Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy

by Eric D. Weitz

Thoroughly up-to-date, skillfully written, and strikingly illustrated, Weimar Germany brings to life an era of unmatched creativity in the twentieth century—one whose influence and inspiration still resonate today. Eric Weitz has written the authoritative history that this fascinating and complex period deserves, and he illuminates the uniquely progressive achievements and even greater promise of the Weimar Republic. Weitz reveals how Germans rose from the turbulence and defeat of World War I and revolution to forge democratic institutions and make Berlin a world capital of avant-garde art. He explores the period’s groundbreaking cultural creativity, from architecture and theater, to the new field of "sexology"—and presents richly detailed portraits of some of the Weimar’s greatest figures. Weimar Germany also shows that beneath this glossy veneer lay political turmoil that ultimately led to the demise of the republic and the rise of the radical Right. Yet for decades after, the Weimar period continued to powerfully influence contemporary art, urban design, and intellectual life—from Tokyo to Ankara, and Brasilia to New York. Featuring a new preface, this comprehensive and compelling book demonstrates why Weimar is an example of all that is liberating and all that can go wrong in a democracy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany, European History, Politics, German Literature, World History

485 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 4, 2007

About the author

Eric D. Weitz is Dean of Humanities and Arts and Distinguished Professor of History at the City College of New York.

Reviews

[Katia N · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a primer on Weimar history with emphasis on culture and intellectual thought. Inevitably there is a bit on hyperinflation and the politics. However, I felt slightly underwhelmed. I wanted to know more about the visual art. It was not much there apart from the work of Hannah Hoch. There was also an array into photography which faired much better. He discusses Lazlo Moholy-Nagy and August Sander. The survey of architecture was probably the best out of the three. However, for the cinema he talked more about Chaplin and Eisenstein than the Germans. The expressionists and new objectivism is mentioned in passing only.

There is a chapter on "Body and Sex". However, it is focused predominately on women and often through the men eyes. There gay culture is barely mentioned and not discussed which defeats the purpose of having a separate chapter, imho.

The author also pays a lot of attention describing how ordinary Germans lived. There are a lot of interesting facts, especially about Berlin. However, maybe unsurprisingly I've learned more from reading the literature of the period. For example recently, I've read The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun and The Aurelian by Nabokov. They gave much better insight into the feelings and circumstances of the individuals.

Intellectual history is represented through Mann, Brecht and Heidegger. And while the discussion of "Magic Mountain" and "Threepenny opera" was interesting if not too enlightening, he certainly did not impress me with his discussion on Heidegger. The latter philosophy is very complex and the author attempt to describe it in simple terms did not work for me.

The main discovery was awaiting me in the epilogue when he discusses the German emigres and their influence on the post-war intellectual thought. For example, Morgenthau's name I've never even heard before. He is appeared to be the founder of the realist school in the international relations. The new reincarnation of this is gaining the ground in the US and elsewhere. And I've heard of Marcuse but I never appreciated the impact he has had on the 60s Left movements. So this book has definitely opened the new roads for my education.

For hyperinflation I would look elsewhere.

Overall, this book might serve well for someone who wants a starting point in understanding Weimar world. But I am not sure how satisfactory this would be as a single book on the subject.

[Murtaza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weimar Germany is the haunting story of a liberal society that transformed into the most notorious fascist regime that the world had ever seen. This book is about the politics of Weimar but also the culture and ideology of a society transitioning from the traditional world into modernity. Like a lot of people I'm a bit concerned about the fate of liberalism. Liberalism in Weimar simultaneously had shallow and deep roots. The roots were deep in the sense that there were many profound liberal thinkers in Germany society and liberalism as a lived reality spread widely among the population. At the same time it was an ill-starred regime. Weimar was born out of defeat and economic humiliation. It never got past that stigma. From the moment of its birth, others were waiting to kill it and establish a more virile regime in its place. In the end conservatives allied with the radical right succeeded, destroying Germany and much of the world in the process.

This is history in its best form: about every facet of a society moving from one stage of development to another. Everyone should be interested in the fate of Weimar, especially us today living through a phase of transition. This book is well written and gives a wonderful tour of both the thoughts and lives of Weimar Germans. Highly recommended.

[Mónica Cordero Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantástico libro que recoge todos los aspectos de este importantísimo y apasionantes período histórico: política, economía, sociedad, cultura, el papel de la mujer,...
Además te hace reflexionar sobre el papel de la democracia en la sociedad además de su vulnerabilidad.

[Berna Labourdette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me costó muchísimo terminar el libro porque hay tanta información relevante y se parece tanto a lo que estamos viviendo en la actualidad que es un poco aterrador. Hay muchísima información sobre el ascenso del nazismo, el desarrollo de corrientes culturales como la Bauhaus, la situación económica, sexual y cultural de la época, con detalles de personalidades como Stefan Zweig y Thomas Mann y sus obras. Me gustó y aprendí muchísimo. 

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric D. Weitz's Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy offers a fascinating account of Germany's interwar experiment with democracy. Popular histories frequently depict Weimar as a foredoomed Bohemian interlude between Prussian militarism and Nazi tyranny; Weitz's account does much to clarify and complicate that image. He focuses intensely on Weimar's achievements, its early leaders building a functional, if extremely flawed democracy from the ashes of the Hohenzollern Empire, allowing a degree of freedom, universal suffrage and intellectual and artistic development. Weitz's contrasts between Weimar's left (or center-left) and right seem painfully familiar: Social Democrats like Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Streseman concerned with making their new government work, while conservatives cynically abuse the system in order to destroy it. (Weitz argues effectively that Hindenburg and his allies fatally undermined democracy long before Hitler assumed power.) Alongside the political ferment and economic turmoil play out German culture wars: debates over democracy and censorship, the role of women and religious minorities, sexuality and art marked the era with passionate intensity. Weitz presents this with deft precision, vivid reconstructions (particularly an engaging narrative chapter describing Berlin in the '20s) and penetrating analysis. Weimar was doomed, he argued, less by the weakness of the system than the actors: bad faith operators on the Right, Communist and fascist fanatics, feeble centrists trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. A vivid, human portrait of an oft-caricatured epoch.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of major themes in the Weimar years, connecting some of the dots to the subsequent Nazi takeover 1n 1933. I read the last three chapters. Here are some fascinating (to me at least) items that might appear in one way or another in my new novel (CHOOSING HITLER) ...

... The Threepenny Opera was the theatrical sensation of 1928 … the depraved, degenerate exploitative nature of capitalism … everybody lies, everybody cheats … the police are indistinguishable from the criminals ... the Nazi's Volkischer Beobachter called Threepenny Opera a noxious cesspool that the police should simply sweep away

... in 1926 … the Dutch physician Theodor Hendrik von Velde conducted a lecture tour of Germany … had recently published 'Ideal Marriage' … his book and lectures were wildly successful … especially his explicit descriptions of sexual techniques

… the new German woman … short hair, slender, athletic, erotic ... provoked loathing commentary … the notion that women could determine their own lives, might decide not to marry and to have a variety of sex partners, not all of them male, was fundamentally terrifying to traditional Germans, both men and women

... Germans danced as never before … in hotels and cafes, using radio & phonograph as well as live bands … dances were held in the late afternoon (a startling innovation) and in the evening, when large dance halls were packed

... both Catholic and Protestant churches thundered against the sexual revolution, citing a scandalous number of abortions, rapid increase in venereal disease, premarital sex as the new norm, the "unblemished beginning of marriage" an exception … the social order has weakened and shattered, greatly endangering the protection and dignity of the female sex, and threatening the honor and responsibility that defines the male sex

... all of the Weimar Republic's most dangerous antagonists came from the Right (not the communists of the left) … the army, Protestant & Catholic churches, state bureaucracy, industry, finance, schools & universities … none of them were committed to democracy and Weimar's "liberal" agenda ... (NOTE: Weimar was forced on Germany by Versailles and never sat well)

... this collection of establishment Right was never coordinated until the Nazis absorbed most of the radical Right (violent, paramilitary, lower-class) in the early 1930s ... establishment conservatives pined for a return to an ordered, authoritarian past and hungered for a powerful leader who could march Germany out of the morass of corruption and immorality ... the establishment elite was willing to accept the violence and hatreds of the Nazis in order to effectively combat the hated Weimar republic ... the middle class, longing for order and stability, trusted the elite (including the churches) and formed docilely behind them to collude with Hitler and the Nazis to overturn Weimar democracy

... the Catholic and Protestant churches made Nazis aceptable ... the language of the radical right (including the Nazis) had many affinities with the anti-Weimar fulminations constantly emanating from the Protestant and Catholic churches … these similarities made the Nazis acceptable in polite society ... Hitler's theme that Germany was engaged in an existential struggle against its Jewish-Marxist enemies sounded much like the rhetoric that churchgoers heard regularly from their pulpits … coming from all sides was the notion of a vast world conspiracy against Germany, all of it the result of the Jew (der Jude)

[Adam Glantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good stuff here from Weitz, balancing thematic history with biographical studies. He certainly addressed my main questions: What made Weimar Germany distinctive, why should we study it, and why did it fail? On the first score, the Weimar era (at least in its urban incarnation) was a hothouse for creativity, with Berlin matching or exceeding other innovative centers of the globe, perhaps even interwar Paris. The reason for this is that defeat in a total war, a revolution, and then extreme economic and political instability gave many people the incentive to throw out all received ideas and authorities and start over from scratch, aided by novel technologies like radio and film. Of course, this didn't include everyone. Conservatives dug in their heels and fought back against what they perceived to be a moral disaster, often violently. In such a contested society, just about every conceivable issue was dialed up to 11 in intensity. (For all its vivacity, I wouldn't want to live in Weimar Germany.)

The hyper-creativity under pressure that was Weimar didn't always lead to pretty outcomes (remember: its final outcome was Hitler), but sometimes it did, and that's why it merits serious study. Thanks to this era, we have the literature of Mann, the philosophy of Heidegger, the theater of Brecht and Weil, Bauhaus buildings, and pathbreaking films like the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, M, and The Blue Angel, all of which are enjoyed today. And the subsequent exodus of refugees trained during Weimar, mainly to the United States, gave the Cold War its dominant strategic philosophy of realism, the 1960s New Left its particular brand of Marxism, and Los Angeles its defining architecture. The modern world is hard to imagine without the cultural influence of Weimar.

But of course, the Weimar constitution was ultimately a failure, ushering in the worst regime in modern history. Weitz is at pains to assert that, despite its run of horrendous luck, Weimar didn't just collapse: it was intentionally destroyed by its powerful enemies on the Right. I'm not so sure about that, since Weimar statesmen made some egregious mistakes, over-printing money to the point of hyperinflation, then heartlessly deflating the economy during the onset of the Great Depression. But the author is right about enemies. When it appeared that a communist uprising was imminent, the initial Weimar leaders made the fateful decision of allying with unreconstructed conservatives in the military, bureaucracy, clergy, and academia, rather than purging them. Originally, these traditional elitists remained aloof from the new breed of street-brawling radical rightists, but they both emerged from a common culture and eventually came to an agreement that brought down the republic. The lesson is that a democracy cannot long survive when a critical mass of its citizens are trying to destroy it, to the point that every issue becomes contested. This hits close to home for me in the polarized United States of 2020.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Broadly speaking, Weitz combines forays into the ‘promise’ of Weimar’s modernist culture with a standard narrative of its political ‘tragedy’.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic is fascinating and full of implications: Germany – the place of Reformation, Idealism, countless scientific discoveries, Prussian militarism and conservationism, monarchism, nationalism, Romanticism, Marxism and communism, and so on – was defeated in war, forced to assume full responsibility, and to pay for it. The Weimar Republic - standing for modernity and democracy - was besieged with revolutions, radical attacks from left and right, hyperinflation, economic crises, political crisis, despised by conservatives and intellectuals, and so on. Eventually, it fell to the Nazis. While it lasted, those living there questioned everything in radical and fundamental ways, and produced some of the most original ideas and works of art.
This book is great in approaching this topic of modernity, in exploring some of its aspects, and as an introduction to them. However, it seems to me that the book's post-modern, popular, American, consumerist, and similar approach is self-justifying itself in this defense of its beginning of political and cultural modernity in the Weimar Republic.

[vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
A straightforward primer and one of the authoritative accounts of the Weimar period. Weitz has a solid grasp of the social, political and economic context, and his prose is easy to follow. However, his analysis of Weimar’s intellectual climate, engaging primarily with Mann, Heidegger, Kracauer, Brecht, and, in the final chapter, the Frankfurt crowd, is simplistic and at times appallingly imprecise (e.g. In the exposition of Marcuse’s critique of Heidegger, Weitz wrongly claimed that Heidegger had no concept of historicity).

I enjoyed Chapter 2 written as a guided walk through the 1920s Berlin and narrated through the writings of Berlin’s well-known contemporary flâneurs. The bits on architecture and Weimar’s New Objectivism were also great.

Crucially, if we were to believe that the past contains “lessons” for the present, Weitz’s uncompromising conclusion that the “respectable” right, the tycoons of industry and the “conservative” intellectuals—when the opportunity arises, and the vitriolic discourse is normalised—flock to the brown nazi shits emerges as quite poignant. The book concluded with timeworn yet momentous musings on the democratic deficit in “liberal democracies”, reflecting on the disproportionate role that the economic and cultural elites play in the disembowelment of institutions.

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a study of the Weimar era from different angles – political, economic, artistic and cultural. The author describes Weimar society as free, democratic and vibrant – but with an underbelly of hate. Nobody liked it – from conservatives to communists. And nobody wanted to support it – the government was loathed by most even though it offered considerable freedom – religious, artistic... Mr. Weitz delves on many personalities like Thomas Mann, Bertold Bretcht and Martin Heidegger.

Weimar may have lasted but was rocked by many political assassinations, hyperinflation in the 1920’s and finally the Great Depression in 1929 proved its undoing. As Mr. Weitz points out a democracy – and Weimar was a real democracy – can be usurped from inner forces and replaced by another more insidious force. The Weimar politicians were for the most part mediocre, addicted to maintaining a status quo and had uninspiring leadership – the Nazis were anything but this.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it's facile to draw comparisons between different periods of history, it's also hard not to see the echoes in our own time of events in Weimar Germany: social, economic, and diplomatic upheavals, not to mention lots of anger across the political spectrum. But while Weitz doesn't shy away from those aspects of the period, he also points out the ways in which that turmoil also nourished an artistic flowering. And that was a reminder to me that, no matter how chaotic things are, there's always a place for art of all kinds.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid history of Weimar Germany. It followed a thematic rather than narrative structure, so each chapter considered a particular theme, often in turn focusing on certain representative individuals within that theme. Two consequences of this is that it felt quite a lot like a textbook, and that actually you only need to read the chapters that interest you.

In some ways, it is easier to consider the book chapter by chapter, and so here they are:

A troubled beginning - how the Weimar republic came into existence at the end of World War I. Quite an interesting chapter from what I recall, as the Social Democrats managed to establish a republic that was socialist, democratic, progressive, emancipatory and egalitarian.

Walking the city - here the author takes you on a walking tour of Berlin, drawing on contemporary descriptions. It’s the most different chapter and is interesting, evocative and enjoyable.

Political worlds - politics of the Weimar Republic. I found this to be the most interesting chapter, and I saw some striking parallels with politics to today, with the deep divisions and complete lack of consensus in politics, ultimately causing the democratic processes and institutions to fail. I was also struck by how awful the rightwing was before the Nazi party was even a thing. The rightwing DNVP and DVP were rabidly antisemitic and antidemocratic and wanted to destroy the hated Weimar democracy and install an authoritarian regime. I can’t believe people actively voted for these parties.

A turbulent economy and an anxious society - this covered the economy and society. I was struck by how much potential the Weimar Republic had. It could have been truly amazing and was streets ahead of other western countries in terms of rights and social protections (8-hour working day, unemployment benefit, theoretical equal opportunities), but it never really got a chance to flourish, beset as it was by clearly unjust reparations demands, hyperinflation in the years up to 1924, and the world economic crisis from 1929; Germany was particularly hard hit by the Wall Street crash due to its reliance on American loans, which were called in from late 1929 and thereby bankrupting businesses and perhaps most importantly the government, which went into a punishing cycle of austerity. Weitz identified three phases of the republic’s history: the hyperinflation of 1918-1924, the “golden years” of 1924-1929, and the depression of 1929-1933.

Building a new Germany - this was all about modernist architects (eg Bruno Taut) and architecture, and the principles that drove them.

Sound and image - about the new communication technologies, particularly microphones and loudspeakers (for public speeches), radio, and particularly film. With my interest in cinema, I particularly enjoyed the discussion of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari as an example of Expressionist film. “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari” which premiered in 1920 is perhaps typical of German cinema in the early years of the republic. Until 1924, Expressionism dominated German cinema, as well as German art in general (it was born as a response to the trauma of the war). The expressionist mode probed the psychology of the protagonists and of the audience. They emphasised emotional complexity and the layered levels of consciousness. Are dreamworlds more real than reality? To whom do we give up our autonomy as individuals? Are we all enmeshed in the nightmarish dreamworld of Dr Caligari? Around 1924 filmmaking moved to the more distanced tones of New Objectivity, eg “Berlin, Symphony of the City”, which captures the speed and disorientation of the city, with rhythms of movement and sounds. Charlie Chaplin and Sergei Eisenstein were both incredibly popular, especially “The Gold Rush” and “Battleship Potemkin” respectively among the most popular films of the decade (both released 1926). Until 1929, film in Germany was silent. There was a democratising aspect to cinema. In Berlin alone, 400 million cinema tickets were sold in 1924. Film tickets were cheap enough for all but the very poorest to attend, yet artistic enough for the upper classes to be interested and choose to share the same space as the working class. However, there were rightwing critics of the degeneracy of cinema, and attempts to control it. No surprise that much of German cinema went into exile (especially to Hollywood) as the republic came to end in 1933.

A quick but related diversion into writing. There was much rightwing criticism of Schund und Schmutz (trash and dirt) generally. Penny novels were incredibly popular, mass-printed, extremely cheap and voraciously consumed, particularly by the working classes. This caused so much concern in rightwing circles that by 1926 a rightwing government introduced the Law to Protect Youth from Trashy and Filthy Writings. Penny novels were sometimes pornographic, but more commonly exciting detective-revolver-packing romance and adventure stories. Often seen by the right as the product of foreign, especially Jewish, authors, and penny novels were thought to undermine young people’s ability to appreciate traditional German art. One critic defined Schund und Schmutz as rooted in “Jewish Manchesterism”, blending antisemitism, anti-capitalism and anti-British sentiments. A judge railed against the “overstimulation of the imagination” caused by this material among young people. There were frequent attacks by the right on “cosmopolitanism” generally, which meant Jews.

Culture and mass society - this chapter focused on art, literature and theatre. Among the subjects of this chapter are Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht (and particularly his revolutionary Threepenny Opera), and Hannah Höch with her really interesting photomontages.

Bodies and sex - this chapter looked at how these things were represented in Weimar culture and society, including sexual freedom plus the new trend of nudism. I felt this chapter could have been much better developed, as it was quite short. A glaring omission was around sexuality, which was a fairly radical development in the republic.

Revolution and counter-revolution from the Right - this chapter covered the fall of the Weimar Republic from 1929 to 1933. There is an interesting examination of the language of the right, through rightwing figures like Paul Althaus, Ernst Jünger and Oswald Spengler, which shows that the language made infamous by the Nazis already existed - and was widespread - before the Nazis came on the scene (for instance, terms like Third Reich were already an established idea not associated with the Nazis). The right were already antidemocratic, antisocialist and antisemitic. It is also shown that the Weimar Republic had effectively already been destroyed by rightwing authoritarians ruling by presidential decree before Hitler was made chancellor. Another striking takeaway was that Nazi rule was not inevitable, and it’s so poignant to consider how easily it could have been avoided; never more than 37.3% of the electorate voted for the Nazis in free elections, Hitler made two bids for power in 1932 and failed both times, and by the election of November 1932, the popularity of the Nazi party was already on the wane. If it hadn’t been for rightwing machinations to destroy the republic in January 1933, it seems unlikely the Nazis would have got into power. Interestingly, if the Communists hadn’t joined the Nazis in a vote of no confidence against Papen, the November election - the third that year - might not have happened. A final point of interest was that Brüning and Papen both called elections thinking they could increase their majority and overcome a hung parliament, and both elections backfired for them.

The Weimar legacy: a global perspective - this was perhaps the most disappointing chapter, and felt a lengthy one to get to the end. The first part dealt with political science and philosophy of people like Hans Morgenthau, who grew up in Weimar Germany but did most of his work in exile. I felt this part dwelt too much on Cold War politics, and the link to Weimar Germany often seemed tenuous. The second part of the chapter then covered the work that Weimar architects carried on in exile, particularly in Los Angeles and Turkey. Presented as the final legacy of Weimar, this felt really weak. I was more interested to know how the political ideas of the republic - emancipation, egalitarianism and social welfare - might have left a legacy, but this wasn’t dealt with.

Reading this book, I was struck by how modern and revolutionary the Weimar Republic was, and found it really inspiring. It was progressive, socialist and democratic, with wide freedoms, and sparked tremendous creativity. It led the way for the world. By contrast, women did not get equal voting in Britain until 1927, in France until 1945, and the US was deeply anti-worker and had racism enshrined in law. In Weimar Germany, the constitution protected freedom of speech, women had equal rights, there was a new tolerance for varying sexualities, and workers had an impressive safety net provided by the government (when it could afford it). The creativity of Weimar Germany arguably led the world - and benefitted the United States the most when the majority of Germany’s artists and thinkers went into exile in the 1930s. I find it incredibly sad and poignant that there were people in Germany who actively wanted this to happen, who wanted to stifle this thought and creativity, who wanted to remove social protections, destroy the democracy, remove rights (especially those of Jews), and return Germany to some nostalgic pre-war vision of greatness. In a similar way, I don’t understand why supporters of Brexit similarly want to diminish Britain and actively remove their rights - I was regularly reminded of the parallels. With this in mind, I was interested to see that Weitz’s book was first published in 2007, and revised in 2013.

[Sarah Zama · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a fantastic introduction to the Weimar Republic in all its aspect. Personally, I prefered the first part, which covered the republic's social history. The second half focuses more on cultura aspects, like literature, films, music, analysing the single author's work rather than the cultura environment they worked in. But still it's a good way to become familiar with the time and place.

The Weimar Republic was one of the most fascinating places in the world in the 1920s. A place of great creativity and innovation, social experimentation and liberation, but also the credle of so many ideologies that would soon bring about a horrible war.
It's a time to explore, because we have a lot to learn from it.

[Rodrigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro interesante, un buen panorama de una época que es mucho más que el paréntesis entre las guerras mundiales, con foco en la literatura, arquitectura, filosofía, el rol de la mujer y del sexo. Quizás es deformación personal, pero le carga mucho la mano a la culpa de la derecha alemana en el auge de Hitler (que, sin duda, la tuvo, y en gran cantidad) por sobre factores que son igualmente importantes, como la hiperinflación (aparece, pero como un dato menos central), la impericia política, la falta de consenso social sobre el sistema, o el haber diseñado una constitución que no se ajustaba a lo que necesitaba la sociedad alemana post-imperial.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was the book Cushbomb was reading for his book club, but turns out I read something else. Whoops. Anyway, dnf @ ~70%. Would've liked to read more on the politics of Weimar, you know Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht and the SDP and whatever that was all about. This one focuses more on culture, which all felt rather familiar from that Hans Fallada binge I went on a few years ago. I liked the stuff on architecture and László Moholy-Nagy's photography though.

[Jerry Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am both fascinated and enthralled by the fifteen years of the Weimar Republic in Germany. From the ashes of the devastation of World War I rose perhaps the most revolutionary and creative phoenix ever seen. Dadaism, the Bauhaus, film and music and literature, the emancipation of women in the voting booth and workplace and bedroom, architecture and all the visual arts- what a time of hope and fearless experimentation! Weitz does an excellent job of discussing many of the aspects of those fifteen years, though for me the chapter on economics was tough. But the study of Weimar is not just a historical hobby, but also a warning. The Nazis succeeded the Weimar. Following are some Weitz quotes. "The wealthy were able to limit sharply the scope of the Weimar social welfare programs while they whined unendingly and bitterly ..." "...it should have been clear to all involved that the Right could never be brought along to accept the republic." "Many Germans blamed the crises they endured on the republic, on socialists, on Jews, but the real problem was much closer at hand. It was the German Right, in which heavy industry and major financial interests exercised preponderant influence..." "sexually emancipated women, Jewish businessmen, communist revolutionaries-all rolled into one nightmare vision of the Right." "But it [a democratic political system] especially cannot endure when the elites seek to undermine the democracy from within, when they whine incessantly about a system in which they still exercise privileges and still dispose of immense resources." "But Weimar did not just die as if there were some anonymous process at work... Weimar did not just collapse; it was killed off. It was deliberately destroyed by Germany's antidemocratic, antisocialist, anti-Semitic right wing, which, in the end, jumped into political bed with the Nazis..." All this beginning to sound familiar? For my own part, a thorn of tragedy of this time is the role of the German Christian church. They gave up Jesus for safety and security and fear and anti-Semitism, for nationalism and war worship. And ours in America does too.

[Dan Keefer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have always been interested in the Weimar Republic, the period of time in Germany from the end of WW I to Hitler's accession to full power in 1933. I seem to be in the minority. This is the first time I've had to add a book to Goodreads before I could review it. Given the sparsity of books on this topic in English, I was surprised that I had to add it to the database.

REVIEWER'S NOTE:
Opps. When I searched on this title as well as author, nothing came up. ??? As it turns out, there are 61 reviews of this book.

As I found out, this book is not meant for the casual reader. It pretty much covers the entirety of the period, which is both its strength and weakness.

As was the case at the time it was happening, the chapters covering the politics of the day easily makes the reader's head spin in a chaotic alphabet soup of political parties, left, right and maybe a few in the middle. Unless you come to this book with a background on the topic, about all that can be ascertained is that Germany's first try at democracy was doomed from the beginning by being squeezed between the right (traditionalists who, to various degrees, wanted to return to a militarist nation) and the socialists and communists who followed Marx and the Soviets.

If the reader's bent is toward politics, they are likely going to be less interested in economics, the arts, mass communication, feminism, etc. The author's coverage of each of these areas are esoteric to the point of losing all readers not passionate about a specific topic.

As a result, I found myself having to push myself to keep reading through the chapters that were of little interest to me. In the end, I have come to the conclusion that this is not a book to be read from cover to cover. If there were more and better books on the Weimar Republic, I perhaps would have just quit reading this one. It's value is largely its topical uniqueness.

[Luis Le drac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todo lo que se puede pedir a un ensayo, lo puedes encontrar aquí. Durante mucho tiempo me ha intrigado cómo una época tan proclive al éxito, al progreso, a las libertades y al desarrollo intelectual sucumbió y caminó por el fango hasta caer en manos de los nazis. Tenían todo para obtener el kleos (o eso creía yo), pero no fue así.
Eric D, Weitz analiza este periodo de entreguerras no únicamente desde un ángulo político, sino que traba un enjambre de aspectos que perfilan este momento. La República de Weimar se ha de estudiar atendiendo a factores como la política y la economía obviamente, pero también otros como el diseño, la filosofía, la sexualidad y la arquitectura. El diseño de “la cocina Frankfurt”, separada de otras estancias de la casa, es sólo un ejemplo de los mentados en el libro que supuso un valor añadido al concepto de separación entre trabajo y descanso.
Conforme vas leyendo el libro, vas entendiendo que la democracia no es un sistema sencillo, que suele ser torpedeado por aquellos que no lo aceptan, aunque sí se aprovechen de ella. Los peligros del populismo, de los que no quieren perder sus privilegios clasistas son también una advertencia para este momento actual que vivimos.

Ojo a las advertencias que ya se hacían en aquel momento:
“La fuerza del conformismo cuando son los otros quienes prevalecen sobre el yo individual; la propia vida moderna que, con su insistencia en las apariencias y en la hiperactividad superficial, dota a la masa de un poder aún mayor y ahonda el abismo de alienación en que viven los hombres. Eso es lo que identifica este mundo caído, el mundo superficial, hecho más de chismorreos que de discursos, más lleno de temores que de un Angst (sobrecogimiento) reverencial. La vida moderna está caracterizada por la carencia de autenticidad”.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the economic, political, social and cultural forces that were Weimar Germany. And, for us, a caution to be derived from the parallels to our current circumstances. Weitz's book is ultimately about the forces that can destroy a fledgling - even established - democracy. He places blame for Weimar's demise squarely on the Right, but doesn't ignore the actions/responsibilities of the Left in ensuring that the Right ultimately triumphed. And, he makes clear that nothing about the Nazi's rise to power was inevitable, a lesson of history that we tend to ignore.

Some quotes from the book suggest the important message that Weitz attempts to convey about why the study of Weimar remains relevant:

"Democracy needs democratic convictions and a democratic culture that ripple through all the institutions of society, not just the formal political ones."

"It [Weimar] reminds us that democracy is a fragile thing, society an unstable construction, each threatening to spin wildly out of control. Weimar shows us the dangers that can develop when there is no societal consensus on any of the fundamental issues of politics, social order, and culture."

"Weimar's history does show us that a society lacking consensus, a society in which no set of ideas and no group constitute hegemony can be a dangerous place. A democratic political system cannot long endure a situation in which virtually every issue becomes magnified to an ideological contest over ultimate meanings. But it especially cannot endure when its elites seek to undermine the democracy from within, when they whine incessantly about a system in which they still exercise privileges and still dispose of immense resources."

Does it remind you of any current society?

[Ozymandias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent guide to Weimar Germany. Unlike most books on the subject it aims to be all-inclusive in the topics it covers. We get not merely a political or economic history but a political, economic, cultural, social, artistic, etc. history of the period. Topics covered range from film and theater to music to architecture.

I find this an exceptionally good feature since Weimar’s greatest successes came in the area of culture, with classic films like Metropolis and M, books like All Quiet on the Western Front, philosophers like Heidegger, and the lasting influence of modernist architecture all being major features memorializing the Republic. Politically, the government was just a notable failure, and while the reasons for this failure are fascinating and multifaceted, knowing only this history of Weimar would leave readers wondering how anyone could mourn its passing except inasmuch as it was replaced by a state that was unquestionably worse (the Third Reich).

The downside with any such broad introductory book is, of course, that it never has the room to go into too much detail. And this is a shame for all that it’s unavoidable. In many places the book feels more like a review for some popular arts/architecture magazine, complete with some decidedly strong Opinions on the quality of the artwork/architecture described. But don’t let this put you off. The description of Berlin is an example of the best that this approach can bring, with the entire chapter being treated as a walking tour of the city interspersed with quotes from notable contemporaries. You really feel something of what it was like to wander through ‘20s Berlin, a very different beast, as I can testify, from the modern and decidedly prosaic Berlin of a century later.

[Miles Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Weimar Germany still speaks to us" are the opening words of this book and the author is firmly of the belief that Weimar Germany was one of the outstanding creative periods and places of the century. In Brecht and Weill, Thomas Mann, Wlater Gropius, Martin Heidegger, Siegfried Kracauer, Fritz Lang, the Bauhaus school, there was an outburst of endeavour and creativity. Some of these people had long creative lives but never was their work as significant or memorable as when they were working in Germany in the 1920's. And Weimar is also a warning. A warning of what happens when the ideological differences between sectors of society are so deep that no compromise is possible and when a substantial body of opinion has no confidence in the political system. That coupled with a severe and unprecedented economic crisis brought the German Republic to a dreadful conclusion.

Eric Weitz's book is a great single volume introduction to Weimar Germany, its successes and its failures. He covers the art and architecture, literature, social life, economics and bitter politics with brilliant sketches of the principal characters involved and a thorough understanding of the issues.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this one, but I thought this book ran out of steam well before it ran out of words. The essential problem, I believe, is that Weitz sees too much 'promise' in evidence that is heavy on 'tragedy'. Accentuating this admirable-but-problematic reading of the Weimar Republic is the way this book bounces between high politics, high culture and everyday life. Lots of good political horse-trading tales and fantastic intellectual debates here, but underplayed here are the pressures on ordinary people and the role they play in determining larger discourses. I know this is a trade book and that eloquent spokespersons make for better reading... but what the little people thought and did mattered greatly in the ultimate collapse of the Republic and the rise of the Nazi party.

A serviceable introduction to the topic and highly readable... but I did not feel it did much to exceed Peter Gay's opus.

[Dropbear123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 I feel like I got a lot out of it.

Not much to say about it. Solid overview of the Weimar Republic. Mix of political, economics and cultural chapters. Well written and enjoyable to read. Personally I preferred the political chapters more, especially on the political right and the 'enemies of the republic'. The economics chapter was also good as it focused more on what the economic conditions meant for normal people instead of just a load of numbers about industrial production. The book is very good at giving a feeling of what the time period was like. My main criticism is that I found it to be a bit heavy on the architecture and the intellectuals at times, but that is more my personal taste than an objective negative. Overall a good introduction to Weimar Republic era Germany and despite it not being the cheapest book (at least on UK Amazon) I would recommend it for anyone interested in the topic, whether you've read other books on it or not.

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5
Excelente libro que aborda lo que fue y significó la República de Weimar para la gente que la vivió. Es abordada desde todas las perspectivas: histórica, económica, social, artística... Explica por ejemplo como los arquitectos de la época buscaban reflejar en sus construcciones una nueva visión del mundo, como la inestabilidad política de la República condicionó la manera de pensar de la población, como se extendió la radio como medio de comunicación... entre otras muchas cosas. Incluye una serie de imágenes que ha elegido el autor para ilustrar los puntos clave y que resultan muy interesantes y exclarecedoras.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to that critical period in Germany that so few people really understand. It’s a good look at most aspects of German urban life during the time as well as a cautionary tale of what can happen to democracies.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a solid history covering myriad aspects of life in Weimar Germany, including: architecture, fashion, changing morals, politics, philosophy, etc.

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ten months later, on 22 June 1922, other assassins killed Walter Rathenau, the foreign minister of the republic, a renowned businessman and writer and scion of a prominent Jewish family. Like Erzberger, Rathenau was hated because of his commitment to the republic, and because he was smart, cultured, and Jewish. The respectable Right, with its emotional, overwrought rhetoric, charged him with betraying Germany. Rathenau, they claimed, was in the pay of the Entente; indeed, he was not truly German, even if he represented Germany abroad. The assassination caused another outpouring of grief and countless demonstrations all over Germany in which millions affirmed their support for the republic. There were also gut-wrenching assessments of the poison that had entered into German public life. At a stormy Reichstag session following the murder, Chancellor Joseph Wirth gave one of the most forceful and moving political speeches of the Weimar era. He knew that the assassins had not acted alone, knew that they operated in an environment that had made such terror acts salonfähig, that is, acceptable in polite society. Wirth vociferously attacked the men on the right, quoting from articles published by individuals sitting in the chamber before him. He asked why they had not condemned outright the assassination and charged them with creating a 'murderous atmosphere' in the country. 'We are experiencing in Germany a political brutalization.' Wirth pleaded for democracy, for patience in working to ameliorate the strictures of Versailles, for a more reasoned atmosphere in Germany, for an end finally to the 'atmosphere of murder, of rancor, of poison.' And he concluded: 'There stands the enemy (to the right), who drips his poison in the wounds of the people—There stands the enemy—and about that there is no doubt: the enemy stands on the right!'

"Wirth was correct—the enemy did stand on the right. In a flurry of grief and determination, the Reichstag passed a law establishing commissars in each of the states with responsibility for maintaining public order. But the impact was slight, and while the commissars monitored the Right, they were far more concerned with the Left. The conservatism of the judiciary and bureaucracy hollowed out the law. The assassins, like those who killed Erzberger, were spirited out of the country to safety, protected by their connections to the established Right."

[Andrew Humphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A democratic political system cannot long endure a situation in which virtually every issue becomes magnified to an ideological contest over ultimate meanings. But it especially cannot endure when its elites seek to undermine the democracy from within, when they whine incessantly about a system in which they still exercise privileges and still dispose of immense resources."

Weitz does a wonderful job of balancing political insight with interpreting major cultural works and movements of the Republic. His analyses of architecture, painting, photography, music, politics, economics, and gender/sex dynamics in 1920s Germany are shockingly detailed and clearly communicated. He makes you feel the chaos and energy of a fledgling nation plagued by disaster after disaster that, ultimately, render democracy impossible. There is a real sense of urgency as he approaches 1933, and the tragedy of the conservative coalition partnering with the Nazis to defeat the disorganized Left is explained well. If anything, I found his comments a little too detailed -he often repeats himself and it makes his arguments stale by the end of each chapter.

This was surprisingly easy to read and went by quickly, considering its size. Worth picking up.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 4 out of 5]

What it says on the tin, a history of Weimar Germany that tries to capture the highs and lows of the era. It is best to think of this book as a survey which covers a broad range of subjects; from politics, culture, literature, art and philosophy. It paints with broad strokes and doesn't go into too much detail on any one thing. It is a good starting point for a curious reader.

This is not the kind of book you read cover to cover unless you really have a broad interest in Weimar Germany. This is a book where you cherry pick the chapters you are most interested in and explore them. I was most interested in politics/ movies and theatre/ literature so those were the topics I focused on. Other readers may be more interested in the discussions on Dadaism or Walter Gropius.

This book is too short to be a thorough, in depth discussion on all the topics it tries to cover. It is meant to give the reader tools to start their own research. I would say it is pretty successful in that area. I learned a lot from this book.