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Journal Review: German Studies Review (Oct 2011)

In the current edition of the German Studies Review, Laurie Marhoefer analyzes ‘Degeneration, Sexual Freedom, and the Politics of the Weimar Republic, 1918–1933’:

‘Ideas about hereditary degeneration animated two powerful movements for sexual liberation during the Weimar Republic. One reform won the decriminalization of female prostitution. The other nearly won the repeal of Germany’s sodomy law. Activists for these reforms argued that the state could extend greater sexual freedom to most Germans if it curtailed the excesses of supposedly degenerate men and women. The Weimar Republic offered greater sexual autonomy to many of its citizens, at the expense of a small minority of people who were defined as degenerate.’

Fashion as Female Self-Expression

For her new book Wenn Frauen sich entblößen… Mode als Ausdrucksmittel der Frau der zwanziger Jahre, Sigrid Follmann analyzed fashion magazines of the 1920s to expose the discrepancy between the image of the ‘New Woman’ and the real identities of contemporary women. Follmann’s core argument is that women of the 1920s were struggling to cope with their new role in society and the resonsibilities this entailed.

>>> review (in German)

Fashion and the Modern Woman

The new study Dressing Modern Frenchwomen. Marketing Haute Couture, 1919–1939 sheds some light on the role of fashion in the construction of a new conception of women after the First World War:

‘At a glance, high fashion and feminism seem unlikely partners. Between the First and Second World Wars, however, these forces combined femininity and modernity to create the new, modern French woman. In this engaging study, Mary Lynn Stewart reveals the fashion industry as an integral part of women’s transition into modernity.’

>> Review (subscription only)

The British in Weimar

The image of the Weimar Republic in the English-speaking world (and the image of the English visiting Weimar Germany, for that matter) has long been dominated by Christopher Isherwood and his circle. In fact, Isherwood’s 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin could be credited with creating the long-lasting picture of the Weimar Republic as a ‘dance on the volcano’ – a burst of progressive culture and sexual licentiousness before the backdrop of political chaos and economic crisis.

Colin Storer’s new study Britain and the Weimar Republic: The History of a Cultural Relationship injects some much-needed academic rigour into this legendary part of Anglo-German relations, challenging Isherwood’s hegemonic account of British life in Weimar Germany. (Thanks to Tara Windsor for pointing it out).

>>> review (in English)

The ‘New Woman’ worldwide

During the 1920s and 1930s, in cities from Beijing to Bombay, Tokyo to Berlin, Johannesburg to New York, the Modern Girl made her sometimes flashy, always fashionable appearance in city streets and cafes, in films, advertisements, and illustrated magazines. Dressed in provocative attire and in hot pursuit of romantic love, Modern Girls appeared on the surface to disregard the prescribed roles of dutiful daughter, wife, and mother. Contemporaries debated whether the Modern Girl was looking for sexual, economic, or political emancipation, or whether she was little more than an image, a hollow product of the emerging global commodity culture. The contributors to this collection track the Modern Girl as she emerged as a global phenomenon in the interwar period.

Alys Eve Weinbaum et al.: The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization

>> Review (in German)

Death in Berlin

Death in Berlin is the first study to trace the rituals, practices, perceptions, and sensibilities surrounding death in the context of Berlin’s multiple transformations over the decades between Germany’s defeat in World War I and the construction of the Berlin Wall.’

The first chapter of this book deals with the many different traditions of death and dying in Berlin around 1930 that immigrants brought to the city.

Review (in English)

First World War Digital Collection – your help is needed

Europeana 1914-1918 is an international online digitization project funded by the European Union. Several libraries from eight European countries will digitize a selection of their holdings from World War I and unite them virtually. By the year 2014, the centenary of the outbreak of war, the project will make 400,000 outstanding sources from the time of World War I available online. Europeana 1914-1918 will also create a new virtual overview of materials and sources for historical research on World War I

For this project a questionnaire was prepared to consider the wishes and requirements of future users in the selection of materials and sources and the development of functionalities. The survey is intended not only to scientists but to all persons interested in the history of World War I. Europeana invites you to fill in this questionnaire to support the development of a comprehensive digital collection of First World War in the next few years.

Club life in Britain and Germany

Clubs and associations have played an important role in both German and British society. The new study Or­gan­is­ierte Gesel­ligkeit. Deutsche und brit­ische Ver­eine im 19. und 20. Jahrhun­dert compares their historical development in both countries over the last two centuries and includes an extensive chapter on the interwar years.

>>> Review (in German)

August Sander Symposium

The National Galleries of Scotland are hosting a one-day symposium on “August Sander and Weimar Germany” on 13 May 2011. The symposium is organized in collaboration with the new VARIE Research Forum for German Visual Culture at the University of Edinburgh.

Speakers include:

Dr Christian Weikop, University of Edinburgh
Professor Jill Stephenson, University of Edinburgh
Professor Erica Carter, King’s College London
Katherine Tubb, PhD candidate, University of Glasgow
Dr Sabine Kriebel, University College Cork
Dr Sarah James, University College London

Journal Review: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte (2010)

The current volume of the Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, a yearly anthology for social history published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, includes an exhaustive overview over the current research on the cultural and social history of Weimar politics and an article on communist milieus in the Weimar Republic:

Björn Hofmeister: Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Politik in der Weimarer Republik 1918 bis 1933

Teresa Dapp: Kommunistische Millieus in der Weimarer Republik. Ein Forschungsbericht

‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ reconsidered

The concept of ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ as an aesthetic movement has been much criticized over the years. This older article by Sabina Becker is an important contribution to the discussion and a good starting point for people interested in the culture of the Weimar Republic:

‘The essay presents the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) as a predominantly aesthetically oriented movement and an independent literary aesthetic. The article also takes into consideration the important poetological premises of this literature, which are linked to the term Sachlichkeit. The point of departure here is the thesis that the Neue Sachlichkeit can be considered the last phase of modernism.’