4. Education and Culture - Weimar Flashcards
What areas of culture saw a development in Weimar Germany?
- Art + Literature
- Music + Cabaret
- Architecture and design
How did art develop in the Weimar Republic
The New Objectives movement developed which focused more on understanding people in everyday life (challenged its predecessor, Expressionism, which was a more idealistic and romantic movement)
Artist such as Dex and Georg Gros became famous - they looked a lot at the state of society in their work
Artists returned to a more realistic way of painting, reflecting the harsh reality of war.
How did theatre develop in the Weimar Republic?
- The Zeit theatre movement developed
- Bertold Brecht introduced politics into theatre. He wrote the Three Penny Opera which was a left wing look on a capitalist society
How did literature develop in Weimar Germany?
focuesd on social issues such as the distress of the working class
• Books such as ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (book describes the German soldiers’ extreme physical and mental stress during the war) were popular
How did architecture and design develop in Weimar Germany?
• Architects during the Weimar Republic were influenced by the Bauhaus design college which promoted modern and future looking buildings e.g. Erich Mendelsohn was a Weimar era architect who designed many buildings which took the form Streamline Moderne architecture.
Bauhaus design is linked very closely with the ideas of modernism and the forward-looking and forward-thinking designs which were found in the art world.
• It was simple and functional and emphasised close relation between art and technology
How did new culture reach ordinary people?
- Development of a mass culture
- Radio
- Film
- Cabaret
Describe the mass culture in Weimar Germany
- There was a mainstream culture which spread through different mode of mass media
- It was influenced by consumerism, advertising, jazz music and America
Describe the film industry in Weimar Germany
- Flim industry boomed in the 1920s - ecomomic disruption (WWI) meant expressionist style in flim was popular
- Popular films were Metropolis (1926) and Blue Angel (1930)
• The UFA was a government ran industry ran by Alfred Hugenburg made most German movies
What was the cabaret scene like in Weimar Germany?
- Clubs set up in the city
- Entertainment included satirical comedy, jazz music and female dancer in varying degrees of nudity
• Covered themes such as sex and politics due to the removal of gagging laws and a rise in free speech
How did radio enable people to engage with the new culture?
- It was a method of mass communication
* 1 in 4 Germans owned a radio
How did Weimar Germany respond to the cultural experimentation?
- These changes took place mainly in cities
- Most were horrified and said it was a decline in German moral standards
- Right wing sympathisers criticised jazz music, the new woman and the rise of Jewish people in power
- Society became more polarised
What did the Weimar Government want for education?
- A fairer system with a mixed, non confessional intake with no religious education
- A federal education law would have set out guidelines for the Länder and meet needs to the people
What are non- confessional schools?
Schools that didn’t have any religious education
What compulsory education system did the Weimar Government set up?
Grundschule
• Compulsory education for kids age 6 to 10
• Allowed for parents to remove their kids from religious education. there were also no clerical inspections anymore
What did the 1927 educational bill propose?
Confessional (catholic, Jewish and Protestant),
+
common (all faiths but each taught religious education separately)
+
secular schools were set up on equal footing as long as they were requested by parents of at least 40 children
