to fear something. They want someone to frighten them and make them sudderingly submissive...they need somthing that will give them the thrill of horror.

the treatment of Ossietzky for exposing German military plans that violated the Versailles treaty. Note the judges ruling "the Army Command despite the Versailles treaty...considered itself obliged, from the point of imperious necessity above the laws, to carry out this reorganization in the interests of national defense." [347]

______________________________

 

Note esp. the role of patronage and the arts: who is supporting art in all its forms? bear in mind that very few of the refugees from Nazi Germany achieved in exile (in the nominally public freedom and toleration of England and the US) the level of excellence and innovation achieved in Weimar Germany.

Process:

  1. Provocation --rooted in...??
  2. Outrage and reaction --based on... People cared enough to fight about it.
  3. Public toleration of significant departure from cultural norms:
    1. conscious program of toleration within civic rights
    2. public financial support
    3. lack of central control
  4. Financial support/wealth
  5. Leads to: creative innovation nacissism/self-indulgence or nihilism?

Does a high level of creativity require and a high level of anger at the status quo? a high level of tolerance of all views? But what about the role of the "middle" in the process?