Back to the Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate Homepage

From Berlin Bohemia to Hitler: The Weimar Republic's Crisis Democracy & the Emergence of German Fascism

New College of California Humanities/Interdisciplinary Studies Spring 2005 Instructor: Scott J. Thompson

Week 10: March 31, 2005

Cultural Conservatism and Reactionary Modernism

1927-1928

[Assigned Reading from Weimar Republic Sourcebook]

A New Democracy in Crisis

II. Revolution and the Birth of the Republic

19. Theodor Heuss, Democracy and Parliamentarism: Their History, Their Enemies, and Their Future (1928) [pp. 53-56]

Pressure Points of Social Life

VIII. The Rise of the New Woman

76. Alfred Polgar, The Defenseless: A Conversation betwen Men (1928) [p. 204]

IX. Forging a Proletarian Culture

89. Friedrich Wolf, Art is a Weapon! (1928) [pp. 230-231]

90. Walter Benjamin, Program for a Proletarian Children's Theater (1928) [pp. 232-234]

91. Johannes R. Becher, Our Front (1928) [pp. 234-237]

The Challenge of Modernity

XV. Imagining America: Fordism and Technology

155. Adolf Halfeld, America and the New Objectivity (1928) [pp. 407-408]

XVI. Berlin and the Countryside

160. Kurt Tucholsky, Berlin and the Provinces (1928) [pp. 418-420]

XVII. Designing the New World: Modern Architecture and the Bauhaus

173. Erich Mendelsohn, Why This Architecture? (1928) [pp. 451-453]

174. Marcel Breuer, Metal Furniture and Modern Spatiality (1928) [p. 453]

XIX. From DaDa to the New Objectivity: Art and Politics

196.Misch Orend, Magical Realism (1928) [pp. 494-495]

197. Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Art and Race (1928) [pp. 496-499]

Changing Configurations of Culture

XX. Literature: High and Low

202. Walter Benjamin, Filling Station (1928) [pp.513-514]

203. Alfred Döblin, Ulysses by Joyce (1928) [p. 514]

XXI. Theater, Politics, and the Public Sphere

222. Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertolt Brecht Presented to the British (1928) [pp.540-541]

XXII. The Roaring Twenties: Cabaret and Urban Entertainment

234. Joseph Goebbels, Around the Gedächtniskirche (1928) [pp.560-562]

XXIII. Music for Use: Gebrauchsmusik and Opera

240. Kurt Weill, Zeitoper (1928) [pp.572-574]

241. H.H. Stuckenschmidt, Short Operas (1928) [pp. 574-576]

XXIV. New Mass Media: Radio and Gramophone

252. Kurt Tucholsky, Radio Censorship (1928) [pp. 603-604]

253. Theodor W. Adorno, The Curves of the Needle (1928) [pp. 605-607]

The Transformation of Everyday Life

XXVI. Visual Culture: Illustrated Press and Photography

274. Albert Renger-Patzsch, Joy Before the Object (1928) [p. 647]

275. Johannes Molzahn, Stop Reading! Look! (1928) [pp. 648-649]

XXVII. Visions of Plenty: Mass Consumption, Fashion, and Advertising

286. Auto-Magazin, Editorial Statement (1928) [p. 667]

287. Anita, Sex-Appeal: A New Catchword for an Old Thing (1928) [pp. 667-668]

XXX. On the Margins of the Law: Vice, Crime, and the Social Order

321. E.M. Mungenast, The Murderer and the State (1928) [pp. 729-732]

Supplemental Readings [photocopies supplied by instructor]

A. John Willett, Art and Politics in the Weimar Period: The New Sobriety, 1917-1933, Chronology 1928, pp. 248-251.