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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 11: April 7, 2005

The Mass Ornament of German Silent Film

1928-1929

[Assigned Reading from Weimar Republic Sourcebook]

A New Democracy in Crisis

I. The Legacy of the War

10. Carl Zuckmayer, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) [pp. 23-24]

11. Ernst von Salomon, The Outlawed (1929) [pp. 24-25]

III. Economic Upheaval: Rationalization, Inflation and Depression

26. Erich Schairer, Alfred Hugenberg (1929) [pp. 72-74]

27. B. Traven, Bank Failures (1929) [pp.74-75]

Pressure Points of Social Life

VII. White-Collar Workers: Mittelstand or Middle Class?

68. Wilhelm Kalveram, Rationalization in Business Management (1929) [pp. 185-187]

69. Hilde Walter, The Misery of the "New Mittelstand"(1929) [pp. 187-189]

VIII. The Rise of the New Woman

77. Max Brod, Women and the New Objectivity (1929) [pp. 205-206]

78. Elsa herrmann, this is the New Woman (1929) [pp.206-208]

IX. Forging a Proletarian Culture

92. A Survey on Proletarian Writing (1929) [pp. 237-239]

Intellectuals and the Ideologies of the Age

XI. Redefining the Role of the Intellectuals

114. Hans Zehrer, The Revolution of the Intelligentsia (1929) [pp. 295-297]

115. Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (1929) [pp. 297-300]

The Challenge of Modernity

XV. Imagining America: Fordism and Technology

156. Felix Stössinger, The Anglicization of Germany (1929) [pp. 408-410]

XVI. Berlin and the Countryside

161. Franz Hessel, The Suspicious Character (1929) [pp. 420-422]

XVIII. Housing for the Masses

182. The Stuttgart Werkbund Houses (1929) [pp. 469-471]

183. Otto Steinicke, A Visit to a New Apartment (1929) [pp. 471-473]

Changing Configurations of Culture

XX. Literature: High and Low

204. Erich Knauf, Book Clubs (1929) [pp.514-515]

205. Gina Kaus, The Woman in Modern Literature (1929) [pp. 515-517]

206. Erich Kästner, Prosaic Digression (1929) [pp.517-518]

207. Kurt Pinthus, Masculine Literature(1929) [pp. 518-520]

208. Heinrich Mann, Detective Novels (1929) [p. 521]

209. Arnold Zweig, Is There a Newspaper Novel? (1929) [p. 522]

XXI. Theater, Politics, and the Public Sphere

223. Friedrich Wolf, The Stage and Life (1929) [pp.542-543]

224. Erwin Piscator, The Documentary Play (1929) [pp.543-546]

XXII. The Roaring Twenties: Cabaret and Urban Entertainment

235. Erich Kästner, The Cabaret of the Nameless (1929) [pp.562-563]

XXIII. Music for Use: Gebrauchsmusik and Opera

242. Kurt Weill, Correspondence about The Threepenny Opera (1929) [pp.576-578]

243. Paul Hindemith and Walter Gropius, For the Renewal of Opera (1929) [pp. 578-579]

244. Hanns Gutman, Music for Use (1929) [pp.579-582]

245. Alban Berg, On My Wozzeck (1929) [pp. 583-584]

XXIV. New Mass Media: Radio and Gramophone

254. Frank Warschauer, The Future of Opera on the Radio (1929) [pp. 607-609]

255. Arno Schirokauer, Art and Politics in Radio (1929) [pp. 609-610]

256. Arnolt Bronnen, Radio Play or Literature? (1929) [pp. 610-611]

257. W.E., The Writer Speaks and Sings on Gramophone Records (1929) [p. 612]

XXV. Cinema from Expressionism to Social Realism

265. Béla Balázs, Writers and Film (1929) [pp. 628-629]

266. Emil Jannings, Romanticizing the Criminal in Film (1929) [pp. 629-630]

The Transformation of Everyday Life

XXVI. Visual Culture: Illustrated Press and Photography

276. Werner Gräff, Foreword to Here Comes the New Photographer! (1929) [pp. 649-650]

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

288. Wolf Zucker, Art and Advertising (1929) [pp. 668-669]

289. Franz Hessel, On Fashion (1929) [p. 670]

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

301. Marieluise Fleisser, The Athletic Spirit and Contemporary Art: An Essay on the Modern Type (1929) [pp. 688-689]

XXIX. Sexuality: Private Rights versus Social Norms

308. Lola Landau, The Companionate Marriage (1929) [pp. 702-703]

309. League for Human Rights, Appeal to All Homosexual Women (1929) [pp. 704-705]

310. Helene Stöcker, Marriage as a Psychological Problem (1929) [pp. 705-708]

311. Magnus Hirschfeld, The Development and Scope of Sexology (1929) [pp. 708-710]

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

322. Artur Landsberger, The Berlin Underworld (1929) [pp. 732-734]

323. Franz Alexander and Hugo Staub, The Criminal and His Judges (1929) [pp. 734-735]

Supplemental Readings [photocopies supplied by instructor]

A. John Willett, Art and Politics in the Weimar Period: The New Sobriety, 1917-1933, Chronology 1929, pp. 250-253.