Topic 6- social and cultural developments 1924-1928
A. Social Welfare:
B. Social position of women:
republic had to support 1000s of disabled vets, widows and orphans alongside the disabled and the elderly
1924: taxes were raised alongside the rigorous means test
many genuine cases felt humiliated by the test- increased support
1927: the unemployed who never paid taxes were given a pittance of dole money
weimar constitution had given women more rights than ever before
many women were filling in gaps in employment from the 2.5 million killed in WW1 (and 2 million seriously wounded)
Some women did not enjoy the new rights- the million strong BDF campaigned against the new position of women
the Left and KPD campaigned for full equality and legal contraception
Demobilisation laws forced women out of jobs
Marriage led to being sacked in some sectors
10,000+ deaths yearly from backstreet abortions
women still paid less in every sector
church opposed abortion + legal contraception
By 1925: 36% women worked out of the home
increase to 100,000 female teachers
contraception legal and relatively easy to get
abortion widely tolerated in the cities
1919 election: 41 female German MPs
C. Social position of Young people:
most ordinary German left school at 14 to become an apprentice- children of the rich went to grammar school until 18 and then to university
schooling remained divided on religious grounds, church kept a tight grip on education
Youth Groups:
Wandervogel- mc, hippy style group
Church groups- Catholic group bigger despite more protestants in population. Scout style groups with big emphasis on religious education
Political groups- SPD AND KPD had big youth groups, the nationalists were smaller with the Nazis having just 13,000 members in 1929
D. Social Position of the Jewish:
around 500,000 jews in Germany, or 0.6% of the population
most live in the city and were well educated and patriotic (1000s fought for Germany ww1)
jewish families also did well in business and banking- e.g. Rothschilds (however jewish ownership of banks declined 18% during the republic)
many were upper middle class professionals- 16% of all lawyers, 11% of all doctors (concentrated in Berlin)
Assimilation and Anti-semitism:
most German jews assimilated with German culture, and most Germans accepted them
some germans on the right were viciously anti-semitic and claimed the republic was run by jewish-bolsheviks (a complete contradiction of their own portayal of the jews as greedy capitalists)
despite propaganda from parties like the nazis, anti semitism was no bigger a problem than anywhere else in Europe in 1920
E. Development of art and culture in Weimar Republic
Berlin's nightclubs
Art
Music
literature
Architecture
Theatre
Film
became renowned for their cabarets which featured nudity strongly
one such club, known as the Eldorado, was described as a 'supermarket of eroticism'
gay men, lesbians and transvestites who had to conceal their identity before 1918 could now display it openly
there was plenty of American jazz music played by black musicians that had become popular
many comedians attacked politicians and authoritarian attitudes
many older germans were horrified by by the club scene- they hated the influence of USA on Germany, and disliked how weimar had relaxed censorship
they felt order and discipline had been destroyed
the predominant movement in German art at this time was expressionism- believed paintings should express meaning and emotion rather than physical reality (resulted in abstract style and vivid colour)
expressionism also influenced music, artists such as Arnold Schoenberg were popular. Schoenberg tried convey powerful emotions in his music but avoided traditional forms of beauty .
traditionalists saw this as lacking harmony, and thought it sounded harsh
expressionism also influential in this period- leading German writer during this period was Thomas Mann who won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1929
he was a staunch supporter of the Weimar Republic and moved to Switzerland after nazis came to power in 1933
students in this time were taught to break down the barriers between art and technology by incorporating new materials such as steel, concrete and glass into their designs
taught to make the function of an object or building a key element in their designs, stripping away superfluous ornamentation
expressionism influenced theatre during this time- sets were dark and relied on symbolism to convey messages
much of experimental theatre was explicitly critical of capitalism, war and nationalism,
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill developed a new form of music theatre that would symbolise weimar Berlin above all, the threepenny opera, a savage left wing satire that treated respectable middle classes as villains while making heroes of criminals and prostitutes
this was attacked by the right as 'cultural bolshevism'
Berlin was an important centre for world cinema, developing modern techniques that would later be exploited by nazis
important figures of jewish descent in German film industry included Josef Von Sterberg
sterberg created the best known film of the weimar era, The Blue Angel, starring Marlene Dietrich as Lola, the sexy singer in a sleazy nightclub cabaret who seduces an innocent old professor played by Emil Jennings