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KT4 Education and Cultural Developments, Education in Weimar, Education in…
KT4 Education and Cultural Developments
Education
Cultural Developments
Cultural Experimentation 1918-32
Theatres, orchestras, museums and libraries were subsidised by the government, bringing culture to smaller towns. Other cultural initiatives were also encouraged by the government
Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (the most expensive movie made up until that point) was produced by Ufa, a government-organised film consortium, which made most German movies.
Artists (linked to the Bauhaus art school), intellectuals and writers were part of a movement called ‘New Objectivity
This group of were experimental culturally, favouring forward-looking modernism or expressionism, but with a darker twist.
This movement influenced art, music, literature, opera and theatre. Some wealthy people subsidised artists.
Popular culture was largely non-subsidised. Many young people in urban areas were influenced by US trends: consumer culture and jazz. But traditional music and plays still had a wide following
Cinema took off in the Weimar period, often on ‘dark’ subjects (‘Nosferatu’ was the first vampire movie, made in 1922). Clara Zetkin, the communist and women’s rights campaigner, hoped films would start a social reform by showing real life, not fantasy.
However, large parts of Germany were untouched or horrified by cultural experimentation.
The Weimar constitution promoted free speech, but paragraph 18 of the Criminal Code allowed the banning of obscene films and publications. The Weimar government used censorship to protect anyone under 16 from pornography but people could paint sing or write far more freely
Many right-wing people were worried about Weimar culture: the increasing number of Jewish writers, artists and musicians, the Americanisation of the culture, and the behaviour and appearance of ‘new women’.
Cultural and Generational Tensions in the FRG
Older generations wanted to regain the cultural supremacy that they had before the war.
The FRG re-introduced free press although they were urged to discuss democratic themes.
It was hard to retain a German culture but easy to adopt the cultural offerings from the Allies such as Hollywood movies in the American sector and Shakespeare in the British.
Not all of culture divided the generations. Quite a few social movements drew in people of all ages, such as the anti-nuclear movement. They shared a rejection of consumerism and a desire for a peaceful, more equal society. They wanted to change established society, to make it better or to save society from destruction.
During the 1960s, there were increasing generational tensions.
Many of the older generation wanted to see 1945 as “year zero” forgetting the past.
The older generation also wanted a traditional German culture, with a comfortable consumerist lifestyle
The younger generation wanted to confront the past.
the younger generation, mainly students, pressed for less consumerist lifestyle and a culture that faced present and the immediate past rather than embracing American culture
The psychoanalysts Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich had left the Nazi Germany but returned after the war. In their book ‘The Inability to Mourn’, published in 1967, they suggested most Germans in the Nazi era believed Nazism had been an infectious disease, something they had caught, recovered from and were not responsible for it. It stated Germany had to own up to the facts
The book was widely read and hugely influential, and some Lander reformed their history teaching in schools and universities to include Nazi Germany.
Nazi Cultural Policies 1933-45
The Nazis censored unacceptable culture. In May 1933, with the help of the Nazi student organisation, they organised the mass burning of about 25,000 ‘unsound’ books. Towns held book burnings throughout 1933.
Art, music and theatre were also censored, weeding out works ‘unacceptable’ Almost anything that encouraged individualism or discouraged conformity was ‘unsound’. Magazines, newspapers and radio were censored.
In September 1933, Goebbels set up the Reichskulturkammer (RKK) to control all the creative arts.
To involve everyone in culture, there were “Strength through Joy” trips to the theatre, the opera, art galleries and museums. These promoted ‘acceptable’ art that was nationalist, approachable and realistic.
Sport was encouraged to create a healthy nation. Hosting the 1936 Olympics was seen as a time to showcase Germany’s sporting ability. They won 89 medals, 33 of them gold.
The calendar of festivals and holidays was rearranged around important dates in Nazi history
Mother’s Day became an official holiday celebrated on Hitler’s mother’s birthday
There were parades and rallies followed by speeches where people were expected to cheer. In large cities, such as Berlin and Munich, some of these parades were increasingly military in character after 1935.
The Nazis had huge building projects in the cities which helped create work. Public buildings featured banners displayed Nazi swastikas.
Gleichschaltung was the Nazi policy of co-ordination. Nazi propaganda stressed that the German population was the Kulturtrager (culture bearers) of Europe but they had been led away from this by the over-intellectual, Jewish-led, corrupt culture of the Weimar Republic.
Education in Weimar
Non-confessional (common and secular) state schools were set up. Confessional schools could run as private schools
The government failed to introduce a federal school law (to give the Lander guidelines to work to, while meeting the needs of families in the region) in 1921 and in 1925.
In 1927, a new bill proposed that confessional, common and secular schools be set up on an equal footing if requested by the parents of at least 40 children. Some people supported the bill, for example, the Reich Parent’s League. Others, for example, the Volkskirche Association for Evangelical Freedom, vigorously opposed it. The bill was sent for revisions and never came back to the Reichstag
The education system of Germany stayed diverse, as set up by the Lander. In 1931, there were 29,020 Protestant schools, 15,256 Catholic schools, 97 Jewish schools, 8,921 common schools, and 295 secular schools.
The post-war temporary government wanted a fairer system
It set up compulsory Grundschule for all children aged six to ten.
Parents could remove their children from religious education: some people (in towns and cities in the northern lander) approved, others (in the rural and southern lander) objected. The Constitution was a compromise, retaining confessional schools and religious education.
After ten, education had to be paid for.
All students who wanted to go to university had to pass the abitur exam (only 2.3 % were working class).
In 1928 around 56% of university students were members of a ‘corporation’ which excluded people by their race or social class, for example the German Aryan chambers.
Before the war, education was compulsory and free to 14. Most schools were confessional.
Education in Nazi Germany 1933-45
Under the Nazis, the state school system was retained. Private primary schools were abolished. Fee-paying secondary schools and universities were kept but only for ‘pure’ Germans. Corporations became comradeship houses.
All students were required to join the Nazi student union. In April 1933, three National Political Education Institutions (Napolas) were set up: a free boarding school to train elite groups of boys as government administrators.
In April 1929, the Nazis set up a National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB). By 1933, it had only 6,000 members.
In April ‘undesirable’ teachers were purged
In September 1935 a decree gave the Nazis control over appointments. By 1937, it was impossible to get a job without being in the union: 97% of teachers joined. Teaching became a less popular profession (in 1938 there were 8,000 vacancies)
Schools aimed to teach loyalty to Hitler and Germany.
At first, curriculum changes varied from state to state but followed general Nazi outlines.
From 1935 a stream of central directives covered all years in education and all subjects: the amount of sport increased (15% of the curriculum); more focus on History and ‘Volksgemeinschaft’. Textbooks were censored. New booklets were printed. Biology focussed on eugenics.
The Hitler Youth movement was set up
Boys joined: Pimpfen (Little Folk) at 6, Jungvolk (Youngsters) at 10, the Hitler Youth (Jungend) from 14-18
Girls joined: Jungmadel (Young Girls) at 10, the Bund Deutscher Madel (Association of German Young Women [BMD]) at 14, Glaube and Schoenheit (Faith and Beauty) from 17-20.
They were expected to report family or teachers who went against Nazi teachings.
Education in the FRG, including post war policies
In 1945, the Allies shut all schools in order to de-Nazify both the curriculum and the teachers. They removed Nazi teachers and textbooks. However, children still needed education, so the Allies reopened schools in autumn 1945
The state provided free education up to the end of secondary school.
The number of children in Gymnasium rose from 853,400 in 1960 to 2,019,000 in 1980.
Under the Basic Law, the Lander remained responsible for educational and cultural policy, so confessional schools were reintroduced, and there were few secular schools in the South.
The curriculum varied widely between Lander. The Lander made the teaching of History dry and factual, and mainly European, not German.
The federal government tried to agree to educational reforms in the 1960s and 1970s to make education fairer, but it had difficulties convincing the Lander to adopt them.
In 1971, the Brandt government tried to introduce a federal framework for restructuring schools, including extra help for the disadvantaged, more mobility within secondary schooling and a reform of the university structure. By the time it was passed, it simply restated the existing system and structure.
In the early 1960s, there was concern about the university system.
Student numbers had risen (239,000 students in 1960 to 749,000 in 1980) but campus facilities were inadequate.
Critics said the curriculum was too old fashioned and still only catered for middle class children.
In 1971, the Federal Education Promotion Act provided state funding and state loans to encourage students from working-class families to go to university.