Weimar Germany and Its Histories: Final Paper

Weimar Germany and Its Histories FINAL PAPER: Course Information ● Hochman & Weitz online via library ● Gay, Isherwood, Marhoefer -- amazon/bookstore ● Two reading responses similar assignments throughout semester -- bring paper copies Course Introduction ● “Weimar Republic was an idea seeking to become reality” (Gay) ● Rise of the Nazis PBS ● Babylon Berlin ● “Zu asche zu staub” Weimar and Its Histories ● Weitz begins by noting some of Weimar’s notable achievements -- what are they and why is it significant to highlight them in his review article? ● If success was truly the main inspiration behind Weimar’s principal detractors, what might that say about the entire system/history/era? ● What does Weitz see as the two main topics that the authors (Graf among them) neglected to mention in their contributions? ● Why does Weitz focus so much attention on Weimar’s emerges in the piece? ● According to Weitz, in what direction(s) should the field expand and why? Origins of Weimar ● November 11, 1918 -- Phillip Scheidmann (SPD), first individual from the Reichstag to declare a German Republic ● Who supported the SPD in 1918 -- working class, voting left but not far left ● Weimar Political Parties ● Weimar was officially founded in February of 1919 “the founding of the German Republic” ● First President of Germany -- Friedrich Ebert (SPD), Jewish ● Creation of Article 48 in the Weimar Constitution Democratic Virtues: Weimar’s Three Phases ● (1918-1923) - Coalition of the German Left: SPD, DDP, and the Center Party ● (1924-1929) - Loose Center-Right Governments: DNVP, DVP, and the Center Party ○ Alfred Hugenberg - DNVP ○ Gustav Stresemann - DVP ■ Locarno Treaties (1925) ● (1930-1933) - Radical Right: NSDAP President Paul Von Hindenberg & a politically vibrant society Pre-Nazi Conceptions of Anschluss ● How did Hochman’s opening anecdote surprise you? What might it say about the traditional conception of Germany identity/nationalism? ● What are teh differences between a GroBdeutsch (larger Germany) and Kleindeutsch (smaller Germany) solution to the traditional “German questions”? READING PAPER Week Three: A Troubled Beginning 31 January Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 1-39. Mark Jones, Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 19181919 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 67-103. 2 February Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 81-128. Wolfram Pyta, “Hindenburg and the German Right,” in The German Right in the Weimar Republic: Studies in the History of German Conservatism, Nationalism, and Antisemitism, Larry Eugene Jones, ed. (New York: Berghahn, 2014), 25-47. 2 March—“Weimar was Berlin, Berlin Weimar” ● Sally Bowles: ○ Who was Sally Bowles? How might she represent (or not) the “new woman” that we have discussed this semester? ○ What are some examples/entries from “Sally Bowles” that strike you? More usefully, what parts of this chapter speak to larger issues in Weimar society? ○ While “Sally Bowles” is a fictional account, what are some potential limitation of Isherwood’s portrayal of Sally Bowles and the women whom she represents? ● On Ruegen Island: ○ What is the premise of “On Ruegen Island”? ○ Who are Peter Wilkinson and Otto Nowak? Why/how might they be representative of many others from the Weimar era? ■ Not dissimilar to the portrayal of Sally Bowles in a “new Weimar” ○ What is the picture that Isherwood paints of the location of Ruegen Island? What is the picture that Isherwood paints of the location and the various people that travel there during the time in question? ● The Nowaks - Upper class Communisits ○ How (if so) does “The Nowaks” run contrary to the previous three chapters? ○ Describe the state/living situation of Isherwood’s new residence. What different perspective of society might this provide in contrast to the previous chapter? ○ Identify the central premise in this section and discuss what seemingly is always at stake for the main protagonists (Nowaks)? ■ Presence of political extremism ○ What ultimately inspires Isherwood to move on from the Nowak’s apartment? Is this (or not) indicative of larger events in Berlin? ■ Political collapse post-1931 ● The Landauers - Upper class Jewish ○ Who were the Landauers? Provide some details about some of the individuals Isherwood mentions specifically. ○ How does this chapter begin? Does this perhaps continue the sense of foreboding from the previous chapter? ○ Provide some details about Natalia and Berhard. Who are they and what are they representative of in Weimar? ○ While at the villa in Wannsee, how does Isherwood describe the election taking place in Berlin? ○ What was Bernhard’s fate and how does Isherwood hear of this? ● A Berlin Diary (Conclusion) ○ Why does Isherwood conclude in such an abrupt manner? What does it suggest about the entirety of the book’s purpose/theme? 7 March—”A World of Its Own: Sexual Emancipation and Weimar’s Gay Identity ● Why Weimar, Berlin? -- How did Weimar, Berlin become open/accessible? ● Karl Heinrch Ulrichs: NYT Article, 14 books along scientific lines regarding queer identities, periodicals/pamphlets distributed in Weimar (1870) Uranus ○ Research on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love -- 14 volumes, first 12 detail historical cases, scientific understandings of sexuality, and defining new nonage for different identities ○ Urnings - Plato’s Symposium: “Urnings [gay men] have always existed in all societies, and are the result of a crossing of male-female generative principles during the initial stages of embryonic development.” ○ In addition, Ulrichs sought to dissociate homosexuality from bestiality and pedophilia and he endeavored to retain elements of the Napoleonic Code post 1871 (unification of Germany prior to Prussian Rule) ● Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld -- eventually founds the Institute for Sexual Science ○ Paragraph 175 in Weimar Criminal Code ○ Sexual History of the World War ● Institut Für Sexualwissenschaft ○ Advancement of sex into all aspects of life and the development of sexual education ○ Draw for gay men/queer individuals to Weimar, Christopher Isherwood to Berlin, even stays at the institute for months in 1929 ○ Role of film/documentaries from the institute ● “Before the terror, there was glitter” ○ Nollendorfplatz (Schöneberg) ● Marlene Dietrch ○ Morocco (1930) Sex and the Weimar Republic ● According to Marhoefer, what role did war and revolution have on the transformation of sexual politics in Weimar? ○ Collapse of traditional gender norms and constructions of normative sexuality ○ Women’s obligatory take-over of male labor pre-war during conflict ○ Widow-ed/single women developing into the “New Woman” for Weimar ○ Role of censorship laws and the autocratic elements of the regime ○ Violence as an upset for normative society? ● Why did “homosexual” emancipation turn into a mass movement after 1918? And what were some of the outcomes of this reality? (ramifications of further push back) ○ Not enough popular movement/popularity of Paragraph 175 in the Criminal Code ○ Politicization of queer populations and mass movements/advocacy previously unseen ○ Role of queer veterans expecting pensions/payments/healthcare post-WWI ● What was “Schmutz und Schund”? And how did social/political views on these political categories shift following WWI? ○ Sexual/Frivolous media censorship, censorship of contraceptives ○ 1926 “Filth and Trash Law” for children’s protection—concerns regarding the transmissible nature of sexuality or sexual promiscuity, immoral behavior ○ Conservative elements in 1919-1921 of keep/reinstitute the same pre-war censorship laws ● Why was Friendship magazine so important, according to Marhoefer, during the early Weimar period? What did efforts and subsequent failures, to censure it say about tolerance/acceptance? ○ Accessible ideas regarding queer identities in the private sphere, less public/state oversight of your identity as opposed to going out in public/clubs ○ Conservative attacks did not work, as they were to have to define what they were against, being the “friendship” between sexes ○ Friendship League in Munich -- suppression of this group, lack of PD enforcement in Berlin as opposed to more rural, conservative areas --- Munich is Catholic/Conservative ■ ERNST RÖHM -- SA HIGH UP -- The homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders was made public to add "shock value", even though it had been known to Hitler and other Nazi leaders for years. ○ “Yet the obscenity law and filth and trash law did not push this media out of the eye of the public, but in a distinct/subtle sphere” Regardless… ● Weimar should be understood/received as a transformative moment in time for queer identity development and research and acceptance/different spheres of public and private identity ○ Censorship couldn’t exist in its own with private circles of information circulation ■ Article 118 of the Weimar constitution banned censorship, but excepted film, indecent and obscene literature, and measures at public events to protect youth. Article 48 allowed the President to suspend this guarantee in order to restore public safety and order, with veto power over such actions given to the Reichstag. ● How does this section build off fo Marhoefer’s previous chapter? What is the central premise exactly? ○ Role of censorship laws and the ways in which different constructions of normativity were created ○ “Homosexuals are almost completely lacking in feelings of solidarity” ● What type of media/literature flourished under the Weimar Republic? How did authors advocate for themselves and others in these periods? ○ “Berlin’s Lesbian Women” magazine with all of the resources/locations ○ Role of fictional accounts in developing a realistic deception of queer life in Berlin ● Why does Manhoefer conclude that trans and lesbian subcultures did not adopt heteronormative practices in Weimar? ○ Not wanting to bend to society’s expectations, but to have society fit them ● According to Marhoefer, why were these press organs/publications so cons equational for lesbian and trans people? What did they afford them more than anything else? ● Why did Weimar lawmakers “settle” for a policy of containment instead of full censorship? ● What was the 1927 Venereal Disease Law? How exactly did it come to pass in the Reichstag? According to Marhoefer, why was it so transformative? ○ Created welfare for prostitutes, made there be mandatory health check-ups -- abolished bad regualtion with notions of welfare ○ Epidemic with STIs where the government was perceived of not doing anything ○ Women using this issue as one in which they could solve ○ Prostitution/STIs are both a burden to men and women ● Though successful in many ways, a considerable number of women opposed the new law. What were their reasons and how did they showcase their opposition? ○ Some women remain as prostitutes wilingly, and publically display that ○ Acceptable and unacceptable prostitutes ● How did the new “health regime” seek to enforce the legal aspects of the Venereal Law? ● According to Manhoefer what did the debates and public structures over the law suggest about the stability of the Weimar Republic? ● What, again, does the supposed difference between “public” and “private” forms of prostitution say about collective social attitudes toward “the problem” in Weimar? The Party Does Indeed Fight Like A Man ● While the KPD publicly championed gender equality, party leaders nevertheless failed to advance egalitarianism to its fullest extent, culmination the in the adoption of “hyper-masculinity” in all political matters. According to Sewell, what did it mean to “flight like a man”? ● What was the “crisis of German masculinity” that Swell traces throughout her chapter? Why did emerge after the end of WWI? ● If the KPD associated strength and success with militant masculinity, what were the ways that women and men to demonstrate these characteristics publicly? ● Related to the previous question, how did public demonstrations of hypermasculinity evolve over time? What does this say about the place of women within the KPD? Taken Together ● How does the history of LGBTQIA+ rights battles in Weimar contribute to larger historiographical debates on stability (on the one hand) and revolution (on the other hand)? ● The people who advocated for Weimar ultimately betrayed what it could have become, no one entirely loved it which made it possible for it to happen, perfect for the good (Hirschfield) Women’s Week ● Women in the Weimar Republic ○ Women in Wilhelmine (Kaiser) Germany ● The German League for the Prevention of Women’s Emancipation (1912-1920) ● International Women’s Day -- 8 March, 1914 ● German Women during WWII ● Article 109: “All Germans are equal before the law. Men and women have the same fundamental civil rights and duties. Public legal privileges or disadvantages of birth or of rank are abolished…” ○ Women are 10% of the Reichstag the first year ● Active political participants: ○ New constituents of women voters -- how do parties become applicable to women voters? ○ SPD -- “equal rights, equal responsibility” ○ Rosa Luxemburg -- captured by friedkorps, killed by SPD police orders, body in Sprague ● Alice Rühle-Gerstel ○ “Women began to cut an entirely new figure” ○ “Finally, a new intellectual-psychological figure who fought her way out of the fog of sentimental ideologies and strove toward a clear, objective knowledge of the world and the self.” ● Sexual Liberation ○ Berlin Revue ● Kinder, Küche, Kirche ● “Instead of guaranteeing equality to women who chose to live outside this structure, they sought to make motherhood more attractive” ● Nevertheless in spite of these ideas/women’s progress, many women still were able to progress ● Leni Riefenshtal as a personification of the promise/tragedy of this era 30 March: “Theatre am Schiffbaurdamm”: Cabaret as Metropolitan Montage ● “The Three Penny Opera” (1928) ● Dispersion through theater as a commentary to the capitalistic system ● Fourth Wall ● “Expect more from the theater than simply entertainment” ● Weitz’s “Culture and Mass Society”: ○ According to Weitz, the principal “characters” that he features in this chapter represent “Weimar at its best”—why? What does this suggest about mass society and culture during the era? ■ “A deep search for the meaning of the present, and the potentials of the future” ○ Weitz first provides a detailed history of Thomas Mann and his transformation, both personal and literary, between the war years and during the Weimar Republic. Why does Weitz argue that he in many ways personifies the era? 2 May: Weimar and its Legacies ● Did Weimar fail? ● “An essential step”: violence was essential in the transformation of Weimar ○ Robert Paxton on “fascist violence” ○ Encouraged and given a pass to be committed ● Matthias Erzberger - 1921 assasination ● Oletzkoer Zeitung (August 1921) ○ “Only extremism can make Germany as great again as it was before the war” ● Great Depression in 1929