In the January issue of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Dirk Blasius writes about the mutual influences between Carl Schmitt and historian Hans Rothfels during the Weimar Republic: “This article widens the scope in the debates about Hans Rothfels by assessing the significance of reviews within the political and intellectual culture of the Weimar Republic.
Rothfels as a reviewer showed an interest in the publications of Schmitt. The reviews of Rothfels are short essays which exhibit his own position on the Weimar constitutional system. They make clear the distinction between Rothfels and Schmitt. Continue reading “Journal Review: VfZ, 1/2017”
Tag: Legal History
Guest Post: Julia Roos’ Response to Laurie Marhoefer
Laurie Marhoefer and the editors of WSN have invited me to respond to Marhoefer’s guest blog, “Was There a Backlash against Weimar’s Sexual Politics?” (posted 15 November 2015), and I am delighted about this opportunity for scholarly exchange.
Marhoefer and I disagree in our assessments of the role Weimar-era sexual reforms like the decriminalization of female prostitution in 1927 and the projected decriminalization of non-commercial male homosexuality played in the demise of the republic. In my book Weimar through the Lens of Gender: Prostitution Reform, Woman’s Emancipation, and German Democracy, 1919-1933 (University of Michigan Press, 2010), I argue that legal rights of due process and free movement granted to female sex workers in 1927 represented a fragile political compromise, and that the right-wing backlash against this compromise constituted an important facet of the destruction of Weimar democracy. Continue reading “Guest Post: Julia Roos’ Response to Laurie Marhoefer”
Rethinking the Weimar Republic
Anthony McElligott’s new study Rethinking the Weimar Republic. Authority and Authoritarianism, 1916-1936 ‘challenges conventional approaches to the history of the Weimar Republic by stretching its chronological-political parameters from 1916 to 1936, arguing that neither 1918 nor 1933 constituted distinctive breaks in early 20th-century German history.
This book covers all of the key debates such as inheritance of the past, the nature of authority and culture, rethinks topics of traditional concern such as the economy, Article 48, the Nazi vote and political violence, and discusses hitherto neglected areas, such as provincial life and politics, the role of law and Republican cultural politics.’
New book on murder in Weimar-era Berlin
The University of Michigan Press has published Murder Scenes. Normality, Deviance, and Criminal Violence in Weimar Berlin by Sace Elder. The book examines the social effects of criminal investigation in Weimar-era Berlin.