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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 13: April 21, 2005

Little Man, What Now?:

The Parliamentary Progress of the NSDAP

1930-1931

[Assigned Reading from Weimar Republic Sourcebook]

A New Democracy in Crisis

II. Revolution and the Birth of the Republic

20. Bernhard Prince von Bülow, Revolution in Berlin (1931) [pp. 56-59]

III. Economic Upheaval: Rationalization, Inflation, and Depression

29. Hans Ostwald, A Moral History of the Inflation (1931) [pp. 77-78]

IV. Coming to Terms with Democracy

43. German People's Party (DVP) Program (1931) [pp. 115-116]

VI. The Struggle Against Fascism

59. Heinrich Mann, The German Decision (1931) [pp. 164-166]

60. Lion Feuchtwanger, How Do We Struggle against a Third Reich? (1931) [p. 167]

61. Communist Party of Germany, Open Letter (1931) [pp. 167-169]

Pressure Points of Social Life

VIII. The Rise of the New Woman

80. Hilde Walter, Twilight for Women (1931) [pp. 210-211]

81. Women's Work and the Economic Crisis (1931) [pp. 212-213]

82. Else Kienle, The Kienle Case (1931) [pp. 213-216]

IX. Forging a Proletarian Culture

94. Hanns Eisler, Progress in the Workers' Music Movement (1931) [pp. 240-242]

95. Georg Lukács, Willi Bredel's Novels (1931) [pp. 242-244]

96. League of Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers, To All Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers, To All Workers' Correspondents (1931) [pp. 244-245]

X. The Jewish Community: Renewal, Redefinition, Resistance

107. Gershom Scholem, On the 1930 Edition of Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption (1931) [pp. 271-272]

Intellectuals and the Ideologies of the Age

XI. Redefining the Role of the Intellectuals

118. Walter Benjamin, Left-Wing Melancholy (1931) [pp. 304-306]

119. Siegfried Kracauer, On the Writer (1931) [pp. 307-308]

XII. Critical Theory and the JSearch for a New Left

123. Max Horkheimer, The State of Contemporary Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research (1931) [pp. 318-322]

XIII. Revolution from the Right

134. Arnolt Bronnen, German Nationalism, German Theater (1931) [pp. 345-346]

135. Hans Freyer, Revolution from the Right (1931) [pp. 347-348]

136. German National People's Party (DNVP) Program (1931) [pp. 348-352]

XIV. Cultural Pessimism: Diagnoses of Decline

143. Ernst Jünger, On Danger (1931) [pp. 369-372]

144. Karl Jaspers, The Spiritual Situation of the Age (1931) [pp. 373-375]

The Challenge of Modernity

XV. Imagining America: Fordism and Technology

157. Otto Bauer, Rationalization and Social Order (1931) [p. 410-411]

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

198. George Grosz, Among Others Things, a Word for German Tradition (1931) [499-502]

Changing Configurations of Culture

XX. Literature: High and Low

210. Gottfried Benn, The New Literary Season (1931) [522-525]

211. Friedrich Sieburg, Champagne: Notes on the Literature of High Society (1931) [525-526]

XXI. Theater, Politics, and the Public Sphere

227. Alfred Keményi, Measures Taken at the Großes Schauspielhaus (1931) [pp.549-550]

XXII. The Roaring Twenties: Cabaret and Urban Entertainment

237. Siegfried Kracauer, Girls and Crisis (1931) [pp.565-566]

XXIII. Music for Use: Gebrauchsmusik and Opera

247. Ernst Krenek, New Humanity and Old Objectivity (1931) [pp. 586-588]

XXV. Cinema from Expressionism to Social Realism

268. Erich Pommer, Writers and the Sound Film (1931) [p. 632]

269. Gabriele Tergit, Fritz Lang's M: Filmed Sadism (1931) [pp. 632-633]

The Transformation of Everyday Life

XXVI. Visual Culture: Illustrated Press and Photography

278. Raoul Hausmann, Photomontage (1931) [pp. 651-653]

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

290. Stephanie Kaul, Whose Fault Is the Long Dress? (1931) [p. 671]

XXVIII. The Cult of the Body: Lebensreform, Sports, and Dance

302. Valeska Gert, Dancing (1931) [pp. 690-691]

XXIX. Sexuality: Private Rights versus Social Norms

313. Alfred Döblin, Sexuality as Sport (1931) [pp. 712-713]

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

325. Georg Fuchs, We Prisoners: Memories of Inmate No. 2911 (1931) [pp. 737-738]

326. Sigmund Freud and Oswald Spengler, Responses to Fuchs, We Prisoners (1931) [pp. 738-739]

327. Siegfried Kracauer, Murder Trials and Society (1931) [pp. 740-741]

Supplemental Readings [photocopies supplied by instructor]

A. John Willett, Art and Politics in the Weimar Period: The New Sobriety, 1917-1933, Chronology 1931, pp. 254-257.