Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy

Awesome History of the Weimar Republic Ch 1: A Troubled Beginning - Broad overview of the environment in Germany prior to the creation of the Weimar Republic in midsummer 1919. Ch 2: Walking the City - Interesting description of German society to include daily life, offices, hotels, cafes, entertainment, and the night life. Ch 3: Political Worlds - Discusses deep political divisions within Germany and shifting alliances among Social Democratic Party (SPD), German Democratic Party (DDP), and the Catholic Center Party (with interesting discussions about the rift between liberal-social reform and conservative authoritarian wings). Discusses the major parties on the right to include the German National People's Party (DNVP) and German People's Party (DVP) with a focus on pro-business, private property, and low taxes (versus the Marxist message of class struggle). Introduces the concepts of Jewish Bolshevism versus German National Socialism. The discussion of printing money, monetary inflation and hyperinflation has frightening parallels to the US Government today. Ch 4: A Turbulent Economy and an Anxious Society - Discusses postwar readjustment, inflation, hyperinflation and then the Great Depression to include printing too much money and introduction of new currency. Overview of German rationalization and the negative impact of German social welfare programs, and subsequent cuts to try to get their spending under control. Ch 5: Building a New Germany - a focus on architecture Ch 6: Sound and Image - focus on radio, photography and movies (great photos reprinted) Ch 7: Culture and Mass Society - discussion of German intellectuals, philosophers, and social theorists to include their preoccupation with the meaning of the "masses" and "mass society" Ch 8: Bodies and Sex - Eye opening description of social shifts in physical fitness and sexuality, to include Velde, who wrote "the key to enduring happiness in marriage lay in mutual, ongoing sexual pleasure" (p. 299). Discusses the "new woman" who emerged from the sexual revolution of the 1920s. Ch 9: Revolution and Counterrevolution from the Right - Powerful discussion on the melding of German nationalism and socialism, and the emergence of the Nazi Party. Superb historical analysis combined with an easy to read narrative and awesome photos. Five Stars! Dr. B. Leland Baker, author of "Tea Party Revival" Tea Party Revival: The Conscience of a Conservative Reborn: The Tea Party Revolt Against Unconstrained Spending and Growth of the Federal Government

This book about the Weimar Republic is very informative and shows that history does repeat itself. It is very timely, because we, in the United States, are presently witnessing many of the political, economic and cultural situations that are similar to what happened during the Weimar Republic. Let's hope that no dictatorship and war are needed this time around to get over deflation, inflation, disfunctional government and cultural upheavals. I recommend this books highly as people should learn from history.

The theme of this book is that the shattering of the structure of Imperial Germany led to an explosion of innovation and creativity, an optimism that it was possible to create a better and freer world; but that the unbroken old elites in business, the churches, the judiciary and the army hated all these changes, blamed them on the Republic and consistently undermined it where they could. The rhetoric of the conservative Right was widespread long before the Nazis became significant, that indeed `the Nazis invented nothing ideologically or rhetorically'. The crisis of the Depression and the inability of the Reichstag to deal with it brought the conservative and the radical Right together. And although Weitz says a few times at the end that there was nothing inevitable about Hitler coming to power, that it was `the result of a small group of powerful men around the president who schemed to place Adolf Hitler in power', the impression left by the book as a whole is that the tensions inside the Weimar Republic between progress and reaction, tradition and modernity, was so intense that the Republic was doomed almost from the start. One baleful symptom was the militarization of the parties on the left and the right, always ready to march in demonstrations. The two outside chapters are political. The opening chapter is good on analysis but amazingly sketchy in parts of the narrative: the Spartacist Revolt of 1919 receives the briefest of mentions; the upheavals in Bavaria (1918/1919) none at all; the Beer Hall Putsch and the Communist rebellions in Saxony and Thuringia (1923) are dismissed in two sentences (p.102): `Communists attempted a revolution; the Nazis attempted a march on Berlin to seize power. Both were fiascos.' The concluding chapter is a better narrative account of the death-throes of the Weimar Republic, although I think that Weitz is unduly harsh on Chancellor Brüning, who, he says, `happily deployed' Article 84 of the Constitution which enabled him to govern by emergency decree, because he `wanted to use his office to overthrow the Republic and create some kind of authoritarian political system.' With the Reichstag unable to agree on any measures to deal with the economic crisis, what else could he have done? Of course Brüning wanted a reform of the Constitution, but that is not the same as wanting to overthrow the Republic, and he was after all overthrown because he banned the SA and the SS when Schleicher and Papen wanted to negotiate with the Nazis. The seven chapters in the middle deal with the social and cultural history of the period. The social history is well done. The role of women - the hardships they suffered during the three great crises (post-war hunger, inflation, and depression) but also their liberation is frequently underlined. The impact of radio, cinema, the gramophone and photography are described in great detail (though those chapters would have applied to most countries in Western Europe and the Sovi

The subtitle for this book is most apt, for the period in question, between the end of the first World War until the Nazi rise to power, was indeed a period of great promise and ultimately great tragedy (the rise of the Nazis). World War 1 had been devastating for the Germans both in their defeat and the horrific numbers of dead and wounded and for the humiliation the Germans felt as a result of the Versailles Treaty. Yet the German Empire was over and there was a spirit that the days of the staid aristocratic elites was past. It was a period of incredible ups and downs with rapid economic recovery tempered by severe economic crashes. There was a whiff of revolution in the air - politically, socially, sexually and in the arts and architecture. It was an exciting and tumultuous period. Weitz takes us on a walk through Weimar Berlin , Weimar politics , working life, art, entertainment and body culture. Very readable and informative.

Weimar Germany (i.e., the period between the two wars) is usually primarily seen merely as a precursor to the Nazi era which was to follow. This is a shame because Weimar itself is an extremely interesting period well meriting extensive study on its own. This excellent study, by a professor of history at the University of Minnesota, demonstrates the virtue of taking a close look at this fascinating period. Most books on Weimar tend to focus on the political developments that led to Hitler's rise; while that is covered in this book as well (the initial chapters focus upon the aborted German revolution and the "political worlds"), it is clearly secondary to other concerns of the author. He sees Weimar as fundamentally being about trying to cope with "modernism" and all of the technological changes that swept life in the 1920's and 1930's. So there is sustained discussion of the mass printed media, radio, theater and film, architecture, photography (Sander and Moholy-Nagy), music and expressionist art as well as political developments and the impact of economic crises on German life. Culture and the "mass society" is a constant focus here, including some interesting capsule discussions of individuals such as Thomas Mann, Bertold Brecht, Kurt Weill, Martin Heidegger, and an absolutely fascinating figure of whom I had not previously been aware, the artist Hannah Hoch. "Bodies and Sex" is another interesting topic which I have not encountered in other studies of Weimar. All of this is discussed against the political background which is so critical to understanding the period. As such, the book is a richer study with wider sweep than Peter Gay's stupendous "Weimar Culture," which it complements nicely. The book contains extremely helpful notes, a useful bibliographic essay, and a number of incisive illustrations, many in full color. The author begins his book stating: "Weimar Germany still speaks to us." This fine study validates that perspective.