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Social and cultural developments in Germany, 1924-28 (The development of…

- - - - Sexual freedom
        
        Myth
        
        Divorce rates increased
        
        1930: estimated 1 million abortions a year
        
        Birth control widely available- birth rate declined
        
        Reality
        
        Abortion criminal offence performed by unqualified people
        
        1930: 10-12,000 deaths each year from abortions
        
        Decline birth rate attacked conservative press, politicians as ‘birth strike’ threatened health nation/ existence of race
        
        Catholic/ Protestant churches opposed birth control, divorce, abortions (women committed members church congregations)
      - Politics and public life
        
        Myth
        
        1919: 41 women elected Reichstag, women deputies fell subsequent elections- German Reichstag higher proportion female deputies British House Commons
        
        Women active local governments at state/ city level
        
        Women equal voting right Reichstag deputies Weimar Constitution
        
        Reality
        
        No female representatives Reichsrat
        
        No female cabinet member during Weimar Republic
        
        No political party had female leader in Weimar years
        
        KPD made gender equality key elements programme- least favourable new female electorate
        
        Catholic Centre Party gained most female suffrage
        
        Protestant areas: conservative DNVP and DVP appealed female voters (no support feminist issues)
      - Employment
        
        Myth
        
        1925: 36% German workforce women
        
        1933: 100,000 women teachers/ 3000 women doctors
        
        Constitution- women equality employment rights
        
        Reality
        
        ‘Demobilisation’ laws after WWI required women leave jobs so ex-soldiers find employment
        
        Married women give up employment
        
        Paid less than men for equal work
        
        Married working women ‘double-earners’ blamed male unemployment (campaigns press, conservative parties dismissal married women workers)
    - - Marianne Weber
        
        Active in German women’s suffrage movement before 1914
        
        1919: joined DDP, 1st women elected state legislature in Baden
        
        Books on feminist issues
        
        ‘It is our responsibility to infuse all life with our special mix of feminine and human influence’
        
        Wife of Max Weber- leading sociologist
      - Marie Juchacz
        
        Reichstag deputy for SPD until 1933
        
        Joined SPD in 1908: 1st female party members
        
        Member SPD- elected to National Assembly 1919 (1st women make speech legislative body)
      - Clara Zetkin
        
        Active SPD before 1914- leading campaigner for women’s rights
        
        Organised 1st International Women’s Day 1911
        
        KPD member Reichstag 1920-33
        
        Blamed capitalism for reducing women to status of breeders/ homebuilders- women only truly liberated by socialist revolution
      - Paula Muller-Otffried
        
        Opposed women’s suffrage- voting rights NOT improve women’s lives
        
        Member DNVP- Reichstag deputy 1920-32
        
        Devout Protestant: co-founder German Protestant Women’s League
  - - - E.g. Farmer’s Fear/ Red Apaches- importance of physical toughness, aggressive masculinity, anti-social attitudes, taverns- meeting place (alcohol as sub-culture)
      - Initiation test- stealing, vandalism show willingness break law
      - Working-class districts large German cities
    - - Failed entrance examination Gymnasium- continue elementary school 4 more years
      - Failed remove influence churches from schools
        Catholic/ Protestant churches defended right promote religious teaching state education system
      - Introduction elementary schools- attend 4 years
      - Education reformers Weimar Republic aimed break down divides/ provide comprehensive non-sectarian education free to all pupils
      - System divided along religious lines- Protestant/ Catholic churches influence over religious education
      - Stated education system divided along class lines- Gymnasiums from middle/ upper class
      - Realschule- provided 6 years’ schooling go on apprenticeships
      - Gymnasiums- aiming reach university
      - Developed in Prussia- extended Germany 1871
    - - Church youth groups
        
        Protestant youth work NOT high priority, fewer members
        
        Youth groups promote religious observance/ instil respect for church, family, school
        
        Catholics groups aimed at different sections young people e.g. New Germany founded 1919 aimed middle-class youths
      - Political youth groups
        
        Social Democratic Youth movement (SPD) founded 1925: most members
        
        Young Communist League founded 1925: children of KPD members
        
        Bismarck Youth (DNVP) founded 1922: 42,000 members by 1928, middle class youths in Protestant areas/ strong working-class in Berlin
        
        Hitler Youth (NSDAP) growth 1920s: 13,000 members in 1929
      - Wandervogel
        
        Hated industrialisation/ big cities- hiking in forests, swim in lakes/ rivers, slept under canvas
        
        Nationalistic, romanticised view Germany’s past
        
        ‘Wandering birds’ set up in 1896 by Berlin schoolteacher for middle-class boys
        
        Rejected middle-class conventions but freedom of wild paces e.g. nudism and vegetarianism
  - - - Jewish publishing firms powerful influence in media
        Berliner Tageblatt/ Frankfurter Zeitung- promote liberal political views
        Theodor Wolff editor Berliner Tageblatt force behind moderate Liberal DDP
      - Walter Rathenau- Foreign Minister in 1922 (leading member DDP)
        SPD/ KPD influence
        Rosa Luxemburg, Hugo Haase, Kurt Eisner leader revolution Bavaria Nov 1918 (Jewish background)
    - - 1920s: Jews in banking declined
        Jews 18% banking sector Germany (less than 1914)
      - Retailing: owned 50% firms involved cloth trade
      - Rothschils, Mendelssohns, Bleichroders owned 50% private banks
      - 16% Jewish lawyers
        11% Jewish doctors
      - Berlin: 50% doctors 1930
        1835/3400 Jewish doctors
      - Dominated coal-mining, steelworks, chemical industry in Silesia- little importance western industrial areas Rhineland/ Ruhr
      - Rathenau family controlled huge electrical engineering firm AEG until 1927
      - 1938: 9/38 (24%) Nobel Peace Prize awarded Jews
      - Anti-Jewish propaganda exaggerated influence of Jews
      - Physical sciences- Albert Einstein revolutionised theoretical physics theory of relativity/ quantum mechanics
    - - Anti-Semitism- violent nationalism right-wing movements e.g. Freikorps and NSDAP (1920)
      - Jewish financers: hyperinflation crisis 1923
        1924-30: ‘Golden Age’- economic recovery, political stability, anti-Semitism fringes public/ political life
        Corruption and exploitation Jewish bankers/ businessmen
      - 1918-24: backlash against perceived threat Jewish Bolshevism
        Spartacists uprising Berlin
        Breakaway regime Kurt Eisner in Munich
      - Late 1920s: assimilation advanced BUT reluctance Germans give security
      - Married non-Jewish spouses- give up religious observance/ converted to Christianity
      - Language, dress, lifestyle- Jews acted like other Germans
    - - Barmat brothers: Julius, Salomon and Henri- Jewish businessmen emigrated from Galicia (Poland) after WWI
      - Convicted bribed public officials obtain loans Prussian State Bank/ National Post Office
      - Julius/ Salomon sentenced 11 months’ jail