European Jazz: A Comparative Investigation into the Reception and Impact of Jazz in Interwar Paris and the Weimar Republic

Both Paris and the Weimar Republic were fascinated with American jazz in the interwar period. Because of jazz\u27s connection to African American culture, this fascination is linked with the themes of identity and race relations. This work will demonstrate that interwar Parisians were not always receptive of African Americans that played jazz, and that the citizens of the Weimar Republic were more aware of and interested in the African American culture that permeated jazz in the 1920s and 30s

Die Deutsche Nationalversammlung und Weimar: On the Creation of Democracy in Weimar Germany

This paper is a historical analysis of the creation of the Weimar Republic, as well as a political analysis of the Weimar Republic’s constitution. In reviewing both Weimar’s history as well as the constitution, I hope to inspire learners to look back to the Weimar Republic, and not focus primarily on the failures that led to the rise of the Nazi Regime, but rather celebrate the successes that the drafters of the constitution were able to achieve. I review the history of the 1918 November Revolution, the history and party programs of the three important parties of the Weimar Republic, the process of the drafting of the Weimar Constitution, as well as analyze the constitution. It is important to review the Weimar Republic because many provisions in the constitution are basic tenants for modern democratic countries, and so it is important to not only recognize the failures of the Weimar Republic, but also the successes in expanding liberty to the German people

A Glimpse of Casual Queerness: The Radical Progress of Queer Visibility in Weimar Film and the Inevitable Backlash That Followed

In looking back at German history, the Weimar Era and the 1920s, in particular, are often regarded as a time of unrestricted frivolity and the catharsis of post-war anxiety. In retrospect, it can be temptingly easy to credit the changing political landscape and liberalization of German society between 1918 and 1933 as a brief but inherently doomed moment of progressivism that necessarily would give way to a strident, reactionary backlash. Often, the increased visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ individuals during this time is regarded as a symptom of the “anything goes” attitude for which the Weimar Era has been famous. Dismissing the Weimar Republic as frivolous experiment in this way is an oversimplification that overlooks the important progress achieved in the fields of psychology and sexology during this time. In reality, the research performed by scientists like psychologist Magnus Hirschfeld proves that the progress being made for queer Germans during the Weimar years was meaningful and anything but frivolous. In the years following World War II, policymakers of East and West Germany attempted to regain stability, and in doing so adopted a more conservative approach to the issue of homosexuality than their Weimar Republic predecessors. The reactionary movement helped to confirm the sweeping dismissal of the Weimar Era as a moment of chaos and confusion best left behind. This reestablishment of gender norms is clearly illustrated in both the later version of Mädchen in Uniform and Anders als du und ich, in which changing rhetoric and scientific understandings of sexuality demonstrate a significant shift in the way Germans were thinking about queerness

The Weimar Republic

The weakness and the eventual destruction of the Weimar Republic were the result, to some degree, of the Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Constitution. To a far greater degree the failure of the German Republic was the result of the incongruity of the democratic republic superimposed on the inherent authoritarianism of the German people. The Revolution of 1918, a revolution decreed from above and imposed upon the people, was nothing unique in the history of Germany. The German people as a nation have not taken advantage of their revolutionary situations, partly because they have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in the principles of state service and duty to the state, and partly because the liberal tradition in Germany has always been an undercurrent. The two examples of tradition liberalism that modern Germany rests most heavily upon are the War of Liberation and the Revolution of 1848

100 years after the Constitution from Weimar what do we have left?: The controversial heritage of Carl Schmitt

Pocos periodos de la historia moderna resultan tan convulsionados y decisivos como la República de Weimar. Más allá de una crisis particular de la historia alemana, las vicisitudes políticas de Weimar configuran un “nudo gordiano” en el que se entrelazan hilos ideológicos que, de forma intermitente, se mantienen en pugna hasta el presente. En este artículo se examina el aporte del padre del decisionismo contemporáneo: Carl Schmitt. En el artículo se analiza la riqueza de la herencia schmittiana y su vigencia en el siglo XXIFew moments in modern age are as convulsive and decisive like the Weimar Republic. Beyond a particular crisis in German history, the political vicissitudes of Weimar Republic make up a “Gordian knot” in which ideological threads are woven together that, intermittently, they remain valid. In this paper we examine the contribution of the main representative of contemporary decisionism: Carl Schmitt. The document analyzes the richness of the Schmittian heritage and its validity in the 21st centur

Terror from the Right: Revolutionary Terrorism and the Failure of the Weimar Republic

The First World War damaged the European psyche, and physically and mentally maimed a whole generation of European men fortunate enough to survive the maelstrom. Nowhere was this more apparent than in post-war and Weimar Germany. For some young German veterans, the war never ended; they simply brought it home to continue the fight in the chaotic streets of the new republic. They revelled in the experience of violence, which they directed against their enemies, real and imagined. Between 1919 and 1923, dozens of loosely-organized groups embarked on a campaign of revolutionary terrorism designed to spark a civil war and unite the disparate elements of the German Right behind the goal of creating an authoritarian state. After the failure of the Hitler Putsch in November 1923, the extreme Right altered its tactics and developed sophisticated political organizations capable of competing for influence in the government it once worked to destroy. While the Weimar Republic weathered multiple attempts to bring it down through violence, it was overcome by a combination of internal events and the misguided attempt by the mainstream conservatives to co-opt the Nazis. Assassinations and other terrorist acts alone did not destroy the Weimar Republic, but those responsible for such acts conducted a protracted, multi-faceted, effort to undermine its legitimacy. The extreme Right's early campaign of violence destabilized the Weimar government and both intimidated and enthralled the German people. The Nazis deployed revolutionary terrorism in their political struggle and delivered the death blow to the Weimar Republic

The ‘Weimar Experience’ in British Interwar Writing

Die Dissertation behandelt die Texte britischer Schriftsteller_innen, die in der Zeit der Weimarer Republik nach Deutschland kamen und über ihre Erfahrungen mit Deutschland und den Deutschen schrieben. Sie umfasst sowohl Texte, die in den Jahren 1919-1933 entstanden sind, als auch Texte, die sich rückblickend mit Erfahrungen in der Weimarer Republik befassen und in den Jahren zwischen dem Ende der Weimarer Republik und dem Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkriegs (1933-1939) entstanden sind. Die wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit den Texten britischer Schriftsteller_innen über die Weimarer Republik hat sich bisher weitgehend auf die Werke von Christopher Isherwood und seinen Freunden W. H. Auden und Stephen Spender beschränkt. Durch die Fokussierung auf die Erfahrungen dieser Autoren legt die bisherige Forschung zu britischen Schriftsteller_innen in der Weimarer Republik einen starken Schwerpunkt auf die Erfahrungen junger homosexueller Männer in Berlin in den letzten Jahren der Weimarer Republik und vernachlässigt andere Aspekte der Erfahrungen dieser Schriftsteller sowie die Perspektiven der zahlreichen anderen schreibenden Brit_innen, die die Weimarer Republik besuchten und aufgrund ihrer Herkunft, ihres Alters und ihrer Beweggründe für ihren Aufenthalt sehr unterschiedliche Erfahrungen machten. Die Studie zeigt erstmals eine breit angelegte Untersuchung der unterschiedlichen Perspektiven, die sowohl die biografischen Erfahrungen der Schriftsteller analysiert als auch den Prozess der Fiktionalisierung dieser Erfahrungen in verschiedenen Phasen der Zwischen- und Nachkriegszeit erklärt. Die eingehende Analyse der verschiedenen literarischen Versionen der "Weimarer Erfahrung" durch britische Schriftsteller zeigt, wie diese Erfahrung in Fiktion umgewandelt wurde, wie die persönliche Auseinandersetzung mit Deutschland retrospektive Erzählungen verkompliziert und wie diese Komplikationen in fiktionalen Texten ausgetragen werden. Die Arbeit ist in drei chronologische Kapitel unterteilt, die sich jeweils mit einer Phase der Weimarer Republik befassen und eine Reihe von fiktionalen und nicht-fiktionalen Texten einbeziehen.The dissertation analyses the texts of British writers who visited Germany during the years of the Weimar Republic and wrote about their experiences with Germany and the Germans. It includes texts that were written during the years 1919-1933 as well as texts that deal retrospectively with experiences in the Weimar Republic and were written in the years between the end of the Weimar Republic and the outbreak of the Second World War (1933-1939). Scholarly engagement with the writings of British writers on the Weimar Republic has so far been very much limited to the texts of Christopher Isherwood and his friends W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender. By focusing predominantly on the experiences of these authors, the existing research on British writers in the Weimar Republic places a strong emphasis on the experiences of young homosexual men in Berlin in the final years of the Weimar Republic and neglects other aspects of these writers' experiences as well as the perspectives of the numerous other British writers who visited the Weimar Republic and had very different experiences due to their background, age and motivations for their stay. For the first time, this study undertakes a wide-ranging investigation of diverse perspectives, which both analyses the biographical experiences of the writers and explains the fictionalisation process of these experiences in different phases of the interwar and post-war period. The in-depth analysis of the diverse literary versions of the 'Weimar experience' by British writers shows how this experience was transformed into fiction, how personal engagement with Germany complicates retrospective narratives, and how these complications are played out in fictional texts. The work is divided into three chronological chapters, each dealing with a phase of the Weimar Republic and drawing on a range of fictional and non-fictional texts

Christopher Isherwood's experience in Weimar Germany : a testimony of the state of homosexuality in Weimar Germany

Ce mémoire vise à explorer la situation de l’homosexualité sous la République de Weimar à travers la perspective de Christopher Isherwood. Durant ses séjours à travers l’Allemagne de Weimar, Isherwood à retranscrit et fictionnalisé un nombre important d’évènements et d’expériences qu’il a vécus. De cela découle une interprétation d’événements et d’émotions que je qualifie dans ce mémoire de traduction d’expérience. Cette expérience offre une perspective sur diverses problématiques liées à l’homosexualité dans la République de Weimar et présente la particularité d’être présentée d’un point de vue que s’affranchit de l’exigence de la vérité au profit du ressenti de l’auteur face à l’exactitude d’un évènement. Les œuvres de Christopher Isherwood telles que Goodbye to Berlin, Mr. Norris Changes Train, ou bien son mémoire Christopher And His Kind manipulent et interrogent divers discours sur la prostitution masculine, la dynamique des relations homosexuelles de l’époque, la relation entre le langage et la notion de « vérité », ainsi que la romantisation de la République de Weimar à travers les récits et les arts.This memoir explores the state of homosexuality in the Weimar Republic from Christopher Isherwood’s perspective. During his stays throughout Weimar Germany, Isherwood transcribed and fictionalized a critical number of events and experiences he had. From this comes an interpretation of events and emotions, which I qualify in this memoir as a translation of experience. This experience offers a perspective on numerous questions linked to homosexuality in the Weimar Republic and has the particularity of being presented from a point of view which frees itself from the concept of truth, and benefits the emotions of the author instead of the accuracy of an event, Christopher Isherwood’s work like Goodbye to Berlin, Mr. Norris Changes Train, or his memoir Christopher And His Kind open many discourses on male prostitution, the dynamic in homosexual relationships of the era, the link between language and the notion of “truth,” and the romanticization of the Weimar Republic through stories and the arts. I decided to explore these topics through three respective chapters

A House Divided: How Hitler Exploited the Politics of Weimar Germany

The Nazis, one of the most hated organizations in modern history, came to power during the government of the Weimar Republic. In between the two World Wars, the ineffectual Weimar government ruled Germany. During the Weimar period, Germany experienced incredible economic hardship, revolts, and political discontent. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party used the Weimar culture and political system to take control of the nation. The Republic’s political disunity and lack of shared common belief allowed Hitler to worm his way into the Reich Chancellery and institute one of the most destructive governments of the last century. Hitler capitalized on the spirit of national unity, known as volksgemeinschaft, that pervaded Germany after the First World War. Through his appeal to the German national identity and skill at manipulating the fractured Weimar political system, Adolf Hitler took power. The Weimar government expressed a failure of the democratic experiment and brought about one of the darkest points in German history

Working Women and Motherhood: Failures of the Weimar Republic’s Family Policies

This paper examines the Weimar Republic’s reaction to the population crisis after the First World War. The Reich government created welfare policies to boost the birth rate and decrease the infant mortality rate. These policies were often unrealistic or too exclusive for working-class women. As a result, they did not greatly impact the lives of working women or their procreation. The Weimar policies, therefore, failed in its efforts to increase the birth rate among working-class women