Living Standards and lifestyles

Question 1

What was the concept of the ‘new woman’

Answer 1

• free, independent, sexually liberated and increasingly visible in public life.
• W constitution had given women equality with men in voting rights and in access to education.
  -> gave women equal opportunities in civil service appointments and the right to equal pay.
• the war had brought more women into paid employment to replace the men who had fought.

Question 2

How was the concept of the ‘new woman’ undermined

Answer 2

• the much more traditional Civil Code of 1896 remained in force -> stated that in a marriage, the husband had the right to decide on all matters in family life -> inc whether his wife should work.
• the League of German Women (BDF) (most popular women’s group, promoted traditional maternal responsibilities.
  -> this was echoed by conservative parties and churches that were alarmed by these changes which they considered to be threat to family life.

Question 3

What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of employment

Answer 3

• the constitution gave women greater equality in employment rights.
• By 1925, 36% of the German workforce were women.
• By 1933, there 100,000 female teachers and 3000 female doctors.

Question 4

What was the reality of the ‘new woman’ in terms of employment

Answer 4

• the ‘demobilisation’ laws after the war required women to leave their jobs so that ex-soldiers could find employment.
• women were paid much less than men doing equivalent work.
• In many occupations, women were required to give up their employment when they married.

Question 5

What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of sexual freedom

Answer 5

• Birth control became more widely available and the birth rate declined.
• Divorce rates increased.
• There was a rise in the number of abortions, by 1930, there was an estimated 1 million abortions a year.

Question 6

What was the reality of the ‘new woman’ in terms of sexual freedom

Answer 6

• abortion was a criminal offence and would be often performed by unqualified people.
  -> in 1930, there was an estimated 12,000 deaths each year from abortions.
• the decline in the birth rate was attacked by the conservative press and politicians as a ‘birth strike’ that threatened the health of the nation and the continued existence of the race.
• Catholic and Protestant churches were vigorously opposed to birth control, divorce and abortion.
  -> many German women were committed members of church congregations.

Question 7

What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of politics and public life

Answer 7

• women gained equal voting rights and the right to be Reichstag deputies in the Weimar Constitution.
• In 1919, 41 women were elected to the Reichstag, the German Reichstag had a higher proportion of female deputies than the British House of Commons.
• Women’s were also very active in local government at state and city level.

Question 8

What was the myth of the ‘new woman’ in terms of politics and public life

Answer 8

• there were no female representatives in the Reichstrat.
• No woman became a cabinet member during the Weimar Republic.
• No political party had a female leader in the Weimar years.
• The party that gained the most from female suffrage was the Catholic Centre Party.
  -> the conservative DNVP and the DVP appealed most to women voters.
  -> none of these parties gave any support to feminist issues.

Question 9

What was life like overall for Young people

Answer 9

• Increasing concern that young people were turning increasingly to a life of crime and anti-social behaviour.
• In Weimar years, there were fewer apprenticeships and more youth unemployment.
• In 1925-26, 17% of the unemployed were in the 14-21 age group.
• many young working-class kids living in big cities joined gangs to find comradeship that they were lacking in their lives.
• In Hamburg there cliques such as Death Defiers, Tartar’s Blood and Eagle’s Claw.
  -> tried projecting an image of physical toughness, aggressive masculinity.
  -> cliques used taverns as their meeting places as alcohol played an important part in their sub-culture.

Question 10

What was education like for the youth

Answer 10

• although there were few elite private schools in Germany, the state education system was divided along class lines.
  -> majority of gymnasium schools were draw from the middle and upper classes.
• system was also divided along religious lines, since the Protestant and Catholic Churches had a powerful influence over religious education.

Question 11

What reform was there for the education system

Answer 11

• education reformers aimed to break divides and provide a non-sectarian education that would be free to all.
• the main reform was the intro of elementary schools.
  -> those who did not pass the entrance examination for a Gymnasium would be able to continue at elementary for a further 4 years.
• reformers did not succeed in aim of removing the influence of the churches from schools.

Question 12

what were the 3 types of youth groups

Answer 12

• Wandervogel
• Church youth groups
• Political youth groups

Question 13

who were the Wandervogel

Answer 13

• mainly consisted of middle-class boys.
• although the Wandervogel were non-political, they were very nationalistic with a romanticised view Germany’s past.
• hated industrialisation and big cities.
  -> spent time hiking in the forests, swam lakes and rivers, and sleeping under canvas.
• rejected middle class conventions and sought the freedom of wild spaces.

Question 14

What were church youth groups

Answer 14

• both Catholic and Protestant churches had youth groups.
• The Catholics had many different groups aimed at different sections at young people.
  -> New Germany, was founded in 1919, aimed at middle-class youths.
• In both religions, the tasks of the youth groups were to promote religious observance and instil respect for the church, family and school.

Question 15

What were political youth groups

Answer 15

• all the main political parties had their youth sections.
  -> the Social Democratic Youth movement (SPD) was founded in 1925, has most members of any political youth groups in the Weimar period.
• The Young Communist League was founded in 1925 for the children of KPD members.
• The Hitler Youth was linked to the Nazi Party. Its growth was slow in the 1920s, reaching a membership of only about 13,000 in 1929.

Question 16

What were Jewish peoples’ role in politics and the press

Answer 16

• Jewish publishing firms had a powerful influence in the media, with 2 Jewish-run newspapers, the Berliner Tageblatt and the Frankfurter Zeitung, promoting liberal political views.
• Theodor Wolff, editor of Berliner Tageblatt, was the driving force behind the moderate Liberal DDP.
• Walter Rathenau was a leading member of the DDP.

Question 17

What were Jewish peoples’ role in industry, commerce, and professions

Answer 17

• had achieved considerable influence in industry and commerce. E.g. the Rathenau family controlled the huge electrical engineering firm AEG until 1927.
• Jewish firms dominated coal-mining, steelworks and the chemical industry in Silesia.
• Jewish banking families such as the Rothschilds owned about 50% of private banks.
  -> Jewish directors also managed several major public banks.
• successful in retailing -> owned almost half of the firms involved in the cloth trade.
• successful in the professions: law and medicine, made up 16% of lawyers and 11% of doctors in Germany.

Question 18

What was the extent of assimilation and anti-semitism in Weimar Germany

Answer 18

• vast majority of German Jews, in lang, dress and lifestyle, thousands of Jews looked and acted like other Germans.
• main factor limiting Jewish assimilation was the reluctance of many Germans to stop identifying Jews as alien.
• in difficult early years of W Rep, 1918-1924, there was backlash against perceived threat of Jewish Bolshevism -> e.g. in the Spartacus uprising.
• Anti-semitism was part of the violent nationalism behind right-wing movements like the Freikorps and the NSDAP formed in 1920.
• 1924-1930, however, anti-semitism was generally not present.

Question 19

What were Berlin’s nightclubs

Answer 19

• Berlin nightclubs became renowned for their cabarets.
  -> E.g. the Eldorado.
• American jazz music, played by black Americans became popular.
• many comedians in clubs attacked politicians and authoritarian attitudes.
• Many older Germans viewed nightclubs with contempt.
  -> hated the influence of the USA on German cultural life and attacked the W Rep for relaxing censorship.

Question 20

Explain the development of art in the republic

Answer 20

• the predominant movement in German art was Expressionism.
• associated with artists like Kandinsky, George Grosz, Franz Marc and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
• Expressionist painters believed that their works should express meaning or emotion rather physical reality, hence their paintings were abstract in style and vivid in colour.

Question 21

Explain the development of music in the republic

Answer 21

• Expressionism also influenced German classical composers in this period.
• E.g. Hindemith and Arnold Schoenberg.
• Schoenberg attempted to convey powerful emotions bit traditional forms -> associated with ‘atonal’ music, which lacks a key, and sounds harsh and lacking in harmony.

Question 22

Explain the development of literature in the republic

Answer 22

• Expressionism also influenced this.
• novelists and poets adopted a free form of writing where they focused on a character’s internal mental state rather than on the external social reality.
• a common theme was revolt against parental authority.
• the leading German writer of the period was Thomas Mann.

Question 23

Explain the development of architecture in the republic

Answer 23

• the founding of the Bauhaus at Dessau by William Gropius in 1919 was a key event in the development of modernist art in Germany.
• Bauhaus students were encouraged to break down barriers between art and technology by incorporating new materials like steel, concrete and glass in designs.
• students were taught to make the function of an object or building into the key element of their designs, stripping away superfluous ornamentation.

Question 24

Explain the development of theatre in the republic

Answer 24

• many dramatists incorporated expressionist into their productions.
  -> sets were stark and plays relied on abstraction and symbolism to convey their message.
• much of experimental theatre was explicitly political, attacking capitalism, nationalism and war.
• Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill developed a new form of music theatre.
  -> created The Threepenny Opera, a savage left-wing satire that treated respectable middle classes as villains, while making heroes out of criminals and protistutes.
• they were attacked by the right as ‘cultural Bolsheviks’.

Question 25

Explain the development of film in the republic

Answer 25

• Berlin became an important centre for world cinema, developing modern techniques that would later be exploited by Nazi propaganda.
• E.g. Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Josef von Sternberg.
• it was Sternberg who directed the best known film of the Weimar era, The Blue Angel.