Research on the history, culture and society of the Weimar Republic
In the current issue of Comparativ, Bernhard Fulda compares the emergence of public opinion polls and political public relations management from the 1930s:
Bernhard Fulda: ‘The Market Place of Political Opinions: Public Opinion Polling and its Publics in Transnational Perspective, 1930-1950’, S. 13
In the current edition of Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, Corey Ross gives an introduction to the social history of film and radio, the ‘new media’ of the Weimar era. He paint an ambivalent picture, highlighting both their democratizing effect across old class divides as well as the potential to itensify political and social friction.
>> Contents page (pdf, in German)
In the current issue of Fotogeschichte, Patrick Rössler looks at the development of the visual style of ‘Neues Sehen’ in the 1920s. Based on in-depth archival work, he is able to prove that the illustrated magazines of the Weimar Republic played a far greater role in the introduction of modern photography than previously thought.
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.’
In the current issue of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Frieder Günther looks at ‘Ideas of Radical Order in German Right-Wing Intellectual Debates of Scholars of Law, 1920-1960’:
‘How did leading German right-wing intellectuals react to the deep political ruptures between 1920 and 1960? And mostly, after at first enthusiastically welcoming the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, how did they come to terms with the new constitutional and social order of the Federal Republic of Germany? In order to answer these questions, the article focuses on three scholars of law who were born around the turn of the century: Ernst Forsthoff, Ernst Rudolf Huber, and Karl Larenz. All three began their academic careers in the 1920s and, after 1933, ascended to the position of star professors in their field. Despite an interruption due to denazification they again asserted leading positions in the academic and intellectual debates of the 1950s. This article shows that, in the period between the 1920s and 1950s, their thinking continuously focused on the ideas of radical order and, therefore, resisted fundamental breaks. By referring to Carl Schmitt’s “concrete order and formation thinking” (konkretes Ordnungs- und Gestaltungsdenken), all three right-wing intellectuals endeavoured to make sense of the political and legal changes which deeply shaped their life experience.’
Cornelie Usborne, expert on abortion and gender politics in the Weimar Republic, has published an article on ‘Social Body, Racial Body, Woman’s Body. Discourses, Policies, Practices from Wilhelmine to Nazi Germany, 1912-1945’ in the current issue of Historical Social Research.
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
The Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft‘s current issue focuses on German sports pioneer Carl Diem (1882-1962). In the 1920s, Diem initiated the Reichsjugendwettkämpfe and co-founded the Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen in Berlin. Contributions include:
Wolfgang Benz: Der Streit um Carl Diem
Michael Krüger: Zur Debatte um Carl Diem
Frank Becker: Carl Diem und der Nationalsozialismus
The March issue of the Historische Zeitschrift features two interesting reviews of:
Hans-Peter Becht/Carsten Kretschmann/Wolfram Pyta (eds.): Politik, Kommunikation und Kultur in der Weimarer Republik
and
Andreas Wirsching (ed.): Das Jahr 1933. Die nationalsozialistische Machteroberung und die deutsche Gesellschaft
In the current issue of Central European History, Timothy S. Brown reviews Political Violence in the Weimar Republic, 1918–1933: Fight for the Streets and Fear of Civil War by Dirk Schumann.
The December issue of Central European History is dedicated to the history of the Weimar Republic, with articles by Eric Weitz, Kathleen Canning, Rüdiger Graf and Nadine Rossol:
Kathleen Canning: The Politics of Symbols, Semantics, and Sentiments in the Weimar Republic
Eric D. Weitz: Weimar Germany and its Histories
Rüdiger Graf: Either-Or: The Narrative of “Crisis” in Weimar Germany and in Historiography
Nadine Rossol: Performing the Nation: Sports, Spectacles, and Aesthetics in Germany, 1926–1936
Eric Bryden: Heroes and Martyrs of the Republic: Reichsbanner Geschichtspolitik in Weimar Germany
Manuela Achilles: With a Passion for Reason: Celebrating the Constitution in Weimar Germany
The new issue of the Journal of Contemporary History features an article on ‘Germany’s Postwar Re-education and Its Weimar Intellectual Roots‘ by Udi E. Greenberg: ‘Historians have often observed the intrusion by the USA into German intellectual and institutional life as part of the USA’s overall plan to “re-educate” Germany and to tie it to its own political traditions and Cold War goals. Through examination of the political theories and academic educational reforms of Carl J. Friedrich, one of the most important intellectuals of the Cold War, this article argues that US policies were simultaneously shaped and determined by intellectual traditions from the Weimar period.’
Erhard Schütz, reknowned expert on Weimar literature, has written a review (in German) on two new volumes on the relationship between literature and the history of the 20th century:
van Laak, Dirk (ed.): Literatur, die Geschichte schrieb
Among others, these books include articles by historians on Jewgenij Samjatin’s Wir (1920) and Hans Fallada’s Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben (1931).
The current issue of Monatshefte features several interesting book reviews:
Theodore F. Rippey on Eric Weitz: Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy
Daniel Weidner on Andrew J. Webber: Berlin in the Twentieth Century: A Cultural Topography
Jochen Hung on Sebastian Marx: Betriebsamkeit als Literatur. Prosa der Weimarer Republik zwischen Massenpresse und Buch
In the December issue of German History, Benjamin Ziemann reviews the most important publications on Weimar politics and culture of the last few years, with a special focus on gender, the semantics of ‘crisis’, theatre and the performative turn, and the significance of ’emplotment’:
“The article suggests that the modernity of metropolitan culture in Berlin, and its significance for Weimar Germany more generally, have been overestimated, and hence concludes that—in cultural terms—Weimar was Weimar: it is best represented by the small town in Thuringia.”
Reviewed books include: Die ‘Krise’ der Weimarer Republik. Zur Kritik eines Deutungsmusters, edited by Moritz Föllmer and Rüdiger Graf, Weimar Germany, edited by Anthony McElligott and Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric Weitz.
